The Ontario Township Survey System

[timio]

And yes, Kitchener-Waterloo's road pattern (if you can even call it that) drives me nuts. It looks like someone took a handful of spaghetti and threw it on a map. I know that's the traditional European style, but still.

My theory is someone dumped a bowl of sauerkraut on the table during Oktoberfest and decided it looked like a city. I especially like the multiple parallel roads that cross at least once: King and Weber, Fisher Hallman and Westmount, University and Erb, Highland and Queen, etc. I know it's completely off topic, so I'm done.

 

[gweed123]

I'm quite happy to de-couple this conversation into a new thread if this continues. If there's more replies, I'll do so (and happily too, I am enjoying this side-conversation).

The jogs are for two reasons:
1. Different surveys at township lines. Vaughan and Markham Townships both started from Yonge going east and west, and from Steeles north, so Langstaff Road, Major Mack, 16th/Carville all line up at Yonge. But the surveys started north from Steeles, so they misalign from York Township and Scarborough Township (which itself did not align properly between York's and Scarborough's roads, so there's the jog near Vic Park for Finch, Sheppard, York Mills/Ellesmere, etc).

Similarly at Steeles between Chinguacousy and Toronto Townships, though they are less pronounced.

2. Within-township errors. This is what you're referring to Burloak, and you're correct.

2a. Single-front townships: at junctions of lines and concession roads. In York Township, this is noticeable with the jogs in Lawrence and Wilson at Keele.

2b. Double-front townships, such as Chinguacousy, Caledon Townships - the jogs are between the lines on the concession roads rather than at the junctions.

These were often heavily-forested lands in the 1830s and 1840s, and work was done with little more than rudimentary maps. measuring chains and compasses. Error was inevitable.

If you would like to create a separate thread, go for it. I've always had an interest in figuring out why things are the way they are, especially with built form like that. And my knowledge of the lot and concession system is pretty basic, so I'd love to learn some interesting facts about it.

Scarborough's grid system has always struck me as particularly odd, given the frequency of N-S lines to E-W concessions. I'd imagine for farming lots that wasn't the optimal lot to roadway ratio.

My theory is someone dumped a bowl of sauerkraut on the table during Oktoberfest and decided it looked like a city. I especially like the multiple parallel roads that cross at least once: King and Weber, Fisher Hallman and Westmount, University and Erb, Highland and Queen, etc. I know it's completely off topic, so I'm done.

Sauerkraut would be quite fitting for Berlin. I think it's just a case of putting roads through paths of least resistance, which in this case lead to a mess of a street pattern.

 

[jamincan]

I had read somewhere awhile ago that there is a strong German (I think?) influence in the street pattern in KW. The article pointed to a number of 5-pointed intersections as examples of this.

 

[gweed123]

I had read somewhere awhile ago that there is a strong German (I think?) influence in the street pattern in KW. The article pointed to a number of 5-pointed intersections as examples of this.

That would make sense. Kitchener up until WWII was called Berlin (falls in line with towns in the area like London and Paris). Big German population. But I digress.

 

[ShonTron]

That would make sense. Kitchener up until WWII was called Berlin (falls in line with towns in the area like London and Paris). Big German population. But I digress.

That was in 1916, during the First World War. Decided to be patriotic and name it after the Minister of War, Lord Kitchener, the co-inventor of the modern concentration camp in the Boer War, who died at the time Berlin was debating a name change.

Interestingly, the community of Swastika, near Kirkland Lake, refused to change their name (derived from the name of the Gold Mine that gave the place its raison d'etre) during the Second World War, holding out that they were there first. The Ontario Government tried to force a renaming to "Winston", even changing road signs though locals vigilently and repeatedly replaced them.

 

[gweed123]

That was in 1916, during the First World War. Decided to be patriotic and name it after the Minister of War, Lord Kitchener, the co-inventor of the modern concentration camp in the Boer War, who died at the time Berlin was debating a name change.

Interestingly, the community of Swastika, near Kirkland Lake, refused to change their name (derived from the name of the Gold Mine that gave the place its raison d'etre) during the Second World War, holding out that they were there first. The Ontario Government tried to force a renaming to "Winston", even changing road signs though locals vigilently and repeatedly replaced them.

I stand corrected, WWI, thank you. Personally I think it would be kind of cool if they reverted back to their original name.

 

[nfitz]

Some of this thread already discussed in http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showthread.php/7781-Street-Naming-(Avenue-7-)?

I had read somewhere awhile ago that there is a strong German (I think?) influence in the street pattern in KW. The article pointed to a number of 5-pointed intersections as examples of this.

