Don Valley Brick Works

Since the closure of the original factory, the quarry has been converted into a city park which includes a series of naturalized ponds, while the buildings have been restored and opened as an environmentally focused community and cultural centre by Evergreen, a national charity dedicated to restoring nature in urban environments.

John Taylor and his brothers, William and George, had purchased the site in the Don Valley in the 1830s where they established a paper mill.

Clay quarried from the site was mixed with water from nearby Mud Creek, placed in moulds which were dried and then baked in kilns.

Finished product was shipped by cart out of the valley along Pottery Road or by rail on a spur built into the yard.

During the Great Depression, the area to the south of the Brick Works became a large encampment of indigent men from around Canada.

[2] The site underwent many changes during its existence, adding and removing buildings whenever and wherever it was conducive to the brick making process.

The park section of the Brick Works, managed by the City of Toronto, includes a series of three ponds, a large meadow and a small forest.

The ponds are fed by a diversion pipe running from Mud Creek which flows just to the west of the Brick Works.

The Brick Works wetland is connected to a number of other nature reserve areas via forest trail, and is part of a larger effort to reestablish the Don Valley watershed.

The north quarry wall was the site of a number of important geological discoveries which provided information on the glacial history of southern Ontario.

This area, referred to as the Toronto Brickyard, was designated as an earth science Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in 2009 for exhibiting "Ordovician Georgian Bay Formation, Illinoian Glacial York Till, Sangamonian Interglacial Don Formation and Wisconsian Glacial Scarborough delta, Pottery Road sediments and Sunnybrook Till all overlain by North Bay Interstadial, Lake Iroquois sands."

Having leased the "industrial pad" portion of the site from the Toronto Region and Conservation Authority, Evergreen has renovated several of the existing structures and constructed one new building known as the Centre for Green Cities.

The goal of the revitalization is adaptive reuse, where most of the buildings will be reinforced where needed and repurposed to house the new programming planned for the site.

[...] [I]t will be a destination for families and individuals to enjoy a natural refuge, while sampling a rich offering of programs and services - from gardening workshops, heritage tours, and clay-making and organic food markets, to a retail nursery, demonstration gardens and leading-edge green design techniques.$20 million of the project's $55-million dollar budget was pledged by the federal government under the Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund, and the Province of Ontario contributed an additional $10 million.

The construction process began in November 2008, and grand opening of Evergreen Brick Works took place September 28, 2010.

The complex is now open to the public, with regular shuttle bus service running daily from Broadview Subway Station.

DTAH is responsible for the master planning, while Diamond Schmitt are the designers of the new building, which includes the Young Welcome Centre.

[7] Several of the buildings were left without roof cladding in order to create open air spaces, leaving the steel trusses visible.

In 2009, National Geographic Traveler named Evergreen Brick Works one of the 10 finalists in its Geotourism Challenge 2009, "a global competition of tourism-related projects that promote natural and cultural heritage while improving the well-being of the local people".

[14] As of 26 July 2024, the non-profit that operates Evergreen Brick Works was continuing to raise money to support repairs.