The Army and Navy Club’s Westmount Branch headquarters at 41 Kingdom Street was demolished last month. It was sold a few years ago as a result of declining membership. The building, dating from the 1930s was used as a refuge and coordination centre during Hurricane Hazel.
Demolition of the former Westmount Army and Navy HQ on August 27, 2026.
The site has changed hands since the club sold it and instead of the five detached homes originally proposed there will be five four-plexes plus a laneway home. These will be rental units.
The site at 41 Kingdom on September 23, 2026.
Each unit will be allocated one parking space so parking will be at a premium.
In the City of Toronto Archives there are extensive aerial photos of the city taken between 1947 and 1992. They are black and white images but reasonably detailed. While researching Hurricane Hazel I was able to download an image of what is now Raymore Park to reveal the community that existed just over a year before Hurricane Hazel struck in October 1954. Colourizing and sharpening the photo makes it resemble today’s satellite images (details are unchanged but colours are arbitrary and not historically accurate) from Google and help appreciate the extent of community that existed back then. I have labelled relevant streets.
Raymore Drive extended into what is now the park, hugging the river’s edge before heading south and looping back onto Gilhaven Avenue.
Click to enlarge.
I was surprised at the size of the community with houses occupying much of the flood plain land and stretching a considerable way down Gilhaven Avenue (now the approximate location of the bike path). It looks as if it was an idyllic place to live – riverside dwellings but with city amenities. There was even a beach for the kids. Many of the homes were cottage style on blocks while some had full basements. Most are a lot smaller than our modern dwellings. The homes destroyed seem to have been along the river’s edge at the far right and lower edge of the peninsula. The people who died lived on this stretch of Raymore.
At the top of the image, on the other bank of the river, parts of the (now demolished) water filtration plant can be seen.
Below is a recent satellite image and I have adjusted the size and rotation to match that of the 1953 photo.
From Google. Click to enlarge.
The Bailey Bridge seen in the upper photo was put there in 1950 and both of the old abutments can be seen to this day. The current footbridge was installed in 2005.
Some of the homes along what is now the bike path were undamaged apart from flooded basements but authorities at the time elected to remove all homes in the flood plain leaving only Tilden Crescent intact. Raymore Drive was ended at Tilden and Gilhaven Avenue ceased to exist.
Very few of the buildings on surviving streets from 1953 exist today – I recognize the house that once stood at the east corner of Raymore and what is now Tilden, Westmount Gospel Chapel on Kingdom and some homes on Denison. Readers are welcome to add discoveries of their own.
Toronto’s Senior Manager of Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning has recommended that City Council include Weston Lions Arena on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Register. This is a major step along the way to save this historic part of the Weston community.
There are more steps along the way and a show of support from the public is needed. The first hurdle is for approval from Etobicoke York Community Council.
Either show up at the Etobicoke / York Community Council Meeting on Wednesday, February 18, 9:30am at 399 The West Mall, Etobicoke, ON M9C 2Y2) or
Send in a submission via the ‘Submit Comments’ or ‘Request To Speak’ links to the Council stating your support for including the arena on the Heritage Register.
If given the go-ahead by the Community Council, the recommendation will go before a full meeting of Toronto Council for a vote.
This is the community’s chance to let their opinions be known.
Read more in this email from the Weston Historical Society.
Hurricane Hazel began its trail of devastation as a category 2 hurricane in the Caribbean, killing more than a thousand people in Haiti. It moved northwards hitting the Carolinas as a category 3 thanks to warm waters off Florida. As it passed over land, it weakened to a tropical storm and then became a depression but thanks to a merger with a cold front, Hazel was re-energized and the resulting system started dumping water on the GTA on the 15th and 16th of October 1954.
High pressure pushed Hazel over Toronto where it combined with a low-pressure area and cold front.
Local historian Madeleine McDowell correctly points out that the Humber River has the sharpest drop from source to mouth of any river in North America. As a result, when heavy rains fall, the river becomes fills up quickly. Events similar to Hazel have occurred in the past. In fact, in the 19th Century, Weston was moved to the east bank of the Humber after several catastrophic floods. Weston Golf and Country Club now occupies the site of the old settlement.
