When the Town of York, the predecessor of Toronto, was inaugurated in the 1790s, the land to the east and west of the garrison (later Fort York) was reserved for military purposes. This includes all of today's Exhibition Place. Years later, the British military decided to replace Fort York with New Fort York (later the Stanley Barracks), to be located to the west of the existing fort. To finance this, the military sold the eastern half of the reserve. In 1840–1841, they constructed a series of six limestone buildings and several smaller ones. The fort was surrounded by a wood fence as elaborate defensive works were never built. The fort was turned over to the Canadian military in 1870, which named it Stanley Barracks in 1893.