Educational facility.

Details of Site Location: Near the corner of Finch Avenue and Birchmount.

Boundary History: The school occupied a generous space of more than 2 acres.

Current Use of Property: A school, with parkland adjoining the school property. All around, the area has been developed.

Historical Description: This school has a rich history in one of the most interesting of the metropolitan area’s family of original settlements. In this case, the community of L’Amoreaux was named for the French Huguenot family who were first to settle the area from about 1816. Josue L’Amoreaux came with his wife, Elizabeth Ogden, their seven children, and two nephews, as Loyalists from New York City, through New Brunswick to Scarborough Township. Josue was the son of a sea captain and grandson of a ship master and pilot, who had fled from France to Bristol, England, then on to New York. As French-speaking Protestants, they came to Upper Canada with the huge Loyalist migra-tions, rather than to Catholic Lower Canada. As Loyalists, they were entitled to substantial land grants. With so many children of his own, plus those of other settlers in the area, Josue laid great importance on education. Two of his sons each had ten children, so the L’Amoreaux family was not only populating a community but providing enough children to justify a school, rather than the “front-parlour” education adopted in smaller early communities. The year after their arrival, a log schoolhouse was built. Scarborough Township designated the school as S.S. *1. In L’Amoreaux, the school trustees were forward-looking and decided, in 1848, that a brick schoolhouse would be built; it was to be the first brick schoolhouse in Scarborough. There were other families in the community, one of which was that of John Muir, who came to the area in 1833 and taught in the log schoolhouse. His son, Alexander, later to become famous as the composer of The Maple Leaf Forever, was educated there and, after securing his B.A. from Queen’s College in Kingston, returned to L’Amoreaux to teach in the brick schoolhouse in 1853, and in other schools in Scarborough. During his years of teaching in Scarborough, the problem of truancy did not arise. Alexander went on to other places. Still looking to the future in 1867, the trustees resolved to replace the brick schoolhouse with another, which survives at the site. The log schoolhouse and later brick one became an important part of Scarborough’s history.

Relative Importance: As a pioneer log schoolhouse, and its brick successor, first to be built in Scarborough, the L’Amoreaux Public School has undisputed importance.

Planning Implications: The existing school should be encouraged to mount a plaque commemorating its predecessors, and to stimulate students of today to research the site’s history, and that of the family and community, to create a large, permanent exhibit.

Reference Sources: John Ross Robertson, Landmarks of Toronto; George R. Tremaine, Map of the County of York, Canada West, 1860.

Acknowledgements: Maps Project