Baldwin Steps and Davenport Escarpment

The Davenport escarpment runs across midtown, marking the former shoreline of Lake Iroquois, the glacial lake that preceded Lake Ontario. The Baldwin Steps make the escarpment climbable and legible as a public route, rising from Davenport Road to the higher ground where Spadina Museum and Casa Loma sit. From the bottom the stairs are steep and long, with landings and retaining walls following the slope. From the top, the city spreads out below the level of your feet. The escarpment is easy to miss from street level, because the grid absorbs the height change across several blocks. Only the steps make the full drop visible at once.

Context

The escarpment follows the ancient shoreline of glacial Lake Iroquois, which occupied the Lake Ontario basin at the end of the last ice age. When drainage patterns changed and the water level fell, the abandoned shoreline remained as a ridge across the city.