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. Crawford Street Bridge, West Side, November 16, 1915. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 1615 This Tuesday, May 13, Heritage Toronto will unveil the latest plaque celebrating Toronto's history to commemorate the secret bridge buried beneath the north-west corner of Trinity Bellwoods Park. The unveiling will take place at 4 p.m.......

Photo of the Toronto Centre for the Arts by selosa On Thursday, Cameron Mackintosh’s revival of My Fair Lady makes its long-awaited Toronto debut. Just as significantly, however, its arrival brings a new lease on life for one of the city's finest major theatres.......

Every Saturday morning, beginning today, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. The southwest corner of Yonge Street and Montgomery Avenue is rich with history. Montgomery's Tavern, the spot where William Lyon Mackenzie and his followers launched the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, is honoured with a plaque. Oulcott's Hotel served customers and community groups in the late 19th century. The current......

Today's ad offers an ideal 1970s entertainment lineup for upper middle class patrons on business, vacation, or a wild night in the suburbs. The Royal Box offered dinner theatre twice a night. The "merely posh" Le Continental filled the decade's appetite for romantic meals loaded with soft jazz and slabs of meat (chateaubriand for two, ma belle amie?). Katsura supplied a then-exotic Japanese dining experience. The Brandy Tree offered fancy drinks and a piano......

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. Palmerston Boulevard, looking south from Harbord Street, 1908. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 7200. Palmerston Boulevard is one of the best examples of an intact turn-of-the-century residential street in the city. Stone gates at College and Bloor mark not only a name change—where Palmerston Avenue becomes Palmerston Boulevard—but also a......

In the fall of 1997, the Metro Toronto Zoo had something of a clearance sale, divesting itself of merchandise branded "Metro Toronto Zoo." On January 1st, the Megacity would be coming, the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto would be no more, and the Zoo—to be renamed simply the "Toronto Zoo"—would be prepared for the change. The Metropolitan Toronto Police, however, were not quite as on the ball. Two years later, in 2000, the organization finally......

Two ads for local bakeries lay side-by-side in an evening newspaper. One will become an international food empire (albeit one in the midst of boardroom turmoil), the other will find that a walking loaf of bread does not ensure longevity. George Weston (1865–1924) entered the bread business at the age of 12, learning the craft at several local bakeries. At 17 he purchased two bread routes that mark the beginning of the company that......

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city. The two great Canadian heroes prep for an adventure, Shakespeare-style. Strange Brew is not a great film, but it sure is......

Every Saturday morning, beginning today, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters—good and bad—that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. Telegram Building, southeast corner of Bay and Melinda, 1940s. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item 8908 Mention "Bay Street" and the usual image is the financial institutions that line its sidewalks. Many of those rushing to the office with a newspaper in hand may not realize how......

Is invisibility a type of discrimination? This is the question posed by the ROM's latest exhibit Out From Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember. Billed, shockingly, as the "first of its kind in Canada," it's clear that disabled people as a minority group have not had their voice properly heard thus far. "Today, we're making history," said Sheldon Levy, president of Ryerson University, Wednesday at the ROM. Their School of Disability Studies is the......

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. Researched and led by volunteer historians and neighbourhood groups, the tours focus on different aspects of the city's past, including......

Sometimes what passed for clever advertising in the past leaves us speechless. Note that today's ad appeared seven years before Advertising Standards Canada came into being. The free guide offered in this ad was first published in 1944 and offered the following words of wisdom: Soup has long played a stellar part on the Canadian menu—but never has it filled so many interesting and appetizing roles as it does today! Formerly served as a......

Alternative education, anyone? This Thursday is the opening of the ROM's latest exhibit, Out From Under: Disability, History, and Things to Remember. A joint project with Ryerson University's School of Disability Studies, the thirteen-panel installation tracks the hidden history of disability in Canada. Each panel is given a one-word title, and a corresponding object that acknowledges the past contributions of Canadians with disabilities. Dressing contains sixteen identical sweatsuits, the typical uniform of the inmates......

This past weekend was the 91st anniversary of the end of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a four-day offensive in World War I in which the Canadian Corps, with help from the British army, seized a German stronghold on the Western Front. Marking the first time that such large numbers of Canadians fought together as a single unit, the battle has since achieved near mythical status (justified or not) as a key point in the......

Recent renovations at the ROM and OCAD have been subject to much discussion, but there’s more to Toronto than contemporary architecture. Though often overlooked, there are a variety of interesting historical buildings to be found around town. This concludes a series of three posts exploring some of these hidden treasures. The William Reynolds Block has occupied the southeast corner of Yonge and Gould since 1888. An impressive example of the Renaissance Revival style, its......

The National Home Show is on this week, providing homeowners with ideas on how to improve their humble abodes. Back in the early 1970s suggestions were offered on how to raise the money to afford new wood panelling and a basement mini-bar, such as buying your own convenience store franchise. If interested, Mac's would set you up in an idyllic suburban setting straight out of a 1950s magazine ad. No overflowing garbage cans, no......

