Industrial Malting Tiles Found on Toronto Hospital Site

Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology Newsletter, March 2019
Wesley Oldham

In July 2018, ASI undertook a Stage 4 salvage excavation of lands that were once part of the original Hospital Reserve in the Town of York, now Toronto. The hospital was an important public institution during the cholera epidemics of 1832 and 1834, and most particularly the typhus epidemic of 1847. The July 2018 work also documented a number of features associated with the occupation of the late nineteenth-century row houses built on the property after the demolition of the hospital and the sale of the lands to private developers. A rear yard outbuilding associated with one of these residences turned up a rather unexpected discovery in the form of a floor or prepared surface constructed using not only bricks scavenged from the demolition of the Toronto Hospital, but also tiles from a malting works. This unexpected find sheds light on the evolution of the Hospital site, as well as the malting, brewing and distilling industries in 19th century Ontario.

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