Every Saturday, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. At the turn of the twentieth century, three young Canadians from the University of Toronto moved to New York to pursue literary careers that had seemed impossible at home. The attic apartment shared by [...]

How would you open a profile of Toronto for one of the U.S.’ most popular general interest magazines? Well, if you were the Saturday Evening Post 60 years ago, you would start with a joke that originated in a rival city, Montreal: a Toronto magnate was summoned to appear in court. On the appointed day [...]

It’s a weekend evening on Gerrard Street East in the mid-1970s and, as usual, there’s a line-up around the block to get into the Naaz Theatre. The first cinema in North America to show Indian films exclusively, according to its owner, the theatre was a brightly lit beacon, drawing South Asians from across Toronto and [...]

STAMMERING Corrected. Booklet gives full information. Write: William Dennison, 543-A Jarvis St., Toronto, Ont. Advertisement, 1949 When William Dennison announced his run for mayor in 1966, the Globe and Mail described the veteran city councillor as “a funny kind of socialist, a former professional heckler, fender inspector and beekeeper, a man who could never see [...]

On January 12, 1928, two hockey teams composed entirely of First Nations players took to the ice at Ravina Gardens on Rowland Street for a “a very speedy and clever game of hockey,” as one newspaper described it. It was one of the earliest stops on what would be a 2,200-mile motor coach tour. Over [...]

It’s common knowledge that Toronto isn’t the most popular city amongst the rest of the country. Something about a superior attitude or being the centre of the universe. It’s a long-held belief, and one that Maclean’s was willing to exploit when it devoted a section of its April 1972 issue to the city. While the [...]

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 [...]

“Don’t leave me Hillas.” Those were probably the last words Lena Williams expected to say to her husband on Christmas Eve 1911. Around 6:45 pm that evening she and Hillas, who was on his way to his job as a printer at the Globe, boarded an overcrowded streetcar at Queen and Broadview. The vehicle was [...]

The municipal, provincial, and national archives are stocked with tens of thousands of photographs of Toronto and environs by one father-and-son team. Collectively, the works of John Boyd and John H. Boyd (or Boyd Jr.) span from the mid-1880s to the mid-1960s. While the elder Boyd was a prolific amateur photographer, the son turned his [...]

“It’s not pretty,” wrote Thom Counsellor in a requiem for the Ford Hotel in the Sun following the announcement that the low-end landmark at the northeast corner of Bay and Dundas would close its doors in October 1973. “It smells of must and tears and desperation, In short, the kind of place every city needs. [...]

George Feyer was stuffing feathers into quilts for $18 a week in 1949 when he sold his cartoon in Canada. It was, by all accounts, a rather subdued gag about a man being fitted for glasses. It was only after its publication that the editors were informed by other immigrants that Feyer’s cartoon contained a [...]

The gold scissors were ready. The red, green, and gray ribbons on the platform were taut for the ceremonial cut. Standing in for Ontario Premier George Stewart Henry, Attorney General W.H. Price finished addressing the crowd in the waiting room. At 12:30 p.m. on December 19, 1931, Price took the gilded shears, snipped the tri-coloured [...]