The Toronto Islands

What is a Blog, if not for posting stuff about the City and its environs.
So, herewith is some pictures and trivia taken over the years about Ward's Island - which is part of the Toronto Islands.
First of all, you must take one of three ferries to these islands (there are 14 islands in all).

Pictured above, is the Ongiara, an open concept ferry that runs to Ward's.
It is my favourite ride, and is able to carry work vehicles.

 
As the plaque here explains, these islands are simply a sandbar that was created about eight thousand years ago.

  

Mosaic Mural

Walking along Danforth Avenue a few weeks ago, I spotted some activity inside the "Bus Terminal Restaurant". It has been closed now for over  a year, and it looks like they might re-open.

This week, Marcia and I were getting off the Coxwell bus and decide to have a late breakfast. So I suggested checking out the Bus Terminal Restaurant, nearby.
Despite the recent renovations, they have kept the dragon and some photos of movie stars.
I was also pleased to see that the old food sign showing the 50's prices, was still intact.

The place was clean, food was good; and once sated, we headed back to the subway.
As we were leaving, I stopped to read a poster on the fence beside the restaurant. It describes the mural that was created by volunteers and students from the area.

According to the City of Toronto web site, the mural celebrates the life and spirit of the local community. The quote at the bottom from Agnes McPhail reads: "We meet all life's greatest tests alone".

It runs from the entrance way on Strathmore Boulevard, then south beside the Coxwell Subway Station, around the corner and along the north perimeter of the parking lot on Danforth Avenue.
Here are some pictures of the mural with its mosaic images.

This certainly beats having to look at all sorts of graffiti that has marred the area. Perhaps, as a result, the walls and fences will be kept a little cleaner.
Kudos to all those folks involved in the project!

The Music Garden

It was Thursday....and the beginning of a summer filled with free music at the Waterfront's Music Garden.
This will continue until September 13th, and performances will take place on Thursdays at 7 pm and Sundays at 4 pm., weather permitting.

Go to the City of Toronto web site for the schedule or go to this URL:

http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/summermusic/2015/

Tom Tollefson, an architectural blacksmith fabricated this Music Pavilion, pictured above.

The late Anne Roberts, of Feir Mill Design in Omemee, Ontario, was the creator of the Maypole that you see here.

The crowds gathered here early to hear some aboriginal music this evening.

Julie Messervy designed the garden in collaboration with the landscape architects from the City's Parks, Forestry and Recreation Department.
Its design interprets, in nature, Bach's First Suite for an Unaccompanied Cello.

With each movement (within the Suite) a different section of the various grasses and flowers have been designed to correspond.

 

Ice

Yesterday Marcia and I visited the AGO to view the current exhibit.... "The Great Upheaval".

There were paintings by Matisse, Picasso and Modigliani, to name a few, and all were done in an era from 1910 to 1918. 

We were taken through the time period before the First World War, during the war, and after it. The effect was to show the differences in the mood of the artists as they lived through this upheaval in Europe.

I like most of the art work, but have limited patience for being in art galleries.

Afterwards, we retired to a cafe across the street (Espresso Etc). I always have found the houses on this block of Dundas Street to be wondeful examples of some Victorian homes.

The constant freezing and warming over the past few days has created some special ice sculptures that needed to be caught and published.

 

This, of course, is not on Dundas, but on the corner of Church and Maitland.

Soon the renos will be done, and patio season will be upon us. 

Can't wait! 

Sugar Beach

On August 9, 2010, a new Beach magically appeared in Toronto's East Bayfront neighbourhood.

In 2002, Waterfrontoronto held a competition to design a park in a 2 acre space just west of the new Corus Entertainment building.Where there was once an industrial parking lot with crumbling pavement, there now sits a pure white sandy beach, complete with pink umbrellas and white wooden chairs...
.....add to that a few candy-striped rock outcroppings, and Voila! you have a place for residents and visitors alike to enjoy the sun, the sailboats, and the view.

According to their web site, the park/beach will also have a multi-use pathway cutting through it, that will connect to the Waterfront Trail.


There are 57 trees, 150 chairs and 36 umbrellas in this 8500 metre space that sits alongside the Redpath Sugar Refinery at the foot of Lower Jarvis.

Tall Ships

Not only was it Canada Day yesterday, but it was also a day to venture out and view the Tall Ships at the Waterfront.

So.... with camera in hand, herewith are some pictures taken at Queen's Quay on a summer day.

This is the German vessel "Brigg Roald Amundsen"

It was originally designed as a deep sea fish logger in 1952.

Apparently, the difference between a brig and a schooner is the position and size of the masts, as well as the type of sails aboard.

All of these ships, by the way, are either training ships or teaching platforms, except the Toronto Harbour Touring Vessels.
The next ship on our tour is the Roseway.

This is a gaff rigged schooner out of St Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.


The last ship on this blog is the Empress Sandy.
She' s anchored in the Spadina Slip, and is a Toronto Harbour Cruise Vessel.


By this time the crowds were getting larger and it was becoming more and more difficult to maneuver. I still have the rest of the long weekend to visit the rest of the ships.

Street names

The other day, my friend Marcia was strolling along Grosvenor Street, when she happened upon a new street sign for a lane way running between Grosvenor and Grenville Streets.

Later on that day, she called to ask me if I knew about the name and why the City of Toronto chose it.
When I Googled the name "St. Vincent Street Toronto" I got a PDF document about 832 Bay Street (the old Addison on Bay Dealership).

As I scrolled further down, there was a review of the book "Toronto A Literary Guide" by someone in New Brunswick. Incidentally, this book won the Toronto Book Award in 2000.

