When telling the story of the Holocaust, one effective way to overcome our sheer inability to comprehend the scope and scale of such atrocities is to zoom in on one or two stories: share one particular experience, in all its brutal specificity, and we have at least a small way into the event—the small details illuminate the larger whole.

One theatre company from the Netherlands, Hotel Modern, takes a related approach in KAMP (CAMP). The production depicts a typical day at the Auschwitz concentration camp, but instead of zooming in into a closeup, it shrinks everything down, literally, into miniature. It’s the accumulation of thousands of small details that has the impact in this case.

Eleanor McMahon thinks it’s time to change the conversation around cycling in Ontario.

McMahon is the founder of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition, who will be hosting the fifth annual Ontario Bike Summit this week in Toronto. She says that we need to stop talking about things like bike lanes and other bicycle infrastructure as a zero sum game between cars and bikes.

“We do polling, and our polling tells us that 89 per cent of Ontarians are both drivers and cyclists,” she says. “The notion that it’s cars versus bikes is overblown, and it’s really not working anymore. Deciding to change the conversation means going out of our way to poke holes in that idea and say from the get go ‘We don’t buy into that philosophy, and just because you say it, doesn’t make it true.’ ”

Advertisement, the Toronto Star, November 23, 1921.

This year witnesses two significant anniversaries surrounding Laura Secord. June 23 marks the bicentennial of her legendary walk from Queenston to warn the British of a surprise American attack. October 20 marks the centennial of the opening of the first branch of the candy chain named in her honour. It’s hard to say if the combined celebrations will clear up or reinforce any misconceptions that the historical Secord was both a War of 1812 heroine and a crafty buttercream-filled Easter egg maker.

When Frank O’Connor entered the candy business in 1913, the 28-year old entrepreneur wanted a name which would represent the clean, wholesome image he wanted his store to purvey. Who better than a beloved heroine whose exploits were drilled into several generations of schoolchildren and appealed to a growing sense of Canadian nationalism? Especially in a year when her name would have been in the news a lot due to the 100th anniversary of her legendary stroll. O’Connor’s decision to name his shop at 354 Yonge Street Laura Secord was, according to culinary historian Elizabeth Driver, “a stroke of marketing genius.” A chain quickly followed.

One of the earliest ads we found for Laura Secord, stressing its “old time home made candies.” The Toronto Star, December 21, 1915.

Beyond the appeal of Secord’s name, O’Connor treated his products as the work of fine artisans. Advertising stressed the craftsmanship and quality of ingredients that went into Laura Secord candy. Production facilities were dubbed “studios.” Packaging was kept simple to reflect the purity of the product: a plain white box graced with a cameo of a middle-aged Secord.

In January 1923, O’Connor presented employees with a surprise gift to mark the start of the company’s 10th anniversary year. “As far as I know,” O’Connor announced from his office at Laura Secord’s headquarters at Bathurst and Niagara streets, “we are the first candy concern in the world to share its profits with employees.” The anniversary was also marked with a historical essay contest open to all students aged 18 or younger across Ontario. Among the rules were a 500-word limit, use of only “historically accurate” facts, and a note that “neatness, originality and good composition will have first consideration.” The grand prize reflected the maternal image the company liked to project: either $200 in gold or “a fine chance for some bright Canadian youngster to treat his mother to a trip to New York.” Judged by a panel which included editors from all four Toronto daily newspapers, the prize went to 17-year-old Helen Cameron of Glencoe, who stressed Secord’s fulfillment of everyone’s desire to be heroic. When the prize announcement was made, two contestants were praised for the worthiness of their essays but publicly humiliated for exceeding the word limit.

Northeast corner of Danforth and Pape Avenues, November 3, 1927. The store shown here opened in 1921. Photo by Alfred Pearson. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 16, Series 71, Item 5484.

The company’s financial statement for 1926 showed that Laura Secord had grown into a 57-store chain stretching from Windsor to Quebec City. It observed that “the characteristics of the shops are: distinctive design; prominent locations; cleanliness; fresh merchandise of one quality, and sales at a fixed price for cash.” It was also claimed that Laura Secord had “never had an unprofitable year.” The statement didn’t touch upon the company’s American subsidiary, which was based in Rochester, New York. Since the name “Laura Secord” had little resonance for most Americans, O’Connor named the stores after cookbook author Fannie Farmer, though the spelling was changed to “Fanny Farmer” when the first shop opened in 1919.

Candy made O’Connor a millionaire. Beginning in March 1928, he purchased 600 acres of land along Victoria Park Avenue (then known as the northern extension of Dawes Road) north of present-day Lawrence Avenue to build Maryvale. The property included a residence, horse stables, and a farm which was used for educational programs, plowing matches, and livestock judging. One of the routes which offered a convenient route between Maryvale and the city was soon named in his honour: O’Connor Drive.

O’Connor used his money to become one of Toronto’s most generous philanthropists. A devout Catholic, O’Connor funded many educational institutions tied to his faith, including St. Michael’s College and De La Salle College. In 1935 he presented Archbishop James Charles McGuigan with a gift of $500,000 to be disbursed among various organizations, which included orphanages, the Canadian Institute for the Blind, Christie Street Veterans’ Hospital, the Hospital for Sick Children, and the Toronto Star Fresh Air Fund. He was named a Knight Commander of St. Gregory by Pope Pius XI in 1937.

Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, Senator Frank O’Connor, and Premier of Ontario Mitchell Hepburn, 1930s. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 8040.