That makes no sense at all. Kitchener is laid out on a grid system, that's not how German towns were laid out. Kitchener-Waterloo gets odd, because after the land was stolen from the Indians, it was a mish-mash of stuff along the Grand River, and different pieces were laid out with different orientations. If you look at old maps, both Waterloo and Kitchener had their own mis-matched grid system, which has created many attempts to connect things over the years, resulting in their somewhat unique road system.

Off-hand, I can't think of that many 5-pointed intersections ...

 

[CDL.TO]

That makes no sense at all. Kitchener is laid out on a grid system, that's not how German towns were laid out.

Have you been to Berlin? Major arterials follow desire lines, but the streets themselves are largely in a grid. Much like Kitchener.

 

[nfitz]

Have you been to Berlin? Major arterials follow desire lines, but the streets themselves are largely in a grid. Much like Kitchener.

Nothing like Kitchener. You only have to go back to the 1900 maps of Kitchener and Waterloo to see how it happened. Any similarity is coincidental. Haven't spent time in Berlin, but I did live in KW for almost 20 years (which still shocks me ... I was only expecting to stay 4 months). If you look back at the various planning documents and maps historically, you'll see the influence is much more American than European, especially when you start looking at some of their partially-built grand schemes. The closest similarity to what they were thinking is similar documents from the same time-frame I've seen from Vancouver.

 

[ShonTron]

Some of this thread already discussed in http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showthread.php/7781-Street-Naming-(Avenue-7-)?

That makes no sense at all. Kitchener is laid out on a grid system, that's not how German towns were laid out. Kitchener-Waterloo gets odd, because after the land was stolen from the Indians, it was a mish-mash of stuff along the Grand River, and different pieces were laid out with different orientations. If you look at old maps, both Waterloo and Kitchener had their own mis-matched grid system, which has created many attempts to connect things over the years, resulting in their somewhat unique road system.

Off-hand, I can't think of that many 5-pointed intersections ...

Ugh. The City of Kitchener's local inner city streets are in a grid, but not the rural roads that later got assumed in the suburban sprawl. There was never any concession road system in Waterloo Township (which the modern cities of Waterloo and Kitchener succeeded as well as the north half of Cambridge), the settlers (of whom many came from Pennsylvania, not direct from Germany) were left to their own devices. The major streets like Erb, Victoria, King, Weber, Westmount, University, Fischer-Hallman, Homer Watson, Fountain Street, etc are the old rural roads.

 

[nfitz]

There was never any concession road system in Waterloo Township (which the modern cities of Waterloo and Kitchener succeeded), the settlers (of whom many came from Pennsylvania, not direct from Germany) were left to their own devices.

There wasn't quite the same system ... the oddball shape wasn't really conducive to that kind of system, which had already been established in neighbouring counties. Too many strange angles everywhere.

But they tried. Look back at the 1880s mapping - http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/CountyAtlas/waterloo.htm

A lot of it goes back to the piecemeal way it was all taken from the Indians in the early 1800s, and much of it was very ad-hoc.

I don't think the town lay-outs though had much German influence. The oddest one of all is Galt (now part of Cambridge), and that was more Scottish wasn't it?

 

[gweed123]

There wasn't quite the same system ... the oddball shape wasn't really conducive to that kind of system, which had already been established in neighbouring counties. Too many strange angles everywhere.

But they tried. Look back at the 1880s mapping - http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/CountyAtlas/waterloo.htm

A lot of it goes back to the piecemeal way it was all taken from the Indians in the early 1800s, and much of it was very ad-hoc.

I don't think the town lay-outs though had much German influence. The oddest one of all is Galt (now part of Cambridge), and that was more Scottish wasn't it?

Yeah that map does look like a mess.

Parts of Ottawa look the same way though. Nepean Township is pretty standard, but when you get around the rivers and the canal, it becomes pretty messy. You have the old township roads, and then you have bits and pieces of the never-fully-realized Greber Plan everywhere. Especially in the area around Carleton and the Riverside area, it can get pretty messy.

Kitchener on the whole though is far more confusing. But on the other hand you get cities like Burlington, which aside from a few streets stopping because of natural obstacles where a bridge hasn't been built yet (Bronte Creek at Upper Middle for example), is as grid as grid gets, at least for arterials.

 

[DKsan]

Niftz: That's because all of Cambridge's settlements (Hespeler, Preston, Galt, etc) were all settled by the British, Scottish.

 

[nfitz]

Niftz: That's because all of Cambridge's settlements (Hespeler, Preston, Galt, etc) were all settled by the British, Scottish.

I thought Hespeler was Pennsylvanian Mennonite more than anything else.

 

[ShonTron]

I thought Hespeler was Pennsylvanian Mennonite more than anything else.

And Hespleler was in Waterloo Township as well.