history | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘history’

on Greenwood, Brickyards mural

Posted: August 4, 2015 in public art
Tags: autumn, Brickyards, Danforth Ave., Greenwood, history, kids playing, leaves falling, marbles, mural, street scene, wagons

On the southwest corner of Danforth and Greenwood is a mural that extends over the lower storey of a number of brick buildings. Back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s Greenwood Ave. was home to quite a few brick works such as the John Price Brickyard, the Taylor Brickyard, and the Joseph Russell Brickyard. You’ll notice that these are the same as the names on the signs above the mural. Just south of this building is Greenwood Park, also once a brickyard.

Close up pictures of some of the details in the mural:

Robert Home Smith

Posted: July 17, 2015 in history, public art
Tags: bridge, development, Etobicoke, history, Home Smith, Humber River, mural, Old Mill, railway bridge, road, trees, underpass

Robert Home Smith (1877 – 1935) was a lawyer, business man, civil servant, and land developer. In the early 1900’s he acquired 3000 acres of land along the Humber River, from Lake Ontario north to what is now Eglinton Ave.

A mural has been painted by Emilia Jajus on Royal York Road as it passes under the train tracks close to Dundas West. The east side of the underpass is finished and it depicts Robert Home Smith and some of the effects that he had on the area.

below: At the south end of the mural there is a portrait of Robert Home Smith. A young girl can be seen hiding behind the trunk of a large tree. Because the tree is painted on the corner, you can’t see the young boy who is hiding on the other side of the tree until you get closer to the mural.

below: Part of the mural, fishing in the Humber River by the bridge at the Old Mill. The bridge was built in 1916 after an older bridge was washed out in a storm. It is still there.

Part of the land that he owned was the site of the King’s Mill. This mill was built in 1793 on orders from Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe. It was to mill lumber for the proposed town of York. Here, Home Smith built the Old Mill Hotel as well as the the Old Mill Tea Room. The tea room was opened on 4 Aug 1914, the same day that Britain declared war on Germany.

below: Part of the mural, the Old Mill Hotel

below: The Old Mill hotel in 1945

Copy of a 1945 photo of the Old Mill hotel in Toronto

photo from the City of Toronto Archives

Robert Home Smith planned to develop the land on both sides of the Humber River (known as the Humber Valley Surveys) into residential lots that were aimed at affluent buyers. Although he died before the completion of this project, the neighbourhood of Kingsway as well as parts of Swansea, Baby Point, and Humber Village, still stand.

The parkland that is adjacent to the Humber River as it curves around Baby Point is named Home Smith Park in memory of this man.

below: A poor quality photo showing a view of the whole mural. A replacement photo is needed, one taken on a day when there aren’t so many shadows!

a stroll inside Honest Eds

Posted: March 26, 2015 in history, landmarks
Tags: bargains, Bloor and Bathurst, clothing, come in and get lost, department store, Ed Mirvish, get lost, history, Honest Eds, humour, kitchen, kitsch, memories, old, pictures, posters, prices, sandals, shoes, shopping, slogans, souvenirs, store, Toronto

Honest Ed’s

In 1948 Edwin Mirvish opened his ‘Honest Ed’s Famous Bargain House’ on the southwest corner of Bloor and Bathurst streets. Honest Ed’s was not only one of the first department stores in the city but also one of the first to offer discount prices on its merchandise.

below: Honest Ed’s, from across the intersection of Bloor and Bathurst streets.

Looking across an intersection of Bloor and Bathurst streets towards Honest Eds store with its big orange, yellow and black signs on grey cladding. Running around the store, about the level of the top of the first storey, are signs (red lettering on white background) that read "Only the Floors are crooked" , "There's no place like this place, any place", "Come in and Get Lost" and lastly, "A Bargain Centre like this happens only once in a lifetime"

photo taken 25 March 2015

below: The same intersection in 1948 when Honest Ed’s Famous Bargain House opened. As you can see, the exterior was covered with signs with humorous sayings from the beginning.

historical black and white photo of Honest Eds store at Bloor and Bathurst.

photo from Honest Eds store via a 2013 article in The Grid TO

Along with the discount merchandise, Ed Mirvish filled his store with pictures and posters, especially movie posters. The stairwell walls are covered.

You can buy almost anything at Honest Ed’s! Clothes, shoes, toys, household items, groceries, hardware, prescriptions, souvenirs, … and so on.