Politically, O’Connor was a key backroom operator in the provincial Liberal Party who helped elect Mitch Hepburn as Premier in 1934. He was among the business elite who partied at Hepburn’s suite in the King Edward Hotel. The reward for his work was a Senate appointment in 1935.

During the last year of his life, O’Connor withdrew from Laura Secord, turning its presidency to his brother-in-law. After a long illness, O’Connor died at Maryvale on August 21, 1939. Many tributes were paid to his generous nature—former Conservative Prime Minister Arthur Meighen observed that “he seemed incapable of making an enemy.” O’Connor left his property to the Christian Brothers, who remained until 2000. Pieces were gradually sold off for uses ranging from residential neighbourhoods to a high school eventually named after O’Connor. A 21st-century battle to prevent the demolition of the remaining estate buildings by the Toronto Catholic District School Board led to renovations overseen by a non-profit organization. Despite the setback of a fire in May 2012, plans are moving ahead to open the first phases of O’Connor House as a multi-purpose community space later this year.

A World War II advertisement addressing sugar supply issues. The Globe and Mail, July 6. 1944.

Following the Second World War, the company’s depiction of its namesake changed. The romanticized depictions of Secord long featured in artwork and textbooks finally won. Out went the frumpy-looking matron in a bonnet; in came a younger, headwear-free attractive lady. “More-or-less authentic portraits of Loyalist goodwives do not sell candy,” writer Ken Lefolii noted in 1966. He felt the new image looked “like Miss Anywhere, the darling of half the advertisements in the Western world. Her face is as blank and smooth as a curtain-wall skyscraper, and like the new buildings that are lifting the faces of our cities, she has a look without a country.” Subsequent revamps of the corporate logo featured depictions of Secord further away from historical reality, matching instead the design trends of the time.

Alongside its evolution into a staple of suburban malls and plazas, Laura Secord launched several experimental formats in Toronto during the early 1960s. Ads published in October 1960 announced the introduction of fresh baked goods at select locations, starting with the Yonge and St. Clair branch. Customers were assured that the combo stores utilized “ultra-modern ovens to help preserve all the real old-fashioned goodness that goes into them.” During the summer of 1964, a store opened within Eglinton subway station offered a deli for hungry, time-pressed commuters. Globe and Mail advertorial queen Mary Walpole lavished her usual hyperbole and excessive use of ellipses on the new concept:

Something new has happened to our town…and right in the Eglinton Subway if you please…We are talking about the opening of a quite different Laura Secord Shop…that has a new and very complete delicatessen service…and that has been the brilliant idea of people who know that most of us live our lives at a merry pace with no time for wasting in the kitchen…so what could be nicer than to pick up a complete and wonderfully good dinner as you wend your way home with nothing to do but set it forth…to collect a few delicacies to take along to your weekend hostess in the country…to plan an impromptu picnic and find everything right here but the basket…As the whole world knows before the name Laura Secord goes on…the finest quality can be taken for granted…and this shop is delightful proof of it…Shopping here can be fun too…for the décor is delightfully different…perky and fresh as the field flowers…and all this you will enjoy as you wander round picking up a roast chicken with savory dressing (but $1.59) choosing from the freshest salads…a wondrous array of cooked meats and moulds…going right along to the famous rolls…the breads…the cookies…pastries…and quite special cakes.

Cover of The Laura Secord Canadian Cook Book (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1966).

Looking for a project to celebrate Canada’s upcoming centennial, management entered into a partnership with the Canadian Home Economics Association to develop a cookbook whose recipes reflected the nation’s culinary history and diversity. A call went out for recipes, which were tested at Maple Leaf Mills in Toronto. The result, The Laura Secord Canadian Cook Book, became a kitchen staple across the nation when McClelland & Stewart published it in 1966. Given its namesake’s ties to the War of 1812, the book launch was held at Fort York.

Soon after the cookbook hit the shelves, the company’s Canadian identity was thrown into crisis. Former American subsidiary Fanny Farmer acquired majority control in October 1967 following a bidding war with Salada Foods. A Star editorial joked that the historical Secord’s wartime role might be rewritten to depict her walking 20 miles through the woods to warn the American army of a British attack. Globe and Mail columnist Scott Young received a call from a reader appalled that nobody fought the takeover. “The heart of Laura’s story was that she outwitted the Yanks,” Young reflected, “and now we have let her down. It has nothing to do with chocolates at all. They are carrying off our heroine.” A few souls saw the move as further evidence Canada was destined to become the next state in the union.

Those fears were short-lived. In June 1969, Labatt purchased Fanny Farmer’s stake in Laura Secord. The brewer added the candy maker to its growing portfolio of food brands like Catelli pasta and Habitant soup. Among the new owners’ first moves was to purchase the historic Secord’s home in Queenston, which underwent extensive renovations before reopening as a museum in 1972, complete with attached candy store. Candy production was moved from Bathurst Street to a new plant at 1500 Birchmount Road in Scarborough. Problems launching the new facility, combined with soaring ingredient prices, led to financial troubles during the mid-1970s.

Advertisement, the Globe and Mail, April 2, 1958.