Recent renovations at the ROM and OCAD have been subject to much discussion, but there’s more to Toronto than contemporary architecture. Though often overlooked, there are a variety of interesting historical buildings to be found around town. This is the second in a series of three posts exploring some of these hidden treasures. The Graphic Arts Building is located at 73 Richmond Street West. At only five stories, its scale sets it apart from......

Little-known scientific fact: clock radios embedded in a block of ice will cause their frozen shell to melt faster when tuned to an album rock station than any other kind of radio format. Tests are inconclusive as to whether this effect will occur more rapidly if the clock was manufactured by Panasonic or General Electric, or if the ice will reform whenever Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" blares away. Think of how much the city......

Recent renovations at the ROM and OCAD have been subject to much discussion, but there’s more to Toronto than contemporary architecture. Though often overlooked, there are a variety of interesting historical buildings to be found around town. Over the next few weeks, Illustration Sunday will show you some of these buildings. Pictured above is the building situated at 197 King Street East, in an area known as Old Town Toronto. Featuring elaborate woodworking and......

Today's ad proves that hair dye has been available for purchase at Yonge and Carlton for over a century, even if going to "Armand's" sounds classier than a quick run to Shoppers Drug Mart. The 1 Carlton Street address shifted north in 1931 due to a street reconfiguration that directly connected Carlton with College Street. The project was partly initiated by Eaton's, who had just opened their new store on the southwest corner of......

Fans of obscure pop culture and history buffs will welcome the complete redesign and relaunch of the CBC Digital Archives. The website features an amazing collection of 12,000 television and radio clips drawn from seventy years of CBC broadcasts. The CBC's serious side is well-represented on the site, with historic clips of the Second World War, political profiles, and stories of cultural milestones. But there are also plenty of quaintly anachronistic news reports, such......

The 1930s were a difficult decade; dark, dirty, dangerous, and destitute, albeit laden with alliterative possibility. In America the population posed picturesquely in sepia-toned breadlines, while Europeans brooded over the tragedy of the Great War and plotted a rematch. The people of Toronto, like much of the rest of the world, wallowed in a cesspit of poverty and misery from which no number of Shirley Temple films could extricate them. However, in the depths of......

Jarvis Street, circa 1910. (City of Toronto Archives) Torontonians should be ashamed at what happened to Jarvis Street. The city's first paved road was once the grandest tree-lined boulevard around, bracketed by the mansions of some of Toronto's wealthiest movers and shakers. Then, in the 1940s, the stately Jarvis boulevard was transformed: trees were pulled down and sidewalks ripped up to make way for the automobile. Jarvis Street was turned from a gorgeous historical......

A family moves into one of Toronto's more fashionable neighbourhoods. In the middle of deciding where Junior's playpen will fit in the living room, there is a knock at the front door. Standing on the front step is the official neighbourhood greeter from Welcome Wagon. The new residents are greeted with the finest publications our city has to offer: Toronto Life, the Vancouver Province, and an unidentified Vancouver Sunday paper (our city's dailies respected......

Today's ad features your stereotypical 1950s architectural professional: trenchcoat, tie, hat (preferably a fedora), and a fistful of building plans. The building this dapper construction supervisor is depicted next to would quickly become one of St. Clair Avenue's architectural landmarks. Pigott Construction was based in Hamilton, where company president Joseph Pigott contributed heavily to the community as a president or board member of institutions such as McMaster University and the Art Gallery of Hamilton.......

Congratulations. You've just moved into a home or apartment in the rapidly growing city of North York to start your bright future. You either don't own a car or prefer to use one as little as possible. Fixed public transit services haven't quite made it out to your neck of the woods yet you really want to be chauffeured by a bow-tie wearing driver with a creepy smile who will drop you off at......

Your reaction to snow depends on the circumstances. The frequency of dumps the city has received so far this year has caused grumbling about blocked streets, dirty mounds higher than the average citizen and many a wish for spring to speed up its arrival. Conversely, as long as the roads outside the city are passable, lovebirds, families and outdoor enthusiasts looking for an escape from the city have headed up to Muskoka resorts like......

There’s an eerie similarity between images of last week's Queen West fire and The Great Fire of 1904. The largest fire in Toronto history consumed one hundred and four buildings—leaving in its wake skeletal brick facades and mounds of rubble. Incredibly, neither fire claimed any lives. Illustration by Kevin McBride.......

If you’re into bad classroom reels, found footage, grainy home movies, and low- to no-budget outsider flicks, then it might suit you to head over to Stacey Case’s Trash Palace this weekend for the 8 fest. This small-format film festival is new to Toronto and will exclusively feature films shot on Super 8, 8mm and 9.5mm, as well as loops and zoetropes. Zoetropes! Please let there actually be zoetropes. The programming begins tomorrow at......

The history of Michael Hollingsworth's "epic play-cycle" The History of the Village of the Small Huts is almost as storied (and confusing) as the events they represent. Many are familiar with the plays only since 2000, when VideoCabaret's residency began in the back room at the Cameron House. Since then, they have produced a new Hollingsworth play every year (with the exception of 2004), making the currently-running Laurier the eighth play in the cycle.......