A new park will be erected in downtown Toronto in memory of those who helped Irish immigrants who fled the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s. It will be located in front of a 47-storey condo at the corner of Adelaide and Widmer Streets.
The park will be named in honour of Dr. George Robert Grasett who in 1847 was the chief medical officer at Toronto’s Emigrant Hospital, which was located near the site of the new park.
CBC reported, “In the summer of 1847 some 38,000 migrants passed through Toronto, a city of only 20,000 at the time. By the end of the year more than 1,100 had died of typhus, many in the fever sheds constructed by the Toronto Board of Health at the northwest corner of King and John Streets.”
A summary of an August 2014 Toronto City Council motion stated: “Despite the prevailing anti-Catholic bigotry in Toronto at the time, physician George Robert Grasett worked tirelessly … along with a staff of orderlies and nurses, to care for the overwhelming numbers of people with typhus. Dr. Grasett died from the infection himself on July 16, 1847.”
The park will also be dedicated to Dr. Grasett’s colleagues, Susan Bailey and Edward McElderry, who also treated the sick.
A contest is currently underway to determine the park’s design.
The city will contribute $600,000 to the project, while $150,000 will come from the Irish government.
Learn more in the CBC report.
