From Market Gardens to Housing: Joseph Rush, Entrepreneur

Born in Oxfordshire in 1849, a young Joseph W. Rush emigrated on his own to Canada in 1868.  In England, his father was a thatcher by trade, but Joseph didn’t follow in his dad’s footsteps.  He foresaw a rising demand for food products and so became part of the farming community conveniently located at Humber Bay beside the growing city of Toronto. 

Within three years of landing in Canada the 21-year-old Joseph was working in Etobicoke as a labourer on the farm of William Burgess.  William had emigrated with his family from England to Canada in the 1850s, and had quickly established himself on a 12-acre market garden. One of William’s daughters was 26-year-old Caroline whom Joseph married in 1874.

In the winter of 1870-1871, Joseph bought a triangular 11½ acre farm for $400 (lots 379A and 380 on Fig 1) on the west side of what was then Range Road to establish his own market garden. As it would turn out, Joseph was a more successful farmer and entrepreneur than his father in-law William.

Figure 1: Part of 1856 Plan and Survey, with the triangular 11 ½ acre farm west of Range Road

An earlier farmhouse already stood on the northeast corner of the two lots – the only house on the farm according to a map of Etobicoke dated 1878.  This Heritage-listed house (Fig 2) remains at the same location today, and still looks out onto Park Lawn Road. 

Figure 2: 242 Park Lawn Road (1854)

Figure 3: A market garden in the Queensway / Park Lawn area (EHS image library)

Joseph’s market garden was one of many in the area (see Fig 4) – north from Queen Street (Queensway) up Range Road and Burgess Ave (both now Park Lawn), east/west across College Street (Berry Road), and north up Lambton Road (today’s Prince Edward) to the cemetery. 

Figure 4: Part of MacDonald's Map of Township of Etobicoke, about 1910. Lower centre, the market garden of "Jos. Rush".

EHS chief historian Denise Harris notes about the market gardens, “The area north of The Queensway was very hilly, but ideal for small-scale market gardening on lots ranging from two to 20 acres.  The farmers would plough their fields with one or two horses, and then use the horses to deliver their produce to markets in Toronto.”

By 1871, Joseph is well-entrenched as a market gardener on Range Road. Four years later his father-in-law, William Burgess, bought 25 acres for his own market garden directly opposite Joseph, on the east side of Range Road. Unfortunately, within 15 years, William’s remaining 20 acres was so heavily mortgaged the land was forced into receivership. 

One of the first local property developments took place in 1887 – but for market gardens, not for housing. The 50 acres of open farmland immediately south of College Street and west of Range Road was subdivided into 10 garden lots (Fig 4).  William Burgess bought the three 5-acre lots on the southwest corner of College and Salisbury. Perhaps suddenly realizing his precarious financial circumstances, he resold them almost immediately at a loss of $300 each.

Joseph, William’s son in-law, on the other hand, appears to have been a successful land speculator as well as market gardener.  In 1882 he bought another 18 acres on the east side of (then) Range Road, north of Burgess’s land, for $1,900. Joseph promptly leased out his two properties to himself and his brother-in-law, Walter Burgess. Part of Joseph’s 18 acres ended up in the large 1889 subdivision on the east side beginning at Cannon Road and widening across to meet much of today’s Stephen Drive. By 1897, Joseph had sold almost all the remainder of this parcel to three other market gardeners, including James Todd and William North (see Fig 4), for twice what he had paid for the entire lot.

Not done with land deals, Joseph then acquired an additional 21 acres on the west side of today’s Prince Edward Dr., at the southern end, a little north of today’s Berry Road. Apparently this was the result of another distressed mortgagee sale or other Court action.  Joseph then sold two parts of this area to John Todd and George North (see Fig 4).

Late in the 19th century, Joseph had just completed selling off his market gardens on the east side of today’s Park Lawn Rd.  A distressed mortgagee sale allowed him to buy a fourth parcel of land, this time a 37-acre lot on the west side, for $2,750.  This large parallelogram-shaped farm (“Lot 1” on Fig 1) dovetailed his first land purchase, and stretched northwards from modern Queensway to the same line that marked his existing 11 ½ acres.

Reflecting his successes, in 1900 Joseph built his family a large brick home that straddled both lots. The house (Fig 5) still stands on the NW corner of present day Park Lawn and Queensway.  His neighbours to the north were market gardeners from England or Ireland, including George Gray, Henry Smith, James Todd, and William Harris.  Early in the new century, Joseph sold the half of the 37-acre block that lay west of Mimico Creek to the Parker family for $4,950.  That left about 30 acres for his market garden NW of modern Park Lawn and Queensway, let alone a tidy profit.

Fig 5: 176 Park Lawn Road, the home of Joseph Rush, photo taken about 1980s. (EHS photo #107)

Joseph Rush was one of the more successful market gardeners and entrepreneurs in south Etobicoke. After forty years of farming, Joseph set about retiring in 1911 at the age of sixty. Accordingly, he decided to sub-divide a section of his land in what appears to have been one of the earliest housing developments among the market gardens located in the present-day Park Lawn area.

Researched and Written by Murray Johnston

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