Illustration: Marlena Zuber

The Dovercourt Park neighbourhood began as the Village of Dovercourt in the 1870s. At that time, the area was made up of market farms on one-acre lots, and the residents of these farms grew fruits and vegetables to sell in town. As tenant farmers, they did not own the land, but rented it from a large estate owner, in this case the Gwynn family. In 1890, the land was annexed by the City of York, subdivided into smaller lots and then sold. Over the next three decades, houses were built on these plots of land. Dovercourt Park, the centerpiece of the neighbourhood, was laid out when the area was subdivided and fully developed at the turn of the century.

When the houses were first built, new trees were planted in front of them as well as in the newly created park. The big old silver maples and occasional white elm and horsechestnut trees growing in the neighbourhood are the last survivors of those early plantings. Many of these trees have been lost over the years, however, killed by disease and drought or cut down to make way for a driveway or new home. Unfortunately, additional trees were not consistently planted in the decades following the neighbourhood’s original development. As a result, there are few middle-aged trees to replace the old trees when they die out. Recognizing this dilemma, a neighbourhood group, led by local resident Andrea Dawber, formed to find ways to plant trees. To date, the group, called Green Here, has planted more than 120 trees in the park. Buoyed by this success, they set their sights beyond the park, completing a series of greening projects in the surrounding neighbourhood, and they plan to do many more in the coming years.

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Tour stops

1. 1An all ages show
2. 2How the trees and their bullies are best friends now
3. 3Raised bed of Hallam
4. 4New townhomes
5. 5The narrowing of Gladstone
6. 6A mature elm is hard to find
7. 7Turkish hazel
8. 8Ice house
9. 9Downtown de-fence
10. 10A Norway maple tied in knots
11. 11Escape from a Siberian hedgerow
12. 12These plums of an historic farmhouse
13. 13A tree-of-heaven busts-a-move
14. 14A park flows over it

Contributors

Writing: Todd Irvine

Photography: Dougal Bichan

Local history provided by: Andrea Dawber, Kate Watson

Community Partners

Green Here