President Peter Russell (1733-1808) was appointed to administer the province when Simcoe requested a leave of absence in 1796. Russell hoped to accelerate the process of moving the capital to York. To this end in 1799 the government contracted an American, Asa Danforth (1789-c.1821), to build a road east from the Town of York to Kingston. This road began where King Street crossed the Don River. It traveled east for about four miles where it then turned north-east towards the City of Kingston. Danforth left in 1802 over a dispute over payment for his work, although his name lives on in one of Toronto’s main arteries.

Queen Street (still then called Lot Street) did not yet stretch to meet the Don River. Kingston Road was little more than a dirt path, often impassable for much of the year. A stage coach ride from York to Kingston took three or four days, and was one of the most unpleasant experiences the early settlers encountered.

At several places along Mr. Danforth’s road, several small villages grew up, including two small outposts in the eastern part of York Township. Belmond was located at the corner of Kingston Rd and Main Street, while Norway was nearby at the intersection of Kingston Rd with Woodbine Ave (which was the road between the sixth and fifth concessions of York Twp.)

James SMITH, who owned land where Kingston Rd crossed Woodbine Ave, operated a toll gate there. The toll was ostensibly for the upkeep of Kingston Road. In 1835 WRAGG & Co. (who were iron mongers on King St W) opened a sawmill near Mr. Smith’s property. They joined the more than 190 sawmills operating in Toronto prior to 1850, most of which could hardly keep up with the domestic demand required to house the booming immigrant population of Upper Canada.

The sawmill gives us a clue as to the possible reason as to why the area was called Norway. One theory suggests that the name came from the fact that there was a large Norwegian population in the area, but this is unlikely as the population was sparse, and most names there appear to originate in the British Isles.

A more likely reason for the name is that York township was heavily forested then with a variety of the Scots Pines referred to colloquially as Norway Pines. In fact, Wragg & Co. advertised their specialty as these white Norway Pines.

The unincorporated Village of Norway grew up around the sawmill and the toll gate. Of course a tavern was soon to follow. The Gazetteer of British North America, 1837 lists Norway as “… a post-village in York County, 4½ miles from Toronto. It contains one store, one hotel and a brewery. Pop. 80.”

By the 1850s the population had risen to almost 100 when Charles Coxwell SMALL (1800-1864), who had a summer home on Kingston Rd, donated 3 acres of land for the purposes of “erecting a church and churchyard to be denominated St. John’s Church, Berkeley.” [1]

The local Anglican congregation had been meeting since the early ‘40s at a barn belonging to the PLAYTER family. The first permanent church was built in 1850. A wooden structure at a cost of £400 was built on the north-west corner of the intersection of Kingston Rd and Woodbine Ave. The first baptism took place on Feb. 2, 1851 when William WALLIS, son of Irwin & Margaret WALLIS, was welcomed into the church.

On June 16, 1855 a stone baptismal font was added to the church. A bell, donated by Richard EDMONDS, was installed soon after. Lord Bishop John Strachan himself consecrated the church on July 1, 1855 as “St. John’s Church, Berkeley” – the church did not assume its’ present name of St. John’s, Norway until well into the 1880s.

A cemetery was also needed for the families of the area, so one was built beside the new church, although today the site of the present cemetery is far greater than the original land grant. St. John’s Cemetery opened in 1853. William DAWES, a local farmer (1778-1854) who died at the age of 76, and was buried on July 19, 1854, thus became the new cemetery’s first inhabitant. [2]

Other prominent families of St. John’s parish included ASHBRIDGE, SMALL, SMITH, PLAYTER and CARRETTE. The Carrette family still owns one of the few vaults in the cemetery.

Meanwhile life in the tiny hamlet prospered. Ira BATES (1834-1910) operated the Norway House (a hotel) on the south side of Kingston Rd. A Post Office was opened on Mar. 1, 1866, with John E. WINNETT being appointed first postmaster. James SMITH (the toll-gate owner) took over from 1869-1874, while H.D. SANDERS succeeded him from 1874 to 1876. James SCARLETT was appointed post master in Apr 1876 but died the very next month. His widow, Mrs. Anna A. SCARLETT fulfilled the remainder of his term until 1877.

Another prominent business of the area was the Toronto Gravel Road & Concrete Company which operated gravel pits near Benlamond (at Main Street). They built tracks to connect with the Grand Trunk Railway which ran north of Kingston Road.

These same tracks became the basis for the first transit system in the area when the Toronto Street Railway Company opened a horse-drawn tram system in 1874. Known as the “Kingston Road Tramway” it ran from near the Don River to the Benlamond Hotel (at Main St), where it turned around. In 1878 service was extended to Victoria Park Ave.

The Toronto Railway Company took over the Toronto Street Railway Company in 1891. By 1893 they had electrified the Kingston Road service, providing a streetcar route from Lee Ave (just west of Main Street), along Kingston Road to Queen Street (as the section east of the City was now called) towards Toronto. Crossing the Don, it followed King Street to Dufferin, providing the first complete suburban and cross-city service.

Other prominent families and businesses of the area included Joseph TREBLECOCK, a grocer who married Mary FOX of nearby Leslieville. Charles FERGUSON and James HODGINS both ran general stores in the area, while William BOTHERSON was a village smithy. Other local names include: Benjamin MORTON, Frank BOSTON, and Daniel SULLIVAN (who was the first operator of the Benlamond Hotel).

Norway, Benlamond, Leslieville and a dozen other such hamlets were amalgamated into the Village of East Toronto when these communities voted to remove from York Township. Thus East Toronto was incorporated as a Village on January 1, 1888. The first mayor was D.G. STEPHENSON, while Benjamin MOORE, R. LUTTRELL, Charles PICKERING and Frank BOSTON where the first councillors. These men were all large landowners of the area, and they had led the tax revolt to separate from the township. The first constable, James HODGE was salaried at $20 a year at the first meeting of the new council.

The Village of East Toronto was, however, short-lived. In 1901 they annexed Little York and Coleman’s Corners, but the Village itself was annexed by Toronto in 1909.

Unfortunately there are no buildings remaining from the original village of Norway. The present St. John’s Church was built in 1893, and it is the oldest building in the immediate area. Fortunately the name Norway does live on in the Church, the Cemetery, a School, a Library and several other buildings of the area.