Community
Studies: Publications
Donation of a Ceremonial Trowel, 2025
About
two decades ago the McCowan family had the notion to, some day, donate a special
Ceremonial Trowel and its custom-made case to the (then) proposed Scarborough Fire
Fighting Museum. The Ceremonial Trowel had been used by Reeve Robert McCowan to
lay the cornerstone of Scarborough's first fire hall -- in 1925 in front of 500
on-lookers (see 1925 photo below). Periodic reminders from volunteers at the Museum... finally the time
was right to make the Trowel donation -- November 2, 2025, at a celebration of
100 years of public service.
The
event on November 2 2025 was a blazing success -- under glorious sunshine at
that. Well over 100 were in attendance including dignitaries from three levels
of government, Toronto Fire Service officials, and members of the McCowan and
Scott families. The speakers list included descendants of Reeve McCowan and the
first Scarborough Fire Chief, William F. Scott. Your web-master set the tone by
reciting part of his "Heritage Symbolism"
write-up:
"Laying
an important cornerstone (such as for a first firehall) is symbolic of the work
involved in making socio-economic improvements within a community... The trowel
symbolizes the building of a civil society. And the cornerstone is to a
building, as the truth is to a civil society."
The
Trowel was donated to the Scarborough
Fire-Fighting Museum and it was now time to re-dedicate that century-old
Cornerstone. The entire assembly chanted in unison:
"With
this trowel we re-dedicate
This cornerstone and two buildings
To another century of public service
To this great city."
Then
there was a barbecue and tours of the Scarborough fire fighting museum. A great
day!
Special
thanks to Mykhail Baehr, Vice President of the Toronto Fire Historical
Society, The
Bluffs Monitor and Beach
Metro Community News.
Please
have a look at:
https://beachmetro.com/2025/10/29/historic-fire-hall-on-birchmount-road-to-celebrate-100th-anniversary-of-scarborough-fire-departments-founding/
With thanks to Beach Metro Community News
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Robert McCowan, Reeve of Scarborough
Laying the Corner Stone for Scarborough's
First Firehall, 1925
Scarborough's first firehall, 351 Birchmount near Danforth, was also, for a time, the Police Station and jail. Stand by for notice that Scarborough will soon have a museum of fire fighting and fire safety! More later! Perhaps, Robert McCowan's descendants might donate the fancy ceremonial trowel and its custom-made box to the museum.
The Scarboro Heights Record V10 #5
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False Alarm
By Nancy Weir McCowan
In the fall of 1952, Bill and I decided that it would be fun to have a corn roast. We invited a few people from the Church. The young Minister of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church and his wife had been married on the same day as we had, July 19 1952. We were lucky that the weather that autumn evening was perfect -- quite mild with no wind at all. Some extra people came along, including some of my relatives. It turned out that our corn roast had been combined with a "surprise" party in our honour. At the end of the party, both couples were presented with a gift, ours being a floor lamp (which we still have!)
The corn roast itself took place in the orchard west of our house (3100 Kingston Road). To prepare the fire, Bill had gathered small dead branches from the apple trees into a good-sized pile. We were quite enjoying the wonderful blaze. But shortly, we heard fire sirens. We were visited by a fire engine and even the Fire Chief himself. The person reporting the fire had thought that the brand new Halbert School was ablaze. In reality, the fire was quite a distance from any building and certainly no hazard at all.
The Scarboro Heights Record V10 #8
More on Scarborough's firehalls in Neigh the Front -- Exploring Scarboro Heights.