Results tagged “heritagetoronto”

              

If you've never been to a library opening before you might be surprised to realize that they tend to attract crowds. At yesterday's reopening of the Bloor/Gladstone branch, for instance, a throng of eager readers was waiting in the rain a half-hour before they were to be let inside, and once the doors did open it took twenty minutes for the line to clear. Kids ran downstairs to check out their colourful new play areas, longtime patrons set off to find the new locations of their old favourite sections, and the social butterflies settled into the sparkling computer lab for a status update or two. You could hardly blame them: they'd been without their library for nearly three years, and the enthusiasm with which the branch was welcomed back was delightful to behold.

DANCE: Burlesque troupe The Harlettes Burlesque Entertainment take it all off for Canada with their fifth annual Tribute to Canada show. Taking their cues from the national colours—fiery red passion and pure white innocence—the Harlettes embrace the symbols of their beloved country in each dance routine about hockey, Trudeau, lumberjacks, and more. Revival Bar (783 College Street), 8 p.m., $15.

To celebrate its fifteenth anniversary, and Toronto’s 175th birthday, Heritage Toronto is offering ten new tours as part of its free historic walking tours program. Although the walks have been ongoing since April, there are still several new tours to look forward to during the summer schedule, including Union Station and the Railway Lands, Fringe Festival Sites, and Mackenzie’s 1834 Toronto (a tour of the city as it was 175 years ago, during William Lyon Mackenzie's term as mayor). "We’re trying to increase the number of walks we do across the city," Peggy Mooney, Heritage Toronto’s executive director, told Torontoist. "We want to make people realize—from one part of the city to the other—that there’s a lot of interesting history there. Since amalgamation, we are responsible for promoting heritage across the entire city. It isn’t just about early nineteenth century buildings…we’re trying to make people think about the city they live in, not just about Victorian Toronto, but about more modern buildings, more modern heritage."

Once symbols of post-war economic affluence, the suburbs are now often seen as havens of cookie-cutter culture and lacking history or distinct identity. The stereotype has been more fuelled by movies and literature than reality, but it's still odd to imagine historical markers erected to the suburbs. Yet that's exactly what Heritage Toronto did last week. While most heritage plaques located in the suburbs commemorate what came before—a country estate or a general store at an important rural crossroads—Heritage Toronto will be commemorating the patient-zero of the Canadian post-war suburban experience: Don Mills. Perhaps the most significant real estate development in Canadian history, Don Mills had a tremendous influence not only on the form and style suburban sprawl assumed but also on the business practices of the developers who built them.

If memory serves, high school Canadian history classes always struck us as a little wimpy. How, we felt in our drama-loving teenage hearts, could coureurs des bois and Trudeau hold a candle to Napoleonic exploits and JFK? With age comes wisdom, fortunately, and we now find Canadian sagas as compelling as their flashier counterparts elsewhere. Helping us along are organizations like Heritage Toronto, whose mandate is to get us excited about our fair city’s past. In a first for the organization, it is currently co-hosting a photography exhibit showcasing some of Toronto’s most interesting and vulnerable heritage buildings. It’s one of those ideas which works so well that it's a wonder no one thought of it before: get some of Toronto’s great photographers—in this case, members of the Shadow Collective—and send them for a ramble through a few of our most architecturally compelling landmarks. "Building Storeys" is the result, an exhibit which, in the words of Heritage Toronto historian Gary Miedema, gives us “a unique way of looking at these buildings.” Part history lesson and part artistic adventure, "Building Storeys" had its opening party Tuesday night and early indications are that the show will be a hit.

Last year, a local resident discovered that the historical plaque near 660 Broadview Avenue—erected thirty years ago by the Toronto Historical Board to honour William Peyton Hubbard, the city's first municipal politician of African descent—was damaged. They returned the pieces to Heritage Toronto, who unveiled a replacement marker this week with a ceremony for students at Montcrest School. Over the years, Hubbard has been commemorated in public ceremony, newspaper retrospectives, a biography, and now a second historical plaque. And his story offers insight into the ways the lives of prominent citizens can become entangled with the politics of commemoration.

Lost amidst this week's bigger news was the announced schedule of events to celebrate Toronto's 175th anniversary from March 6 to 8, 2009. Although it seems like some details still need to be fleshed out, at first glance it's a bit of an underwhelming lineup focused more on celebrating the city's present-day culture and diversity—culminating in a finale that sounds like a cultural mash-up of music and dance that could end up muddled or absolutely brilliant—than in telling the story of how Toronto evolved to this point. But public commemorations always tell more about who is celebrating than what is being remembered. And there are more than a few nuggets in the festivities, including a couple exhibitions of street art and photography at City Hall and a showcase of Toronto-themed literary readings. [via Heritage Toronto.]

LECTURE: The 2008 Heritage Toronto Awards celebrate this year's recipients with the William Kilbourn Memorial Lecture at the restored top-floor venue at College Park. John Campbell, head of Waterfront Toronto, presents “A Shore Thing: The Future of Toronto’s Waterfront.” There will be an informal catered reception following the lecture. Proceeds go to Heritage Toronto. The Carlu (444 Yonge Street, 7th Floor), 7:30 p.m., $30.

The strange thing about heritage in Toronto is that we don't really appreciate what we've got until it's neglected, threatened, or already gone. By the time we get around to caring, it's frequently too late to preserve anything. Yet somehow, perhaps despite ourselves, Toronto is blessed with a sizable complement of heritage buildings scattered throughout the city. The urge to preserve our built heritage stretches back at least 130 years; the York Pioneers, who claim to be the oldest historical society in Ontario, moved John Scadding's cabin from the banks of the Don River to its current location on the grounds of Exhibition Place in 1879. In other cases, our built heritage is torn down seemingly out of spite.

For Torontonians of a certain age, the name Johnny Lombardi is as iconic as Sam the Record Man or Honest Ed. But for more recent arrivals to the city or tourists who don't know his backstory, the grinning statue of Lombardi sitting on a garden bench at College and Grace can seem a little mysterious. Other than a placard thanking sponsors for the erection of this statue and a quotation etched into the stone, there's nothing that actually explains the deep significance Lombardi holds for the neighbourhood and city. That'll finally change this Friday (at 7 p.m.) when a Heritage Toronto plaque honouring Toronto's pioneer promoter of cultural diversity is added to Piazza Johnny Lombardi.

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.

This Saturday marks the return of Heritage Toronto's Walking Tours for the 14th year with a trip into South Rosedale's evolution from wooded ravine to posh residential development over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. It's the first in a full slate of tours taking place across the city throughout the spring.

The grand dame of Toronto's performing arts venues, the Royal Alexandra Theatre, celebrates its 100th birthday tomorrow. To mark the event, the Mirvishes have organized a free open house from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., during which you can go on a self-guided backstage tour, eat free grub at the BBQ in front of the theatre (weather permitting), or catch a tribute performance from the original members of the 1969 Canadian cast of Hair. (No word on whether they'll get naked onstage again.)

Stage Struck: 100 Years At The Royal Alex, a free exhibition commemorating the Royal Alexandra Theatre's centennial, opened yesterday at the Toronto Reference Library. Torontoist was at the opening to oggle at the rare playbills, posters and other paraphernalia that would make any theatre geek weak in the knees.

Photo by Eyeline-Imagery in the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Torontoist thinks that the city's Festival of Architecture and Design must be the worst advertised fest ever. Complaints aside, there are plenty of great things to go see. Torontoist probably needs to go to Archetype, the DX's sustainable housing show.