Raymore Park was one of many created after Hazel as part of an effort to clear flood plain lands and give rivers space where excess water can be absorbed.
The old location of Raymore Drive. Present day Tilden Crescent begins below the square in the top left. Gilhaven Avenue (running from bottom left) is now occupied by Raymore Park’s parking lot.
Topologically, the Humber catchment area is relatively unchanged since the glaciers left about ten thousand years ago. The valleys are the same width, and the drainage area is the same. Rare events like Hazel will continue to happen. The problem is that since 1954, a good portion of the Humber watershed has been paved over.
Click to enlarge.
In 2002, urban land occupied 20.7% of the watershed. By 2020 that amount was 26.7%, a significant increase. Natural cover is also decreasing although forest canopy is relatively stable at 29%. Because there is less land and vegetation to absorb rainfall, water enters the Humber faster causing river levels to rise quicker and higher than in the past. In addition runoff from paved land is dirtier affecting animal habitats and our drinking water. When the next Hazel type storm drenches our area (and it will), the effects may be far more severe.
Q: Is climate change a factor in events such as Hazel?
A: We can speculate, however, urbanization is a far more immediate danger. For example, the proposed Highway 413 is a huge threat to the watersheds of both the Humber and Credit rivers.
If you would like to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Hazel, meet in Raymore Park on Sunday October 13 between 1 and 3pm. Historian Madeleine McDowell will be there to talk about the event.
The Humber makes an almost 90° turn inside Raymore Park and as the current slows down on the inside of the curve, sand is gently deposited on the western bank. When the river level is high, the sand is flushed downstream towards the lake. The sand comes from the Oak Ridges Moraine where it was dumped by glaciers that melted over 12,000 years ago.
The beach in May 2014 from about the same spot showing the old retaining wall.
This is the beach that was used by children from the subdivision destroyed by Hurricane Hazel in October 1954. The beach is a dynamic thing; some years it isn’t much at all; sometimes expanding and sometimes shrinking but the sand will continue to be be deposited for the next several thousand years until there’s none left upstream.
Read more about the beach here and about what washes ashore here.
Commemorate the lives lost to Hurricane Hazel and enhance the natural habitat. This event will feature a short talk by historian Madeleine McDowell and a ceremonial tree planting with Vivian Recollet, an Anishinaabe Grandmother Waterkeeper. Meet south of Raymore Bridge, on the east side of the Humber River Recreational Trail (by the old bridge abutment).
When: June 10, 2023
Event Time(s): 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Where: Raymore Park
93 Raymore Drive, Etobicoke, ON M9P 2S4, Canada
Cost: Free
Individuals and small groups do not need to register and are welcome to attend. Registration for groups of five or more people has reached maximum capacity and is now closed. Email us to add your group to the waitlist.
This year marks 30 years since I started coming to Raymore Park. During that time many changes have occurred, most of them reflecting adjustments in park philosophy and management.
4. Areas under grass.
After Hurricane Hazel hit the Humber Valley in 1954, it was decided that flood plain and ravine land should be cleared of settlement to avoid further loss of life. Residents of Raymore Drive and Gilhaven Drive who survived were compensated for the purchase of their homes or lots. Gilhaven drive was approximately where the parking lot is today. Lands were then made part of what is now the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) and homes were bulldozed to create wide expanses of grass. Slowly, thanks to diminishing budgets, some grassed areas have been allowed to naturalize and sumac bushes have advanced, allowing trees to spring up in their midst. Currently, there is no grass cutting south of the weir apart from a strip on either side of the bike path.
Looking south towards the weir. Lots of grass with some recent tree plantings.
5. Dogs.
Raymore has been a popular park for local dog owners for decades. When the condos at Hickory Tree opened, residents were allowed to keep dogs and used Raymore Park once the footbridge opened in 1995. The wild area was popular and a path was carved out by dogs and their owners as they followed the Humber through the bush.
In 2017, an area near one of the baseball diamonds was converted into a dog off-leash area (DOLA). The ground was fitted with weeping tile to improve drainage, bulldozed and covered with the aptly named pea gravel. It was then fenced off from the rest of the park. The pea gravel is supposed to allow for better drainage but many owners say that it makes their dogs’ paws uncomfortable.
