First as a modest wooden-frame structure—two-storeys and painted white—and later as a handsome red-brick building, the Shakespeare Hotel graced the northeast corner of King and York Streets for more than 100 years, playing host to countless visitors and serving as backdrop to drama. It would prove to be an enduringly prosperous location for a hotel [...]

WHERE: Pacific Avenue, near Bloor Street WHEN: Approximately 7 p.m. Monday night WHAT: Firefighters bring a house fire under control on Pacific Avenue, near High Park subway station. The homes near Bloor Street and Pacific Avenue have been abandoned for some time and are zoned for multi-level residential buildings. The abandoned properties have been known [...]

Built in Port Arthur in 1913, the S.S. Noronic was—measuring 362 feet in length with a gross tonnage of 6,095—the largest cruise ship operating on the Great Lakes. She was also the most luxurious. The Canada Steamship Lines vessel featured walls and ceilings of fine oak, teak, and cherry wood, as well as hand-carved panelling [...]

Site of the former Empress Hotel at 335 Yonge Street, after the fire that destroyed it. Photo by Christopher Drost/Torontoist. Last month, the polite term for the cause of the fire that razed Toronto’s Empress Hotel was “demolition by neglect.” Last Monday, Toronto police confirmed what many people were really thinking: the fire was arson. [...]

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo or (two) from a photographer in Torontoist’s Flickr Pool, our way of showing off their great work and starting the day off as prettily as possible. downtown fire BY UWAJEDI

Today doesn’t mark any kind of numerically significant anniversary for the fire that destroyed six buildings near the intersection of Queen Street West and Bathurst Street on Feburary 20 of last year. There’s no nice, round number of days, years, or months to occasion this post. The timing here might be inconvenient, but then so [...]

Some of Red Pepper’s costumes and puppets “in their warm resting place” at the Kensington Community Centre on Baldwin. Photo by Jonathan Goldsbie/Torontoist. At approximately 5:45 p.m. on December 21st, 2008, Torontoist received a phone call from Boy Reporter. “The parade’s been cancelled.” “What?” “It’s been cancelled. Because of the wind.” A quick trip to [...]

Photo by CFernando from the Torontoist Flickr Pool. When a car caught fire and exploded just after noon today at Yonge and Dundas, it shook nearby buildings, nerves, and people’s Twitter accounts. The first report of anything wrong at the intersection came from Jevon MacDonald, who posted to his Twitter moments after the boom that [...]

A series of huge explosions near Keele and Wilson at 3:50 a.m. this morning (skip to 1:50 in this video or 0:53 in this one for the most dramatic ones) were felt across Toronto, after a fire started at Sunrise Propane Industrial Gases at 54 Murray Road—a fire that is only now dying down. Since [...]

Every Saturday morning, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. One of the most eyecatching murals on display in Toronto is the colourful piece that acts as a gateway to Croft Street near College and Bathurst. The Monty Pythonesque design may provoke [...]