The Lansdowne

Last weekend was the 16th annual Doors Open, and this year I attended a tour of the neighbourhood movie theatres.
The leader,Bert Ross, provided us with some history about the lost theatres in Toronto.
His grandfather owned the Lansdowne, so he also gave us a few anecdotes about the cinemas along Bloor West.
 

Built in 1937.

This is the lobby of the Lansdowne. It looks very Art Deco.

This is the area now, after some renovations to the building.

It was closed in 1961.

Parkdale

Mother's Day found me in front of the Parkdale Library on Queen West.

I had decided to explore Parkdale with the first guided ROM Walk of the 2015 season.
The leader took us south on Cowan Avenue and talked about some of the history behind the founding and subsequent amalgamation with the City of Toronto.

This was Parkdale's first telephone exchange.

Many of the churches in Parkdale were built in the late 1880's. Like this one.

This is the St. Mark and Epiphany Church.

Back up on Queen Street, we stopped in front of a building that once housed the Parkdale constabulary. It was almost in ruins until the residents arranged to have it fixed up. It is an art gallery at present, but has retained the original front door and clock.

There are a few hidden gems located within the boundaries of Queen & King
One of them is Trenton Terrace:

This is a cute little row of worker houses built post WWI for the local factory worker families.

Another little enclave is Melbourne Place:

A little bit of trivia here.
On Dunn Avenue, at 157 lived a very well known writer named Mazo de la Roche.
I believe there is a documentary out there called "The Mystery of Mazo de la Roche"
She also lived at 86 Yorkville Avenue for a time.....but that's another story.