The writer had looked through the book for an author named Willa Cather who spent some time in Toronto around 1910-1920.
Willa apparently stayed with a friend who lived at 38 St. Vincent Street. This short street was annexed by the City into the Terauley Extension, and then later as Bay Street.

So the lane way is named after a street that no longer exists in the downtown core; and it seems that there are a number of streets in this area named after saints, such as St. Joseph, St. Nicholas, and St. Mary.

Upon further reading, I found that a few doors away, in 1894, a man named Dr. Henry Holmes resided briefly. Select the link to see more information, and a picture of this man, who would become America's first serial killer.

The number 16 St Vincent Street became the centre of attention for the City and the local Constabulary, when someone discovered two bodies of little children buried beneath the house.

Holmes's exploits are chronicled in the non-fiction book titled "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Lawson.
This little bit of trivia sounds like a good episode for "Murdoch Mysteries".

The picture of the sign is mine, but the black and whites are courtesy of the Toronto Archives.

The Rex

On my way over to brunch at the Queen Mother Cafe, I happened to look up and see two guys painting a mural on the side of this building.

For those of you who are not familiar with this intersection.....it's The REX.

This is where Jazz lives on Queen West.





If you go to their web site; not only will you hear some jazz; but you can see the finished mural.

Roncesvalles

The other day, I wrote about the Edgewater Hotel sign being removed by the City.

Today, I was able to find pictures on BlogTO of this intersection.

Here you see the corner building known as the B & G Coffee Shop and Milk Bar.
The hotel was just being built when this picture was taken in 1949.



Flash forward to the 70's and we find that the B & G sign and the big horizontal stripes have disappeared.

The hotel seems to be thriving and the coffee shop has become a travel bureau for Gray Coach.




It's interesting to note that in 1985 the "Mad Bomber" placed dynamite in the washroom of the Gray Coach Terminal here as well as at the Eglinton Station on TTC property.

Both bombs exploded with no injuries, and the man was caught but later escaped, and never re-captured.


Today McDonald's sits at this corner, the hotel's name has changed to Days Inn and taggers have put a lot of graffitti on the old billboard.

The Edgewater Hotel

Last summer I was strolling along Roncesvalles, near Queen West - when I looked up to see that the neon sign still sits on this building.There's a lot of history here, so I snapped a picture of the sign attached to the Days Inn.


But now, according to the Torontoist the Edgewater sign has come down.






City officials ordered that the Parkdale landmark be removed on November 3, after nearly three years of working to convince the owner of the building to make necessary repairs. According to a Municipal Licensing and Standards manager, the sign had finally become so derelict that city inspectors deemed it unsafe.

The Stewart Building

Architect E.J. Lennox built this reddish-coloured sandstone structure in 1894.

It was home to the Toronto Athletic Club - an all male bastion- and had Toronto's first indoor swimming pool.


The Stewart Building, reflected in the windows of the Ontario Power Generation office building.

According to the information found on the web, the Toronto Athletic Club used this building until 1931; but there seems to be a conflict here.

Below is a picture from the Toronto Archives that shows it being used as a barracks during the First World War.



As well, there are pictures (again courtesy of the Toronto Archives) to show that the swimming pool in the basement was being used for Chemistry classes when the building was known as the Old Technical School; again circa 1908.


Thus far, I have not been able to find any written information about this school.
Most of the documents pertaining to 149 College are labelled "unavailable" in the Archives.

So it would seem that the men's club/spa vacated the building in just over ten years.
I am curious to know why & where did they go?

In 1931 the building became home to the Toronto Police Department, who used it as their headquarters until 1957, when they moved to Jarvis Street.
It was at this time that 52 Division moved in, and I have it on good authority that they used the empty pool to store stolen bicycles.

Also around this time a detainee reportedly committed suicide by jumping out a window. His ghost has managed to frighten a few OCAD students over the years.

The building was officially opened as the second campus for the Ontario College of Art & Design, by Lieutenant-Governor Pauline McGibbon in 1979.
For many years the old swimming pool was used as a world famous holography studio.

It is now home to the Rotman School of Management, part of the University of Toronto.

Kensington Market

This section of downtown Toronto is well-known by just about everyone who lives in the city, as well as those who don't.

There must be dozens of boutiques selling used clothing on Kensington Avenue.

One of the more popular places is "Courage My Love" which has been in operation for over 30 years. It seems to be more akin to a museum than a place to buy. The place is overflowing with beads, buttons and jewelry, as well as ties and hats.

In the 20's and 30's. this area was known to locals as the "Jewish Market".

Today, the market is as diverse as the city with stores selling an immense variety of meats, fish, fruits, vegetables and cheeses from around the world.

Kensington was designated a National Historic site in 2006, but is a real challenge to navigate in the summer months.

I believe that the city needs to close off the main streets of the market to vehicular traffic on weekends in the summer.

Don Valley Brick Works

The Don Valley Brickwork's history dates as far back as 1882, when the Taylor brothers found that the clay soil located in this bush was ideal for making bricks.

It was the longest running business of its kind in Ontario, and offered more products than any of its competitors.

This picture is dated 1891.

Their bricks were used to build such edifices as Massey Hall, T.G.H., and the Ontario Legislature, to name a few.



Over time, four chimneys were built for the wood and coal down-draft kilns.

The words "Don", "Valley", "Brick" and "Works" were spelled out on these chimneys.

When the plant closed in 1984, it had produced over 43 million bricks.

To-day only the "Valley" stack remains.



The area is now being restored as a park and heritage site. You can visit the site of the Evergreen Brick Works here.

The quarry is one of the few places in Toronto where the geological history is visible.
A wetland has been created in this area, along with a boardwalk.




Besides cycling and walking paths in the valley, there is now a market place for folks to enjoy.