Over the past 30 years, Laura Secord has changed hands many times, with owners ranging from multinational corporations (Nestlé) to American investment firms (Gordon Brothers). For a time, it was reunited yet again with Fanny Farmer. Among the casualties during these changes were the museum (assumed by the Niagara Parks Commission in 1998) and the Birchmount Road plant (shut in April 2009). Quebec-based company Nutriart restored the chain to Canadian ownership in February 2010, thus preventing any ardent nationalists from feeling too awkward should they choose to bring along Laura Secord products to any War of 1812 commemoration.

Additional material from The Laura Secord Canadian Cook Book (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1966; reprint edition North Vancouver: Whitecap, 2011); the June 1996 edition of the Financial Post Magazine; the September 22, 1923, November 17, 1923, and December 9, 1926 editions of the Globe; the August 22, 1939, August 19, 1964, December 8, 1966, and October 30, 1967 editions of the Globe and Mail; the June 3, 1999 and June 6, 2009 editions of the National Post; the August 21, 1939 edition of the Ottawa Citizen; and the January 16, 1923, August 21, 1939, August 22, 1939, October 19, 1960, November 11, 1966, October 30, 1967, and February 19, 2010 editions of the Toronto Star.

Every Saturday, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today.

The long wait is finally over. On March 19 (which is tomorrow), Target will be opening 17 more stores across Ontario, including its first two Toronto locations. Local shoppers will have access to a whole new world of big-box goods, from a retailer that had previously only operated in the U.S.

The Target stores opening in Toronto on Tuesday are at Centrepoint Mall and East York Town Centre. A third one, at Shoppers World Danforth, will open on March 28. These are only “soft openings,” meaning they’re intended to give each store a short test run. If anything goes wrong or doesn’t work as planned, the management can make some last-minute adjustments before the official grand openings, which won’t happen until early April.

Three Target stores in Guelph, Fergus, and Milton have been open since March 5. Target plans to open 124 stores across Canada this year.

“The reason we opened the three stores [in Guelph, Milton, and Fergus] was to learn, and to get ourselves ready and prepared,” said John Morioka, Target Canada’s senior vice president of merchandising. We really wanted to understand what the marketplace was going to bring us.” Earlier this morning, he gave members of the media a tour of the East York Town Centre location, still untouched by shoppers’ hands prior to its first day in business.

The East York store is clean and bright, with a Starbucks Coffee at the front entrance to give shoppers that essential caffeine jolt. Target has a number of partnerships with various brands in clothing, food, electronics, and housewares, which gives them access to exclusive products. In the grocery section, shoppers will find Market Pantry and Archer Farms labels. The pets section has collars and leashes made by Boots and Barkley. The kitchen section has high-quality Calphalon cookware, something Morioka said is a pretty big deal for Target.

Also, for a limited time, Target has a partnership with Roots, meaning shoppers can snap up some of the iconic Canadian brand’s sweaters. There’s also a Fan Zone with t-shirts, tank tops, ball caps, and jerseys for the Maple Leafs and the Blue Jays.

We were whisked through the entire store without much time to browse, but prices did seem generally low. It would appear that Target is doing its best to stay on par with the discount retailers we’re already familiar with, like Walmart.

“We competitively shop over 20,000 items a week, so we’ll continually keep our fingers on the pulse of the marketplace,” said Morioka. “Our goal is to be competitive.”

Good thing, because these days Canadians are hungry for deals. It’s why many of us venture south to shop in places like Buffalo where prices, and taxes, are much lower. In Toronto, one of the most expensive cities in Canada, shoppers have historically flocked to U.S. Target locations to ravage the shelves in search of bargains. Target Canada’s first three stores faced massive swarms of shoppers on opening day that have yet to fully subside.

“We definitely were slammed,” Morioka laughed. “We thought there would be an initial bump, and I would say the bump has not leveled off to the degree we thought.”

“Guests seem to be experiencing the entire store rather than just going to one area and leaving,” he said.

Those who have been to an American Target store can expect much the same experience here. The walls and checkout counters are all painted the company’s trademark red. The checkout procedure and merchandising are also true to form, but Morioka said Target Canada did bring in some products specific to Canadian demands. On the whole, customers are saying that Target has done a good job of replicating the U.S. experience. But whether or not Target begins sourcing significant amounts of merchandise from Canadian suppliers remains to be seen.

“As we open our stores we’ll continue to learn,” said Morioka. “Our focus will be to continuously improve and listen to our guests and to tweak and change as we go forward. This is really the starting point.”

Following the opening of Lawrence Plaza in 1953, North York went shopping plaza mad. As the once-rural township transformed into postwar suburbia, farms gave way to large retail structures and their accompanying parking lots. From small neighbourhood strip malls to major shopping centres like Don Mills and Yorkdale, North York residents could do most of their shopping near home.

Among the participants in this boom was the oddly spelled Towne & Countrye Square. When it opened at the southwest corner of Yonge Street and Steeles Avenue in June 1966, it touted itself as “Sophisticated ‘Downtown’ Shopping in a Country Club Atmosphere.” Although one would be hard-pressed to find any resemblance between a genteel golf course and the shopping centre’s present-day incarnation as Centerpoint Mall, credit the opening day ad writers for their imagination. As was typical of the era, the mall was greeted with several advertorial pages in the community newspaper, the Enterprise.

Don your finest shopping clothes and step inside the photo gallery to experience the opening of Towne & Countrye Square.

Additional material from the June 1, 1966 edition of the Enterprise, the October 19, 1966 edition of the Globe and Mail, the December 9, 1999 edition of the New York Times, and the March 28, 1991 edition of the Toronto Star.

Every Saturday, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today.

