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User:Geo Swan/Yonge Blockhouse

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A blockhouse was built at the corner of Yonge Street and Belmont Avenue in Yorkville.

The Yonge Blockhouse, alternately, the Yorkville Blockhouse was one of a ring of seven blockhouses built in 1838 to guard the approaches to Toronto, following the Upper Canada Rebellion.[1] These small blockhouses were all built to the same star-shaped design. The blockhouses were square, and two stories tall, with the upper story built at a 45 degree angle to the lower story.[2] This resulted in an eight-point star-shaped structure, with the offset allowing for better vision of all approaches.

References

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  1. ^ "Yorkville in pictures: 1853 to 1883". Toronto Public Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-03-05. After the 1837 Rebellion Sir George Arthur had the Fort enlarged and a ring of blockhouses built to guard the chief roads leading into Toronto. By 1838 there were seven such structures standing in the Toronto region: No.1 was the New Barracks. No. 2 was at College and Spadina. No. 3 on Bloor near today's University Avenue, No.4 at Yonge Street and Belmont, No.5 at Bloor and Sherbourne, No.6 on the Don River between College and Bloor. and No.7 at the junction of Lot (Queen Street) and King Streets. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Rotunda, Volume 22". Royal Ontario Museum. 1990. p. 50. Retrieved 2013-03-18. The so-called Yorkville Blockhouse, for example, was on a diagonal plan, with the top storey rotated forty-five degrees, so that the whole structure, if viewed from directly overhead, would have given the appearance of an eight-pointed star.