There are hundreds of pictures of actors and other famous (and no so famous!) people.

All of the signs in the store are hand painted. In March 2014, Honest Ed’s had a sale of all their signs and the profits ($17,000) from this sale were donated to Victim Services Toronto.
Another sign sale is scheduled for 11 April 2015 starting at 8 a.m. If you want to buy a sign, arrive early and expect to wait as it is a very popular event.

In October 2013, the property was sold to a developer but as you can see from the sign in the photo below, the store is still open. It will remain open until the end of 2016. It’s been open for 67 years and will remain open for another 21 months.

on the corners of Yonge and Sheppard

Posted: March 17, 2015 in history, locations
Tags: 7 Eleven, changes, city, concrete, condos, Dempsey Brothers, development, glass, highrises, history, intersection, McDonalds, North York, Sheppard, store fronts, streets, subway, urban, Yonge

In the early 1900’s brothers George and William Dempsey bought a store on the northwest corner of Yonge and Shepard from the Sheppard family. It became known as Dempsey Brothers.

below: The store in the 1960s

In 1989 the property was sold to developers but the store remained on that corner until 1996. At that time it was moved a few blocks north to a site on Beecroft Ave; the site is now known as Dempsey Park. The building was renovated and became the home of the North York Archives, an arrangement that didn’t last long. In 1998 Mike Harris and the provincial Conservative government of the day amalgamated the old city boroughs into one City of Toronto. North York ceased to exist and their archives merged with those of the new city. Instead, the old Demspey Brothers store is home to Beecroft Learning Centre.

old Dempsey store, restored and now in a park setting. Two storey brick house with some yellow brick trim, porch that wraps around the front of the building. Surrounded by trees, winter time so no leaves and there is snow on the ground.

The restored Dempsey Brothers store, now at 250 Beecroft Avenue.

Where Dempsey’s once stood, there is now this….

Northwest corner of Yonge and Sheppard in March of 2015, low rise building angled across the corner with McDonalds and 7 11 stores. Tall apartment building behind. The intersection is of two 6 lane roads so it is big and wide.

… a 7 Eleven and a McDonalds. I doubt that anyone thinks “nice corner” when they look at it.

below: Looking southeast from the front of Dempsey Brothers store many years ago.

An old black and white photo from 1955 showing the intersection of Yonge and Sheppard. Not much development, an old car is waiting at a street light.

The billboard is an ad for Simpsons, a department store that is long gone.

For a long time, a grocery store stood where the billboard is in the above photo. But now that corner is changing again.

below: An attempt to replicate the location and angle of the above photo

below: Looking south across Sheppard Ave. East at the north side new Hullmark Centre including the new subway entrance.

below: Looking north up Yonge Street from just south of Sheppard Avenue.
The new Whole Foods store is the first building on the right.

The southwest corner is also undergoing major changes.

below: The greenish coloured Emerald development is almost complete. And yes, the tops of the buildings are meant to curve that way!

watching it come down

Posted: March 9, 2015 in history, locations
Tags: apartment building, bricks, bunny, city, concrete, cranes, demolition, Dundas East, eating away, gone, history, machinery, poser, redevelopment, Regent Park, revitalization, Sumach St., Toronto, urban, workmen

Along with many other people, I have been watching the demolition on the southeast corner of Dundas & Sumach streets, part of the Regent Park redevelopment. This 14 storey apartment building was designed by Peter Dickinson; it was built in the late 1950s.

January 31st, 2015

I first saw this building being demolished on a grey day at the end of January.
I’m not sure when the demolition actually started.

A large 14 storey brick clad apartment building in the initial stages of being demolished.

Looking north up Sumach Street.

View of the interior of some of the apartments that were exposed when the exterior brick was removed. Some of the rooms are painted in bright colours, purples, pinks and greens.

The colours of past lives.

3 February

A workman dressed in orange coveralls works on the street in front of a building being demolished

It would have been a cold job, working outside during the coldest February on record.

Part of a 14 stprey apartment building that is being demolished. The exterior walls have been removed and some of the interior walls are buckling.

In the midst of demolition.

10 February

Two very large cranes are being used to demolish a large apartment building on the corner of Dundas and Sumach streets. Some men in bright yellow vests are directing traffic as some of the debris is falling towards Sumach street.

Looking across the intersection of Dundas and Sumach.

A purple and yellow sign against a metal fence that says Regent Park Revitalization Phase 3 has started. Demolition of an apartment in the background.

