Originally a farming and logging settlement, in 1992, now amalgamated with St. Thomas, Paradise was largely a dormitory suburb of St. John's. The town stretches from St. Thomas along the Horse Cove Line to Topsail Road. The opening up of the Paradise area was initiated by Governor Thomas Cochrane (1825-34), who believed that a road between St. John's and Topsail would allow residents of the south side of Conception Bay more easily to take their fresh produce to St. John's and would also open up potential farmland. The makeshift road was completed early in the 1830s and officially opened as a cart path in 1836.