Source: the Don Mills Mirror, November 22, 1972.

Yorkdale wasn’t joking when it called itself “Canada’s Christmas Centre” in the early 1970s. Around 100,000 children per year perched themselves, either with excitement or with pure terror, onto the laps of the three Santas the mall employed. We imagine a few fading images taken during those brief visits survive in homes around the GTA.

Chief Santa John Horning was well acquainted with the hazards of the job: bruised knees, beard-tugging, and leaky bladders. After eight years on the job, he found that children weren’t greedy, but were “just victims of advertising.” He told the Don Mills Mirror that “every now and then a smart Alec asks for a million dollars, but to balance that a few ask for peace and happiness in the world.” Horning noted that while kids always offered to leave cookies, “I’d like to tell them to leave a shot of rye.”

Because heaven knows Santa needs a little fortification to cope with the stress of making all those deliveries on Christmas…

Additional material from the December 13, 1972 edition of the Don Mills Mirror.

When you live in Toronto, it’s easy to go local for your holiday shopping. There are lots of talented people here, selling all sorts of awesome products and services.

We’ve searched high and low for Toronto-themed gift ideas, like these cufflinks made of old TTC tokens, pictured above. Some of the items on our list are made here, while some are related to the city in other ways. Click through the photo gallery to see them all.

All images courtesy of the respective sellers.

The Christmas Market at the Distillery District. Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ashleytuck/6494191961/"}tuck_ashley{/a} from the {a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist"}Torontoist Flickr Pool{/a}.

The One of a Kind Show has already passed, but that doesn’t mean you’ve lost out on your chance to support artists and makers while doing your holiday shopping. It seems like all the makers of Toronto entered into some kind of deal to make the second weekend of December the weekend to sell their wares to the gift-seeking public. Here are your best bets for craft shows this weekend…

Frost Fair
Why: The Fort York’s market is inspired by those held 200 years ago, and features a bonfire and merchants in period clothing selling goods inspired by the 18th and 19th centuries.
When: December 8 and 9 (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
Where: Fort York (100 Garrison Road)
How much: Included with regular site admission fee of $8.99

Nacho Mama’s Craft Show
Why: A new entry to Toronto’s busy craft-show schedule, Nacho Mama’s is taking donations at the door to support Sketch, a community arts initiative for homeless and vulnerable youth.
When: December 8 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
Where: Sneaky Dee’s (431 College Street)
How much: Free admission

401 Artisans Marketplace
Why: This sale is smaller, with 20 vendors, but it’s celebrating its 20th anniversary for a reason: you’ll find a quality selection of goods from local artisans here.
When: December 8 (11 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and 9 (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.)
Where: 401 Richmond Street West
How much: Free admission

City of Craft
Why: This show, run by the collective of the same name, is Toronto’s largest independently run juried craft sale, with more than 70 participants.
When: December 8 (11 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and 9 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
Where: The Theatre Centre (1087, 1093, and 1095 Queen Street West)
How much: $2 admission, children under 12 free

Shop Cats Wandering Winter Craft Show
Why: This is the last of Shop Cats’ four pop-up holiday markets, where you can shop for locally produced goods from more than 30 vendors while also enjoying a flute duo. (Yes, really.)
When: December 9 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m.)
Where: Gladstone Hotel, Ballroom (1214 Queen Street West)
How much: Free admission

Artscape’s Holiday Art Market
Why: Held annually at the covered street barn, this market features open studios where you can watch its local artisans at work.
When: December 9 and 16 (12 to 5 p.m.)
Where: Wychwood Barns (601 Christie Street)
How much: Free admission

Toronto Christmas Market at the Distillery District
Why: The Distillery District’s annual holiday market is more than just a craft sale. You get the full holiday experience with carolers, a huge Christmas tree, and beer and mulled wine gardens.
When: December 9 to 16 (Monday to Friday 12 to 9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.)
Where: The Distillery District
How much: Free admission

Artisans’ Gift Fair
Why: This annual fair runs well into December, making it great for procrastinators, but you won’t want to hold off because it offers everything from clothing to gluten-free treats. Free live music while you shop.
When: December 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23 (12 to 6 p.m.)
Where: The Tranzac (292 Brunswick Avenue)
How much: Free admission

One of a Kind Christmas Show and Sale
Direct Energy Centre
(100 Princes’ Boulevard)
November 22 to December 2
Weekdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The One of a Kind Show, now in its 35th year, is back in town until December 2. Looking for the perfect gift for the cyclist in your life, or for your friend’s newborn? Or maybe you want an instrument that’s perfect for jamming out in Trinity Bellwoods? Torontoist scoped out all 800 artisans on display at the Direct Energy Centre. Some of of our best finds are in the photo gallery, above.

The show will run late until 11 p.m. on November 29. It’s best to go early and during the week, though, because the place gets crowded. Happy shopping, and be thankful that you’ve avoided the Black Friday insanity down south.

Source: the Don Mills Mirror, November 13, 1963.

A menu full of cozy comfort foods for harried shoppers, kids tagging along, and managers from nearby industrial plants along Scarborough’s Golden Mile. That, at any rate, is who we imagine today’s ad—for the restaurant inside a Morgan’s department store—was targeting. While some of these old Toronto favourites linger on in diners and cafeterias, milk and crackers is nowhere to be found on menus at modern eateries, just as “smorgasbord” has given way to “buffet.” There are times when we wonder if bylaws existed in every municipality within Metro Toronto that obliged all dining establishments to serve roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and a salad plate incorporating cottage cheese.

