small town edges the stone walls of Weston, Ontario
stonework di l igence history identity attention
landscape | walls by denis calnan
Growing up in Weston, a town that dates back to 1881 and now makes up part of Toronto, I grew up with stonewalls lining the streets. As a kid I climbed them and balanced, walking along the tops of them, never realising that these were something special. They surround houses, parks and the library and were taken from the bed of the Humber River. The walls are the pride of Weston and many are the work of stonemason James Gilbert Gove, a Weston resident until his death in 1974. Gove built the walls in the 1950s after the Town of Weston widened the streets and sidewalks. This redefinition left the streets no longer level with the front yards. Residents were given the choice to either make a small hill in their front yards to make them level or to accept a riverstone wall paid for by the town. The walls consist of several layers of stones laid horizontally, with the top layer standing vertically, with spaces between them. They were originally built with a small amount of mortar, but as years passed residents added mortar to the walls to help them last. Unfortunately even with this reinforcement the walls are falling
apart from age and lack of upkeep. Some even look as though they are being torn apart – the old riverstones lie on the ground beside the walls or are missing from the top coping. In some places entire parts of the walls are separated and some walls have been removed without a trace. Mining the Humber River for stones is no longer allowed so these missing walls are irreplaceable. Some walls have ad hoc upkeep but it is only the walls surrounding the Weston Branch of the Toronto Public Library to get proper attention in recent years. These walls have been restored to their original form: drystone walls with a small amount of mortar. Unfortunately, because of the high cost of restoring these walls, residents have not undertaken the refurbishing of walls on private property and the city of Toronto has not made it a priority to help with this. Despite this, in 2009 a commemorative plaque was placed in Little Avenue Memorial Park recognising the stone walls and the Humber River stone cenotaph as an important component of the neighbourhood’s heritage. v
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On Site review 23 Small Things
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