page_title: Toronto Islands
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Toronto Islands / History
caption_attribution_description: Photographer: William James 1881 City of Toronto Archives This image is available from the City of Toronto Archives, listed under the archival citation Fonds 1244, Item 6005. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information. Deutsch&#160;| English&#160;| suomi&#160;| français&#160;| magyar&#160;| македонски&#160;| Nederlands&#160;| português&#160;| +/−
context_page_description: The Toronto Islands are a chain of 15 small islands in Lake Ontario, south of mainland Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the only group of islands in the western part of Lake Ontario, the Toronto Islands are located just offshore from the city's downtown and provide shelter for Toronto Harbour. The islands are home to parkland, the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, several yacht clubs, Centreville Amusement Park, a residential area, and several beaches. The island community is considered to be the largest urban car-free community in North America, although some service vehicles are permitted. Access to the Islands is by ferry, including the City of Toronto ferries operating from Jack Layton Ferry Terminal at the foot of Bay Street, or by water taxis.
  The Islands is a popular recreation destination. Recreational bicyclists are accommodated on the ferries. Bicycles can be rented at Centre Island. Canoes, kayaks and paddle boats can also be rented on the island. A disc golf course exists on the island. The main beach is along the south shore and the beach on the west shore is clothing-optional.
context_section_description: Prior to European colonization, the Toronto area was home to various native peoples, including the Anishinaabeg (known also as the Ojibwa and Mississaugas) who were the last to occupy the area. The Anishinaabeg, who named the peninsula (as the entirety of Centre Island was at the time) "Menecing", brought their sick to the peninsula to recover in its healthful atmosphere. To the descendants of the Ojibwa, now the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Toronto Islands are sacred land. The Toronto Purchase of 1787 and 1805, according to the British, included the Islands. The Mississaugas, in a land claim settlement process started in 1986, claimed that the Islands were never included. In 2010, the Government of Canada and the Mississaugas reached a settlement which resulted in a cash payment to the Mississaugas from the Government of Canada. In return, the Mississaugas relinquished their claim to the Islands.
  The peninsula and surrounding sand bars that now form the Toronto Islands were first surveyed in 1792 by Lieutenant Joseph Bouchette of the Royal Navy. D.W. Smith's Gazetteer recorded in 1813 that "the long beach or peninsula, which affords a most delightful ride, is considered so healthy by the Indians that they resort to it whenever indisposed". Many aboriginal encampments were located between the peninsula's base and the Don River. The peninsula was actually a series of many sand spits and ponds.
  During the 1790s, the British built the first buildings on the Island. A blockhouse and storage structures were built at Gibraltar Point in 1794. The garrison was known as the Blockhouse Bay garrison, and it supported the garrison on the mainland. By 1800, another blockhouse and a guard house were built. These were destroyed in the Battle of York. Another garrison was built, but it was abandoned by 1823 and demolished in 1833.
  The Gibraltar Point Lighthouse was constructed at Gibraltar Point, the south-western extremity of the peninsula in 1809. It is perhaps best known for the demise of its first keeper, German-born John Paul Radelmüller, whose alleged 1815 murder by soldiers from Fort York forms the basis of Toronto’s most enduring ghost story. Although the precise circumstances of his death remain a mystery, recent research has verified many aspects of the popular legend. The two soldiers charged with but ultimately acquitted of Radelmüller's murder were John Henry and John Blueman, both of the Glengarry Light Infantry.
  The peninsula was first cut off from the mainland to the east by a storm in 1852, but a breakwater was built and the channel was filled in by silt. However, in 1858, the peninsula became an island permanently by a violent storm that cut a 500 feet (150 m) wide channel. The same storm destroyed two hotels on the island.
  After the peninsula became an island, the Hanlan family were among the first year-round inhabitants, settling at Gibraltar Point in 1862. In 1867, the City of Toronto acquired the Islands from the federal government, and the land was divided into lots, allowing cottages, amusement areas and resort hotels to be built. The west side of the island became a resort destination for the people of Toronto and the first summer cottage community was built there. In 1878, a hotel was built by John Hanlan at the north-west tip of the island and soon after the area became known as Hanlan's Point. John's son, Edward "Ned" Hanlan, earned international recognition as a rower before taking over his father's business. Other notable families on the Islands include the Durnans (James James Durnan was the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse keeper in 1832) and Wards (David Ward settled on the eastern end in 1830).
  At the same time as Hanlan's Point was developing as a summer suburb of Toronto, developments were going on elsewhere on the Islands. Along the lakefront of Centre Island, large Victorian summer homes were built by Toronto's leading families looking for refuge from the summer heat and drawn by the prestigious Royal Canadian Yacht Club, which had moved to a location on the harbour side of Centre Island i
caption: The Royal Canadian Yacht Club's first clubhouse on the Toronto Islands, completed in 1881.
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