Edited from an ad that appeared in the Toronto Star, August 22, 1963.

Opened on August 22, 1963, the Eglinton Square Morgan’s was the fourth Metro Toronto location since the chain entered the market in 1950, and the first since Hudson’s Bay Company took over the business in 1960. The event was marked by the arrival of store manager D.B. Murdy in a helicopter, which was promptly offered for sale after he disembarked. Besides choppers, the store also allowed customers to order “anything else possible and legal.” The Hearth was a second floor cafeteria that seated 150 and, according to the Star, was decorated with “six murals of early Toronto plus antiques such as flintlock rifles, copper kettles and spinning wheels.” For the convenience of drivers, a spiral parkade adjoined the store.

The store’s days as a Morgan’s were short-lived. The following year, management dropped the brand outside of Quebec and renamed the stores The Bay.

Additional material from the August 21, 1963 edition of the Toronto Star.

Yorkdale Shopping Centre, ca. 1965, from the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 217, Series 249, File 197.

On February 26, 1964, shoppers dressed in their Sunday best walked through Yorkdale Shopping Centre for the first time. With over 1.2 million square feet of retail, restaurants, and services—although not all of them were yet leased on opening day—Yorkdale was briefly the largest indoor shopping mall in the world.

With three anchor stores—Simpsons at the west, Eaton’s at the east, and a Dominion at the south—Yorkdale was oriented in an L-shaped indoor shopping street. Shoppers could stroll in climate controlled comfort from one end to another, passing stores like Reitman’s, Collyer Shoes, Laura Secord, Toy World, and Eddie Black’s Camera Store along the way. There was a dual cinema, and Encore Noshery was the largest restaurant in a Canadian shopping centre. Until that point, many suburbanites had continued to conduct their shopping downtown. But Yorkdale represented a new feature of postwar life where the best-known stores of the core were installed on the periphery. “It’s Instant Downtown—even though it’s Uptown,” as one promotional article put it.

Not everyone was impressed, however. In the June 1964 issue of Canadian Architect, architect Ron Thom judged: “It is a gigantic compendium of follies, and it fails disastrously to answer up to the complex sociological conditions implicit in any such place, particularly one of this size.”

In 1953, about half of Metro Toronto’s 240 square miles had been urbanized, according to James T. Lemon’s Toronto Since 1918 (James Lorimer & Company, 1985). By 1965, Metro had sprawled to cover three-quarters of that terrain, giving rise to an increased emphasis on automobile travel in urban planning. By the late 1950s, Metro’s official plan called for a series of expressways skirting the city’s core, including the long proposed extension of Spadina Road from south of St. Clair Avenue to the north side of the 401. (Photo at right: exterior of Eaton’s at Yorkdale Shopping Centre, 1965, from the Archives of Ontario (F 229-308-0-553).)

In the mid-1950s, the T. Eaton Company bought a 40 hectare grassy meadow on the southwest side of the 401-Dufferin Street interchange as the site for a massive suburban department store. With an apparently ideal crossroads location, the plan was for no mere small-scale shopping plaza. In 1958, Simpsons, the rival Yonge Street department store, was invited to join the project. Simpsons agreed—the first time the two venerable retailers would occupy space in a single shopping centre—and bought eight hectares adjacent to the Eaton’s site.

Catering to the suburban, car-oriented community for whom a shopping trip downtown—with the difficulties of congestion and parking—was impractical, malls quickly became a feature of the postwar city. Initially built as outdoor plazas and then as enclosed buildings with a single anchor, the number of shopping centres in Metro Toronto increased rapidly: from 5 in 1953 to 227 in 1966, according to Lemon. At first, malls catered to the immediate neighbourhood, like the strip mall at Eglinton and Bayview—the first in Toronto—or were purpose-built to be regional centres at the heart of a new residential community, like Don Mills. But Yorkdale represented something new in Toronto: a regional centre, isolated but connected by roadways, and meant to supplant the downtown. Market research indicated that, with the 401 and secondary highways, the venture would attract shoppers from within a 28-minute drive—as far away as Brampton and Whitby—in addition to Torontonians north of Bloor Street. It was a potential market of 796,000 shoppers.

The plan for a major regional shopping centre was announced in 1958; local ratepayers organizations and North York’s council were enthusiastic. And, as was common for the time, the developers were able to negotiate ad hoc zoning modifications and approvals from municipal authorities eager for new assessment revenues.

Eaton's at Yorkdale Shopping Centre , ca. 1965, from the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 217, Series 249, File 199.

John Graham Consultants was retained as architect for the mall, and John B. Parkin Associates for the Simpsons store. John Graham Jr. of Seattle had pursued a career in retail management before returning to his father’s architecture practice, giving him particular insight into the retail and commercial architecture that would raise the firm’s national profile. In addition to office towers, the Yale-educated architect was a pioneer at designing large-scale indoor shopping centres like Seattle’s Northgate Mall (1950), Milwaukee’s Capitol Court (1957), Wellington Square (1960) in London, Ontario, and almost 70 other malls in North America, Europe, and Australia.

Graham’s Eaton’s store at Yorkdale featured “an unusual exterior in off-white brick with a three dimensional pattern adding a strong vertical element,” as Michael Hugo-Brunt put it in the Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (June 1964). The rest of the structure’s exterior, however, was unremarkable and, Hugo-Brunt added, seemed “conceived primarily to attract passers-by on 401.” In this, Yorkdale was much like Graham’s other works. “They were geared more to business than aesthetics,” architecture professor Meredith Clausen argues. “His primary concern was with speed and cost-effectiveness, not excellence in design.”

