Exploring Broadview Avenue

One Saturday in September, Heritage Toronto, in conjunction with the Riverdale Historical Society, conducted a tour of a Broadview Avenue with some history.
We assembled behind the Dairy Queen at the corner of Broadview and Pottery Road./Mortimer Avenue.

 

Here, the tour leader spoke about the surrounding area, and what it was like around the turn of the century. Nearby, (where Sobeys is now located) was the Todmorden Hotel.
One could have a pint, while the blacksmith (across the road) worked on your horse.

At the bottom of Pottery Road is Todmorden Mills, which is now a heritage site.

• It started out as a lumber mill in a small settlement around 1795.
• The Skinner family operated this mill that produced construction materials
• In 1820, a brewery was built next to the mill and was operated by Thomas Helliwell

BTW, the Helliwell House (which still stands on the site) is believed to be haunted.
To read further about this, you can go here.


Have a look at his picture of a ghost-like vapor hovering around the chair in the house.

But, I digress....on with the tour!
We left the parking lot and walked south along Broadview (originally named Don Mills Road).
We then turned onto Chester Hill Road and proceeded down to the end of the street, where there is a lookout. 

If you get a chance stop by the lookout and catch the view.
It is especially grand during the fall when the leaves have turned.
There is also a zodiac painting  that was done by Victor Fraser.
You can check his works out by logging into "whatsvictorupto" on Instagram
                                                      Here are a couple of views:

From this street, we moved along to Cambridge Avenue, and pass by a few "workers cottages" that were built by the local businesses for their employees.

Back to Danforth Avenue and continuing south on Broadview, we pass by Riverdale Park East.
This is a 18 - hectare park that is popular for winter tobogganing, and has 3 softball diamonds as well as a ice rink.
Further south near Langley Avenue, is the St. Matthew's Lawn Bowling Clubhouse.
It was moved from its original location on Gerrard Street in 2009, so that the land could be used for the expansion of the Bridgepoint Health facility.

Here we watched the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the clubhouse history.

    
                                                          Photo by Alan Brown 2015.

Wychwood Park Tour

In 1874, a painter named Marmaduke Matthews, built the first house on Bracondale Hill, near Bathurst and Davenport.
The second one was built by Alexander Jardine, a friend of Mr. Matthews.
Together they purchased adjacent land, and in 1891 they registered a plan for a subdivision that became known as the gated community of Wychwood Park.

Many of the homes were built in the English Arts and Crafts Style and several of them were designed by Eden Smith.

The land was divided into irregularly shaped lots, and Taddle Creek was dammed up to create a pond. A park was designed around this new pond and tennis courts added to the acreage.

It should be noted here, that this is now one of the only parts of the city, where Taddle Creek is still visible above ground.

                                           Wychwood Park, general creek scene
                                               June 17, 1916  City of Toronto Archives
                                                                  Series 393, Item 13270

The streets and amenities here are paid for by the residents, and the community is pretty much managed by an executive council.
Several prominent figures have lived in the area, including Marshall McLuhan and Anatol Rappaport.
In the 1980's the area was threatened by demolition of one of the larger houses, for redevelopment. This prompted the trustees and residents to seek designation as a Heritage Conservation District.
In 1985, it became the first residential zone in Ontario to be granted heritage status.

Kew Gardens and Scarboro Beach

Last week Heritage Toronto unveiled a plaque at the Kew Williams House.
My previous blog entry was for this event, and most of the information is there.

Afterwards Barbara Myrvold, a local author, historian, and Librarian took us on a tour of the Beach, or as I like to call it "The Beaches".
This alternative name stems from the smaller beach neighbourhoods that most folks (as well as myself) remember as Scarboro' Beach, Balmy Beach, Kew Beach, and Woodbine Beach.
Having spent the first twelve years of my life residing on Woodbine Avenue, I recall people's references to the Beaches.

So, the group meandered through the gardens that surround the Kew Williams House, and we stopped to marvel at the giant redwood trees near the lawn bowling club.
These are known as Dawn Redwood or Metasequoia glyptostroboides, a genus of the Sequoia tree in California.

Across the way, we can see the remnants of the Kew Beach Park Boat House.
It was built by the City as part of the Eastern beaches Park development in 1932.
It had ramps for the boats (since the shoreline was higher at that time) and eight large doorways. Later, the sides were removed and the building was converted into a picnic shelter.

 This Life Saving Station has been a Beaches icon for as long as I can remember. It almost always appears in a picture of the beach somewhere by someone.

At the foot of Scarboro' Beach Boulevard sits a 1993 Toronto Historical Board Plaque for the amusement park that once operated here.

The attractions at this park were numerous, ranging from rides such as the Scenic Railway, which was just another name for a roller coaster. There were performers, games, and musicians, but the most popular attraction was the Water Chute Ride.

The group then walked north on Glen Manor Drive to Queen Street, and stopped at the Ivan Forrest Gardens.
The original stream and pond can still be seen in this little ravine.

The tour continued along Queen Street, we (Marcia and I) decided to stop for coffee and search the street for a used clothing shop.
The rest of the folks followed Ms. Myrvold to visit the first Beaches Telephone Exchange and the Library....both of which I had covered in another post.

 

Kew Williams House

Last Saturday my friend Marcia and I made our way over to Lee Avenue to attend the plaque presentation at the Kew Williams House.

Heritage Toronto and the Toronto Public Library were unveiling a plaque for this historic stone house, that was built in 1902.

It is designed in the Queen Anne Revival style, and it was the only building not moved nor demolished when Kew Gardens was made into a public park.
For about 90 years, the house was the residence of the park caretakers, or gardeners, as I like to call them.
The event was hosted by Ross Fair, a Heritage Toronto Board member.

There was quite a turnout; some of the relatives of the caretakers/gardeners were present, and a few politicians, and a representative from Scotiabank.

Here is a better....closer look at the plaque:

After the unveiling, we were invited for a look through the ground floor of the building.

This is the stairway to the second floor:

Here are two pictures of the windows:

The other wonderful thing about this property is the garden, or gardens.
The City employs three gardeners to look after everything...and I think that they do a great job!!

Tour of the Don Jail

In March of this year, I joined a group of Heritage Toronto members who were gathered inside the St. Matthew's Lawn Bowling Clubhouse on Broadview Avenue.

The Riverdale Historical Society and Heritage Toronto arranged for a presentation of two plaques commemorating the houses at the Don Jail (the Gatekeeper's House and the Governor's House).

Afterward we were treated to a special tour of the refurbished Don Jail.
We gathered on the second floor of the new Bridgepoint Active Health Centre, where an architect from ERA proudly began to explain some of the highlights surrounding the restoration of the Don.

We were lead through a skywalk that connected the health centre to the jail.
Restoration included removing some 30 coats of lead paint from all of the walls, and installing storm windows for better energy consumption.

The cells have been converted into administration offices, but the exterior entranceways have been left. The architects installed frosted glass where the cell doors would have been, and the interior walls were removed to accomodate office spaces.

The rotunda, with its catwalks and sky lights was fascinating....

A closer look at the supports:

It should be noted here that some human remains were found during the excavations in 2007, and you can read about it here in the Star:
http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/260592

 John Greene was the first jail Governor and resided in the building until the stink of vomit, urine and molds from the cells finally forced him and his wife to move into their own residence on Gerrard Street.

According to the City of Toronto, the official plans for the remainder of the property will include a public park and a multi-use pathway to Riverdale East.