Early History

About 12,000 years ago a gigantic Glacier, five times as high as the CN Tower, melts away and leaves in its wake The Great Lakes. With that great melt and the warm climate that followed, people started to inhabit this area.
The first to arrive were the hunter-gathers known as the Fluted Point People about 9500 BC. Over the countless centuries that followed, Huron, Iroquois and Mississauga First Nations came to the area known to them as To'ron'to, interpreted as 'Meeting Place' or 'Where the waters converge,' but because those early people had no written language its true translation is highly debatable.

By the time the first European, a French explorer who worked with Champlain named Etienne Brule arrived in 1615, a trail between the Humber River in the west to the Don River in the east was well worn after millennia of use. Just below that ancient path was a beach. That path became Front Street and the beach would eventually evolve into The Esplanade.

In 1788 the British buy from the Mississauga First Nation most of what was to become the GTA for 9,000 dollars. This event is known as The Toronto Purchase. Governor Simcoe arrived in 1793 and the Town Of York was founded. Not really caring for the 'Indian' sounding name of Toronto it was changed to honour Frederick, The Duke Of York, second son of George III. By 1808 York built its first substantial Wharf constructed at the bottom of Church Street between the present day Old York Tower and the Performing Arts Lodge. Back then there was a shear, 20 foot drop from Front Street down to the beach, so to make the waterfront more accessible the grading of the embankment began.

This grading is still evident today with Church, Jarvis and Market Streets inclining steeply as they go down to The Esplanade.