Yorkdale’s design emphasized innovative features, such as the underground truck tunnel for delivery of merchandise to the stores. And the enormous Dominion store, later dubbed a “jet-age supermarket” by journalists, featured an underground conveyor belt that carried a customer’s purchases to a pickup station in the south-west parking lot.

The Simpsons store’s primary designer at John B. Parkin Associates was John Andrews, a young, Harvard-educated Australian who’d joined the firm in 1958. Shortly after completing the Simpsons design, in 1962 Andrews struck out on his own and would gain acclaim as the architect of the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Campus and the CN Tower, among other high profile projects. John C. Parkin (no relation) is also listed in Canadian Architect (June 1964) as having done design work on the project. (At left: Yorkdale Shopping Centre, ca. 1965, from the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 217, Series 249, File 196.)

Noting the influence of New Formalism, Robert Moffatt described Andrews’ work on the three-storey Simpsons: “Pairs of arched columns line the perimeter of the building, curving upward into deep parapets that gently flare outward at the top. The precast concrete cladding, when new, was a pristine white and glittered with Georgian quartz aggregate. Inset panels were Simpson’s blue.” The 83 porcelain-enamel steel panels were reversible to provide the opportunity to change the design scheme’s accent colours. Although taken alone the store was better regarded, Hugo-Brunt complained that viewed from the north, the two department stores “contrast unhappily with each other.”

Perhaps more important than the work of the architect, Howard Lesser wrote in Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (June 1964), was the work of the Planning and Development Consultant. Lesser was the consultant who’d worked on the Yorkdale project; his role was determining the required square footage of selling area and storage for each category of merchandise, the number of shop units in each category, and their arrangement around the interior to ensure balanced competition at varying price levels across different retail categories.

Armed with market research and other information, the developers carefully selected which retailers would be invited to become tenants in order to appeal to a broad range of shoppers. While the department stores would carry some higher-end wares, a Kresge’s would cater to bargain shoppers. Similarly, in addition to a Birks, there would also be a Peoples Credit Jewellers. The King Street West men’s tailor, Beauchamp and Howe would be there, but so would Tip Top Tailors. Shop owners would pay rent of $5 per square foot while other plazas in Metro only charged $2.50 to $3.00. (By contrast, however, Yonge Street landlords commanded rents of $7 to $12.)

Such reliance on expertise at the conception and design stage of the project, however, would open Yorkdale to a common critique among its detractors: that the mall was more the product of market researchers, statisticians, and computer operators than of an architect. “I suspect,” Thom lamented, “that the final results are due as much as anything to the owners’ and developers’ decision to make the statisticians responsible for the architecture.”

Spadina Expressway at Lawrence Avenue West, 1963, from the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 217, Series 249, File 169.

Even as the architectural design was being finalized, construction had yet to begin even in earnest. While the Spadina Expressway was included in Metro’s Official Plan of 1959, it had not yet been formally approved for construction. The Eaton’s family endorsed Metro Chairman Frederick Gardiner’s scheme of expressways into and around Toronto, according to Chris Wattie in the National Post (December 29, 2007), having been lured to this particular site by the potential of a nearby expressway linked to downtown. They used their project—and its popularity with North York politicians and locals—as leverage, refusing to break ground unless Metro hastened the expressway’s approval. Meanwhile, Gardiner used the project as justification of the necessity of the expressway, using “predictions of traffic flow to and from this private project to help sell his own expressway project to politicians and the public,” according to Timothy J. Colton’s Big Daddy: Frederick G. Gardiner and the Building of Metropolitan Toronto (University of Toronto Press, 1980).

The Spadina Expressway was approved by Metro Council in 1961 for a cost of $74 million. And, with controversy beginning to build over the roadway, a route was finalized in 1962 to see the first phase stretch from Lawrence Avenue West to Wilson Avenue. In practice, however, when the expressway opened in 1964 it terminated at Yorkdale because the province needed another two years to finish construction of a 90-acre cloverleaf at the 401—which was being expanded to 12 lanes.

Yorkdale was developed by Trizec Corp. Ltd., the real estate firm founded when New York mogul William Zeckendorf Sr.’s Webb and Knapp ran out of money building Place Ville Marie in Montreal and Zeckendorf’s British lenders were brought in as partners to avoid foreclosure. Based in Montreal in the 1960s, Trizec would become one of North America’s largest real estate firms. Yorkdale, along with the Halifax Shopping Centre, and Burnaby’s Brentwood Shopping Centre, was among its earliest projects.

The site was cleared in the spring of 1962, and construction began shortly afterward with Taylor Woodrow (Canada) Ltd. as general contractor for the Eaton’s and mall portion, and E.G.M. Cape Co. (1956) Ltd. for the Simpsons store. By the time construction was finished, 500,000 cubic yards of earth had been moved, and 62,000 cubic yards of reinforced concrete and 6,000 tons of steel had been used, according to the Toronto Star (February 25, 1964). Employing 1,000 tradesmen and 100 subcontractors, the project took two years to complete.

