Raymore Park is situated on land owned by the Scarlett family until the mid-1850's. John Scarlett, a prominent businessman in the Westmount and Humbermount area, operated a distillery and number of mills. In 1857, local businessman Rowland Burr announced a proposal to build a canal four metres deep and thirty-seven metres wide, with sixty-four double locks, to link Lake Ontario and Georgian Bay through Lake Simcoe. The canal route followed the Humber River Valley and actually cut through Raymore Park. Costs were estimated to exceed $35 million.

Although the project was later advanced by various groups such as the Toronto and...