Residents and their dogs gather Monday, July 10 2017 for the official Raymore Park DOLA opening.
The DOLA took a few years to become popular but is now widely used and is popular with professional dog walkers who can be seen with up to six dogs at a time.
Some owners avoid the DOLA, instead preferring to allow their dogs to run free in places like the wild area. They play a cat and mouse game with city by-law enforcement officers and occasionally have encounters with wildlife that are unfortunate.
This year marks 30 years since I started coming to Raymore Park. During that time many changes have occurred, most of them reflecting adjustments in park philosophy and management.
1. Pesticides:
Herbicides were sprayed here – just north of the current off-leash area. October 2000.
Back in 1993, park staff would spray grassy areas with herbicide in order to keep weeds down and in particular, poison ivy. They used Roundup (Glyphosate) which is pretty potent. Caution notices were placed on the grass informing people that weedkiller had been sprayed but these didn’t last long. At that time, much more of the park was grass (more on that in another article). Despite the claims of Monsanto, Roundup when sprayed over such a wide area is probably terrible for wildlife and dogs. The City banned pesticides in theory in late 1998 but the practice continued for a while after that according to this article from 2000.
2. The Humber Footbridge.
The 1917 ‘swing’ footbridge that was condemned and replaced in 1950. Photo via Weston Historical Society.
When Hurricane Hazel struck in 1954, a four-year-old footbridge over the Humber was swept away. This link between Westmount and the stores in Weston wasn’t replaced until 1995 some 41 years later. The bridge gets a substantial amount of use from cyclists, sightseers and commuters who can be whisked to the airport or downtown in about 15 minutes via the UP Express on Weston Road.
Read this excellent article on the three Weston footbridges from the Weston Historical Society.
The bridge with an abutment of the 1950 version in the foreground; looking upstream in March 2009.
3. Garbage Containers.
Garbage containers were either lined wire-mesh bins or the occasional re-purposed oil drum back in the 20th Century. There were no recycling containers back then – just open-topped receptacles that went uncollected during the winter. The cans and baskets weren’t replaced with the current wheeled carts until 2012.
Even with our clearly marked carts, park users are fairly indiscriminate where they toss their waste, so the recycling bins become contaminated and their contents worthless. As a result, garbage and recycling are collected by the same truck and the contents lumped in altogether.
Winter is finally over – the signs are everywhere but interestingly, native plants are some of the last to leaf and bloom, possibly as a protection from our continental climate’s treacherous ability to produce late snowfalls and frosts.
Imports feel no such constraint. Alongside the old path that follows the curve of the river, some old exotic plants remain from the days when people had homes by the water. Many of these remnants of domestication are unnoticed but somehow they have survived and stand as a mute testament to the victims of Hurricane Hazel in 1954.
An exotic tiny blossom.
Day lilies carpet this fertile flood-prone corner of the park.
A lilac bush has begun to leaf and flower buds are set to bloom in a couple of weeks.
This pond was carved out of the ground a few years ago as a result of an ice-jam temporarily diverting the river. It was promptly occupied by eastern American toads. No sign of this year’s eggs or tadpoles yet.
A carpet of toad lilies has sprung up in the woods south of the weir.
All last week, trucks rumbled into Raymore Park delivering old bricks and concrete blocks (clean fill).
I braved the bitter cold this afternoon to find out what was going on. Rather than building a stable roadway along which trucks can approach the river, the whole of the fenced off land is being laid with about 40cm of clean fill to create a working area that stretches to the river’s edge from which the retaining wall can be constructed.
Topsoil scraped from the area can be seen (right) and brick rubble ready to be spread over the remainder of the land is on the left. To get an idea of the scale of this endeavour, there’s a person standing by the orange fencing (far left).
The depth and size of the rubble layer can also be seen here.
Apparently the plan is for the rubble to be carted away again and the topsoil replaced after the job is completed.
A closer look at the brick rubble and (eventually) the old topsoil waiting to be spread over the park surface.
One permanent change that may have been made; the old basement depressions from homes swept away during Hurricane Hazel are probably gone.