Early Yorkdale ads and news articles emphasized how easy the mall was to reach by automobile from all directions. For its first few months of operation, however, drivers found the unfamiliar landscape and traffic flow of suburbia so confusing that Yorkdale hired 14 traffic wardens to help shoppers navigate the 6,500-space parking lot. (Map showing traffic routes to Yorkdale Shopping Centre from the Toronto Star (February 25, 1964). Note at right that the Spadina Expressway does not yet connect with the 401.)

Recalling a 1965 visit in The Short, Happy Walks of Max MacPherson (Macmillan of Canada, 1968), Harry Bruce likened the 54 acres of asphalt to a “wilderness” where traffic signs grew instead of trees—which, he noted ironically, could only be found inside the mall. In fact, the Star reported the lot featured 250 linden, elm, white birch, and maple trees as barriers to the roadways on the east and west sides. The northern side, bordering the 401, was left unprotected, resulting in a “vicious wind” as Bruce discovered. “The parking itself is laid out, one feels, more by a computer than by a planner concerned about people on foot and in cars,” Thom complained. Some said the intentional blandness of the landscaping was to more quickly hasten customers inside to shop.

The interior was airier and more spacious than malls of the time or since, with promenades 40 feet wide and 27 feet tall. Natural light funnelled in through glass panels above the storefronts. The novelty of an indoor mall required explanation by wide-eyed journalists. “Most store fronts are wide open,” one described. “There’s no door to open; you just move a step out of the main stream of the mall and you’re in a store.”

Each end of the mall and the elbow of the L were accented by broad courts with 40-foot ceilings. Overlooking the court outside Eaton’s, supported on mushroom-shaped columns, was a 300-seat restaurant with glass walls, flooding the courtyard with natural light and letting diners gaze out on a rooftop garden.

Yorkdale Shopping Centre, 1965, from the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 217, Series 249, File 198.

Outside the Simpsons, a court of pale grey terrazzo marble measuring 100 by 150 feet featured a vaulted ceiling with light fixtures hanging from each of 110 stalactites. “It is extremely dramatic, perhaps too much so for serenity,” Hugo-Brunt judged. While noting that the “fanciful plaster ceiling…appears as just that, to one who knows the secrets of building,” Thom praised it “as a joyous thing to the public at large who just go through.” In addition to a fountain and reflecting pool, the Simpsons court featured a striking circular staircase leading to a restaurant overlooking the mall beyond.

Looking back, Yorkdale evokes what Shawn Micallef called “utopian modernism” in Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto (Coach House Books, 2010). But at the time, architecture critics lambasted Yorkdale’s interior. “The shop frontages vary extensively,” Hugo-Brunt wrote, “and their elevational diversity reflects a lack of discipline or control.” Thom complained that the majority of the mall “resembles a group of separate parts, each designed by an angry individualist, determined not only to outdo, but to undo all the other parts around—a sort of architectural salad.” Although still critical, at least interior designer Allison Hymas acknowledged the limits of such critiques in the Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (June 1964): “The design critic must bear in mind that this is essentially real estate and not architecture; that return on financial investment is the aim of the developers and not a concern for the creation of well ordered buildings in which buying and selling take place.”

“One is only saddened,” Thom concluded, “that most of those involved in creating Yorkdale were not more responsible in seeing that this great complex added to the culture and the quality of North Toronto in particular, and of the country in general.” In Canadian Architect, critic Donovan Pinker took this critique a step further, arguing that Yorkdale should have been at the centre of a rational scheme of urban planning. He wrote:

What could have happened, and what should have happened around Yorkdale, is that instead of clusters of unrelated piecemeal development with a three-level, twelve-lane expressway interchange in the middle, wise planning would have laid down a joint public-private, multi-use complex built atop a Spadina transit terminal, with expressways providing an outer automobile circulation system.

In the 1970s, a subway was indeed built in the median of the controversial expressway, which itself became the focal point of municipal politics and would never be extended beyond Eglinton.

Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ariehsinger/2419735407/"}ariehsinger{/a} from the {a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/"}Torontoist Flickr Pool{/a}.

In the fall of 1962, before the mall’s construction was even complete, there was already press speculation that Yorkdale would be expanded by 1970. Since its opening there have been plenty of renovations and remodellings as tenants have come and gone, and branded facades were erected on the exterior. Down-market stores like Kresge’s and the Dominion were replaced by higher-end stores like Holt Renfrew, as Micallef notes. Simpsons became the Bay; Eaton’s was replaced by Sears and, in 2005, entirely gutted and expanded for the arrival of Old Navy, Zara, and H&M.

Although the mall is no longer as bewilderingly novel, the centre remains popular with around 400,000 customers per week according to one estimate.

“Yorkdale revolutionized shopping in Ontario,” and became the template of shopping malls and suburban commercial development across the Golden Horseshoe and beyond.

Additional sources consulted: Anne Crawford in the Calgary Herald (August 6, 1994); Veronica Madonna, “Yorkdale Shopping Centre,” in Michael McClelland and Graeme Stewart, eds., Concrete Toronto (2007); James Rusk in the Globe and Mail (February 21, 2004); articles from the Globe and Mail (May 31 and November 24, 1962; February 26, 1964) and the Toronto Star (May 31 and November 24, 1962; February 25, 1964).

Every Saturday, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today.

Toronto is home to a host of swapping, bartering, and sharing communities. Swapsity is one of them, and for this year’s Buy Nothing Day on November 25, they put their own twist on the occasion, calling it Buy Nothing, Swap Something Day. Swapsity is an online swapping community dedicated to helping Canadians build a more collaborative, consumption-conscious, and sustainable lifestyle through barter. Along with their online forum, they host face-to-face swap meets and help organize local swap groups.

