Condo Excavator Finds Century Old Soda Bottles at Fort York, Queens Wharf, Toronto

Forward Condo Excavator Finds Century Old Soda Bottles at Fort York Blvd and Queen's Wharf
The excavation site of the 'Forward' and 'Newton' condo buildings, on the S.E. corner of Bathurst and Fort York Blvd. in downtown Toronto has exposed the site of what was once the Through Freight & Passenger Depo of the O.S. & H.R. Railway (the Ontario Simcoe and Huron Railway), and here, on the threshold of this hole in time, I encountered a professional excavator with small treasures that were made and sold over one hundred and thirty years ago.

Here's an Alex Burns / Toronto aqua blob top soda.

It has a right facing beaver which you can barely see . The beaver was a hotly contested trademark.
ALEX BURNS / TORONTO
BELFAST GINGER ALE
A bottle of Belfast Ginger Ale probably sold for a penny or two on the steamship in the 1880s, In mint condition, this 130yr old Alex Burns Belfast Ginger ale bottle would sell for anywhere from $30 to $60 today on eBay or any flea market.

Below is a picture map from the 1850s (?) and here you can see its just one pier to the right of the Queens Wharf below the train station. The end of the wharf is Queen's Quay which has survived as Toronto's foremost 'lake front' street.

In July 1849, the Ontario Simcoe & Lake Huron Union Railroad was founded by Frederick Chase Capreol and Charles Albert Berczy. An act of Parliament, known as the Guarantee Act helped finance construction through the sale of bonds.

The OS&HR Railway name was changed to Northern Railway of Canada on August 16, 1858 and it became part of the Northern and Northwestern Railway on June 6, 1879, (its now part of Canadian National Railway or CNR).

The Port of Toronto is the gateway to Ontario; fast forward twenty more years and we can see how the port and the railway grows as business and commerce expands on the Canadian frontier.

In 1887, the Grand Trunk Railway (GTR) gained a controlling interest, and the takeover was formalized in January 1888. Now there are four piers, each connected to a railway line.

The port before the first world war/ Here are steamers docking at the railway piers in 1914. Look at the smokestacks and industry in this photo and imagine all the garbage that went over the side of these boats

Fast forward one hundred years from this exact same spot, looking in the same direction...

Behold we see the wooden piers where the steamers docked to unload small wooden boxes filled with goods from other parts of the British Empire and America cities south of the Great Lakes. This soil is filled with the relic of our ancestors; their primitive glassware, medicines, sodas, beers, and sealer jars, whisky jugs, crocks, clay pipes, dental tooth powder jars, ceramic mustache grease containers -small items mixed in with their early industrial age garbage are among many Canadian antiques collectors most coveted treasures today. Fast "forward' two more years into the future, spring of 2017 Forward Condo Excavator Finds Century Old Soda Bottles at Fort York Blvd and Queen's Wharf

oh well the only part that is left of that history . what ells is new . nice bottle ,there is probably a lot more sh.. down there never to be found.

Nice writeup Rob. I wonder what laws would come to play it they found human remains. In some countries construction would stop the minute it's reported.

they have found a lot of bottles in that area of Toronto in last few years as condo boom has forced developers to build on older properties some of which contained dumps . any other bottles found at this site worth posting ?

They've found so many bottles around there they've completely flooded the market with Toronto bottles and a lot of former rarities are now super common. I've been able to get Toronto hutch bottles for five dollars a piece which is unheard of for anywhere else in Canada.And yeah if they find bodies they have to stop construction as far as I know. Though it depends on the archaeological significance bodies how much it'll hold up work. I think they found a lost Victorian graveyard while doing street work in Ottawa last year, and although they had archaeologists there, it was more just to respectfully remove the bodies in the way than to do a full dig, since there isn't really that much more to learn about Victorian Canadian society.

Great looking bottle, I can only imagine what else is lying around that area just waiting to be found.

I've been passing by all those construction sites on Toronto's waterfront for decades. Every time I see a new pit all I can think about are all the bottles and other relics that are being mostly destroyed. Nice post on Dumpdiggers Rob.

Great story and pictures. Follow those dump truck's!! Did you find any Cape Breton or Nova Scotia bottles?

There is still so much under the ground. Sad to see history being paved over. With horrible ugly soulless sky scrapers. Glad you were able to recover some history which would otherwise be lost to time.