Monthly Archives: October 2020
Looking back at Toronto’s post office amid city’s biggest growth spurt
At the helm of Toronto’s post office during its incorporation and subsequent population boom, James Scott Howard oversaw mail delivery from July 1828 until his dismissal nearly 10 years later. About a decade after the city incorporated in 1834, its population more than doubled to 21,000. While an excellent postal service was necessary, mail delivery in and around Toronto was “slow and sometimes tragic,” according to Zoé Delguste-Cincotta, curator of the Town of York Historical Society, which manages Toronto’s First Post Office (TFPO). “Roads in and around Toronto, when they would finally be built, were notoriously poor and waterlogged for three seasons of the year,” she said. Continue reading →