This year, Swapsity marked Buy Nothing, Swap Something Day at U of T’s Sidney Smith Hall with a movie screening of Living Without Money and a presentation by Toronto’s own barter babe, Shannon Simmons, of the Barter Babes Project. The aim of the day, slightly different from Buy Nothing Day’s, is to show people that the barter and cash economy can co-exist. And, we discovered, they can.

Living Without Money follows a 68-year-old German woman who has been living money-free for 14 years. Frustrated by the pervasive influence of money in society, Heidemarie gave away all her possessions save for a suitcase of clothing in exchange for a sense of freedom. She recalls that it was like having a weight lifted off her shoulders. Ever since, she has been living a mobile life, staying with friends and family in between giving presentations around Europe about her life experiences, hoping to inspire others to reconsider the importance of money in their lives. We see Heidemarie’s creativity manifest as she barters for food and shelter. By some, her minimalist lifestyle is seen as parasitic; others see it as inspiration. Whatever your perspective, it’s a fascinating look into the life of someone who gave “it all” up for something she feels is much greater.

Shannon Simmons is another bartering adventurer. She quit her job at a high-end investment firm to launch the Barter Babes Project, where she planned to spend a year bartering with young women in return for her financial advice. New to the barter world, the transition wasn’t as smooth as she would have hoped. Credit card bills were coupled with panic attacks, she still had to pay her rent, and the frozen lasagnas she received as barter didn’t quite cut it. Yet now, a year later, she has bartered with 300 women and has it down to an art.

The movie and Simmons’ talk attracted quite the crowd of twenty- and thirty-somethings. It’s clear that the world of barter is well beyond subculture status. Between clothing swaps, Freecycle sites, Couchsurfing and collaborative consumption projects, people around the world are testing out new ways to build community through money-less exchange. And the audience last Friday was no exception.

Paul Baines, one of the many vocal audience members in the discussion, came because he’s interested in alternative economies and wanted to see what was happening on the local level. “I’m into the idea of swapping because our current economic system is totally broken and we need as many alternatives for people and the planet as possible.”

About two-thirds of the audience hadn’t used a swap service before. Paul was part of that majority, but is keen to try. “I’m equally excited about swapping as I am about trying to figure out what skills I have to offer,” he said. While you might think you can only offer what others pay you to do, we are much more than our jobs. Combine what you can do with what you could give away, and you’re bound to have a barter on your hands.

It’s no coincidence that Buy Nothing Day coincides with Black Friday—the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States. On this day, retailers kick off the holiday shopping craze with major pre-Christmas sales, opening their doors as early as 4 a.m. Widely popularized by Adbusters, Buy Nothing Day began in the early 1990s.

Swapsity asked people at the October 30 Pedestrian Sunday why they swap. Photo from {a href="http://www.facebook.com/Swapsity"}Swapsity's Facebook page{/a}.

Even for those who consider themselves retail lightweights, the day allows for a collective pause at the onset of the year’s biggest shopping season, also known as the holidays. Buy Nothing Day urges us to reconsider how we define our needs and helps us put a bit more thought into the purchases we make. More than marking a single day when some choose to leave their wallets at home, though, Buy Nothing Day waves the flag of a broader movement that is challenging consumer culture in innovative ways.

And the innovations are countless. Swapping, bartering, and sharing are a few platforms savvy citizens are using to exchange goods and services outside the monetary system:

• Swaps come in many forms like clothing swaps, media swaps (e.g. DVDs/video games), and even house swaps (the latter being a temporary swap. Think: my Toronto pad for your London flat.) Swaps can be a direct exchange (like a barter) or indirect in the case of clothing swaps where we all bring our clothes and leave with a mixed bag.
• Barter is a way of swapping between two people and is commonly used worldwide when currencies are unstable or simply unavailable. Regardless of circumstances, it helps us tap into our own abundant talents and trade them for something we want without having to use dollars acquired in the job market.
• Sharing is as obvious as it sounds. Why does everyone need their very own ladder, wheelbarrow, book collection, and even car? For the stuff that doesn’t get used too often, formal or informal sharing saves on space, storage, the environment, and of course, our wallets. Think public libraries, AutoShare, and tool-sharing groups.

Most folks acknowledge that money is a necessary part of our world. Its utility is highest when a direct exchange of such goods and services isn’t possible. However, when you keep it local, you can achieve the same outcomes of shopping (i.e. access to goods and services) through swapping, bartering, or sharing. Plus, you’ll probably make more friends and have a better time doing it than your local mall can offer.

If you didn’t get in on the festivities last Friday, it’s not too late. Tonight, Swapsity and Fashion Takes Action are co-hosting Shop Sustainable, an eco-friendly marketplace and clothing swap.

Every day is a good day to buy less. If you want to learn more or get involved in one of your local alternative economies, check out these great initiatives in addition to the ones mentioned above:

• Giveaways: Trash Nothing, Freecycle Toronto, Freecycle Cabbagetown, Freecycle Annex/UofT
• Travel: Couchsurfing, Servas International, Warm Showers (for cyclists)
• Coworking environments: Coworking Toronto, Centre for Social Innovation
• CollaborativeConsumption.com
• Craigslist’s barter, housing swap, rideshare, and free sections

Many more examples are listed on Toronto’s Unstash site.