A view from the south.

Hydraulic crane and truck and other machinery used in the demolition of the building.

Looking west from River Street.

Vacant lot in the forground with demolition of a building in the middle. In the background are the new buildings that have been built in that area

Another view from River Street.

12 February

17 February

23 February

27 February

A man is taking a picture of a demolition in progress of an apartment building.

There were always a number of people taking pictures whenever I was there.

As part of the upper stories of an apartment are brought down, a cloud of dust forms as the debris hits the ground.

dust storm in the sunlight

28 February

… after 5 weeks, 6 March

A large hole in the ground where a building once stood, vacant land is around it. A street of houses in the distance, machinery to one side.

Just another hole in the ground.

geology lesson

Posted: February 21, 2015 in public art
Tags: geology, geology of Toronto, history, limestone, North York, public art, sculpture, stainless steel, till, time cone, Toronto, tower

Time Cone
by Brad Golden and Lynn Eichenberg, 1996.
With help from Christopher Dewdney, poet.

In front of 25 Sheppard Ave West on the SE corner of Sheppard and Beecroft.

A 15 cm stainless steel ribbon, supported by four steel beams, winds its way up to the cone at the top. Cut out of the steel are words that pertain to the geology of the area. ‘Precambrian’ is the bottom word. Other words include Pleistocene Glaciation, Gull River Limestone, Cenozic, Don, and Thorncliffe Till.

extra: In geology, ’till’ is unsorted unstratified material deposited directly by glacial ice.

Last Folio

Posted: February 17, 2015 in galleries, history
Tags: AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario, books, history, Jewish, Last folio, narrative, pre-WW2, Slovakia, WW2, Yuri Dojc

Last Folio, A Living Monument to the Holocaust
An exhibit of photographs by Yuri Dojc,
at the Art Gallery of Ontario

Yuri Dojc was born in Slovakia but is now based in Toronto.
Starting in the 1990’s he has returned to Slovakia a number of times in search of traces of Jewish life from prior to WW2.

a close up of a photograph of an old book, open, with the pages on one side all curled up. The photo is taken from the top of the book.

Details of one of the photographs in the exhibit.

There are only eight photographs in this exhibit but each one tells a story. Narratives of loss and of life interrupted.
But also stories of memory and remembrance.

More information about the Last Folio project.

Bathhouse raids mural

Posted: February 12, 2015 in graffiti and street art, history, locations
Tags: 1981, arrests, bathhouse raids, Church St., firetruck, history, LGBT, mosaic, murals, painting, police car, public art, street art, tiles, Toronto

The Bathhouse Raids by Christiano De Araujo is a mural on Church Street just south of Carlton.
Completed in the fall of 2013, it was the largest of the Church St. Mural Project pieces commissioned for WorldPride 2014.

The following photos were taken with a very wide angle lens
because of the size of the mural and because there are always cars parked in front of it.

On the 5th of February, 1981, Toronto police raided four bathhouses in what was known as ‘Operation Soap’.
Around 300 men were arrested. Most charges connected to the incident were eventually dropped or discharged, although some bathhouse owners were fined.

The event marked a major turning point in the history of the LGBT community in Canada.
The raids led to protests – the night after the raids, 3,000 people marched on 52 Division police headquarters and on Queen’s Park, smashing car windows and setting fires. That spring the city held its first Pride Parade.

Douglas Coupland at MOCCA

Posted: February 4, 2015 in galleries
Tags: #couplandTO, artist, Canada, Coupland, cultural heritage, Douglas Coupland, futuristic, group of seven, history, houses, iconic, Lawren Harris, lego, MOCCA, Museum of Contemporary Canadian art, past, shared, Tom Thomson, towers, urban, utopian

Douglas Coupland’s
everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything
at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Queen St. West
until 19 April 2015

Secret Handshake
What makes Canadians Canadian?
What do we identify with that others don’t recognize?

One of the rooms of the exhibit features Coupland’s re-imagining of famous Canadian paintings, paintings by Tom Thomson and Lawren Harris of the Group of Seven to name a couple.
In the center of the room is a black metal structure that is supposed to represent a damaged hydro transmission tower reminiscent of the ones damaged by the eastern Canada ice storm of 1998.

***

Growing up Utopian

below: Towers, 2014
An urban jungle of imaginative lego towers created from selected parts of towers that were “crowd-sourced” at building events at the Vancouver Art Gallery.