The R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is both a crucial piece of infrastructure and an architecturally acclaimed historic building named after the longtime commissioner of Toronto's public works Roland Caldwell Harris. The plant's architect was Thomas C. Pomphrey with engineers H.G. Acres and William Gore. It is located in the east of the city at the eastern end of Queen Street and at the foot of Victoria Park Avenue along the shore of Lake Ontario in the Beaches neighbourhood in the former city of Scarborough. Roland Caldwell Harris Harris was born in Lansing on May 26, 1875 in what is now North York, Ontario, but grew up in Toronto. Harris was Public Works Commissioner from 1912 to 1945 and involved in projects like: Prince Edward Viaduct opened in 1918 and which included his idea to add a deck under the bridge allowed for the Bloor Danforth line to be built decades later. Mount Pleasant bridge as part of the extension of Mount Pleasant Road north to Lawrence Avenue East in 1934. expansion of the streetcar network of the Toronto Civic Railways from 1912 to 1915. Waterfront Railway Viaduct built from 1925 to 1934 to bring rail lines into Union Station. extension of University Avenue south of Queen Street West to Front Street in 1931. Harris died on September 3, 1945. His son Lieutenant Colonel Roland Allen Harris was a member of the Queen's Own Rifles. Harris is buried in family plot at St. John's Norway Cemetery. Site history Pre-1932 history The land was once owned by Peter Patterson and George Monro. Prior to the construction of a water treatment plant, the area was the site of Victoria Park, a waterfront amusement park that operated from 1878 until 1906. It closed the same year as rival Munro Park ceased operations. The amusement park was initially served by ferry from York Street (same docks serving Toronto Islands) until 1895 when streetcar service commenced. After the park closed in 1906, Victoria Park Forest School opened and used the site until 1932. Water treatment plant With an early 20th-century Toronto plagued with water shortages and unclean drinking water, public health advocates such as George Nasmith and Toronto's Medical Officer of Health, Charles Hastings, campaigned for a modern water purification system. Construction for a water treatment plant began on the site in 1932 and the building became operational on November