Joseph Bloor

Joseph Bloor. . , Joseph Bloor (also "Bloore") was a prominent landowner, brewer, and philanthropist. Born circa 1789 in Staffordshire, England, he immigrated to the Town of York, now Toronto, in 1819 with his wife, Sarah (née Lees), and their three children., Initially interested in farming in Upper Canada, Bloor instead became an innkeeper, and later established a successful brewery in the Rosedale Valley near today's Sherbourne Street. In about 1836, he and William Botsford Jarvis, another influential landowner, laid out the village of Yorkville on their combined lands. Other names considered for the new village included Cumberland, Bloorville, and Rosedale - the latter being the name of Jarvis' nearby estate. Bloor's contributions to the development of Yorkville were recognized in 1854 when the Concession Road separating the village from Toronto was renamed Bloor Street., He died at his home near this site on August 31, 1862. Originally an Anglican, Bloor converted to Methodism in the late 1830s. In recognition of his generosity towards the Bloor Street Methodist Church, the congregation placed a commemorative stone in the church (since demolished). The original stone is safe in the City of Toronto's collections, and a replica is next to this plaque.