Marie Curtis Park
| Marie Curtis Park | |
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Mouth of Etobicoke Creek at the park
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| Location | 2 Forty Second Street, Toronto |
| Coordinates | 43°35′12″N 79°32′38″W / 43.58667°N 79.54389°WCoordinates: 43°35′12″N 79°32′38″W / 43.58667°N 79.54389°W |
| Area | 41 hectares (100 acres) |
| Created | 1959 |
| Operated by | Toronto Parks |
| Website | Marie Curtis Park |
Marie Curtis Park is a public park in Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the mouth of the Etobicoke Creek on Lake Ontario in the Long Branch neighbourhood. Etobicoke Creek is the boundary of Toronto on the east and Mississauga to the west. Marie Curtis Park was built after the devastating floods of Hurricane Hazel in 1954 destroyed 56 homes and cottages on the site, leaving 1,868 persons homeless and 81 dead. It is named after a reeve of Long Branch, a village now amalgamated into the City of Toronto. The park's official address is 2 Forty-Second Street, Toronto, ON M8W 3P2.
The park is mostly deciduous forest with areas of meadow, savannah, thicket, woodland, plantation, with a shallow marsh, some sand dunes and a beach. A trail passes through the park from east to west, crossing the creek via a bridge. The river bank is landscaped with man-made materials where it meets Lake Ontario.
The park has a playground, wading pool, two colour children's labyrinth with a push-button activated spiral waterfountain, a public swimming beach, a dog off-leash area, picnic spots and walking trails. The walking trails connect to the Waterfront Trail along the lake-side. At the beach is a mounted 32-pounder cannon manufactured in 1803 by the Carron Company of Falkirk, Scotland. It had come from Quebec City in 1881 to decorate Riverdale Park.
The public swimming beach is located on the east bank of the Etobicoke Creek mouth. The beach is monitored for safe swimming as e.coli bacteria levels rise after rain-storms. The beach closes after major rain storms until levels dissipate. The beach is not one of the Toronto beaches which are part of the Blue Flag program.
The area is believed to have been used frequently by native people prior to the arrival of Europeans. The Anishinaabe/Mississaugas called it “Etobicoke”, meaning the “place where wild alders grow”. It is believed that the natives had a trail through this natural area which later became the “Road to York”, also known as the old route of Lakeshore Road. Native people may have used this land as far back as the Early Archaic period (circa 7500-3000 B.C.) and, according to Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA)'s Greening Our Watershed report, artifacts, “may rest about 10 to 20 metres beyond the current shoreline at the mouths of the creeks” (Etobicoke and Mimico Creeks).
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