Golf in Toronto

What do Hurricane Hazel, typhoid fever, the Humber Sewage Treatment Plant, Highland Creek, and 19th century English settler John Scarlett all have in common? They all figure in the history of the city of Toronto’s five golf courses.

The year 1954 brought Hurricane Hazel to town, and the lesson that the city needed better watershed management. Soon after, the city bought part of Carson Park , which was named after a civic leader whose father owned the Jolly Miller Inn. Toronto got a golf course, a few roads, and more peace of mind should a sibling of Hazel’s ever visit town.

To help fight an earlier natural catastrophe (the turn-of-the-century outbreak of typhoid fever), Walter Massey produced eggs and milk on his farm. He’d named it Dentonia Park after his wife, Susan Marie Denton. Today, a golf course sits on part of his old estate.

Until the middle of last century, the Humber Valley Golf Course sat north of the spot where today’s Humber Sewage Treatment Plant resides. The current Rexdale site opened in March 1958 on land previously owned by the Summerlea Golf Club.

Tam O’Shanter was once a private country club by Highland Creek. Three levels of government (the Province of Ontario, Metro, and the former Borough of Scarborough) partnered to buy a large part of it for parkland and a golf course in 1973.

Finally, Toronto commonly recognizes people who helped to build the city into what it is today. For example, the names of key figures such as Nathan Phillips and Fred Gardiner are immortalized in City Hall and a major highway. Less well known is John Scarlett, a settler from England who played a part in developing the Humber Valley during the 19th century. Both Scarlett Woods Golf Course and nearby Scarlett Mills Park bear his name today.

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