Remnants of a Fading Toronto

A collection of pictures I've been taking of some of my favourite old buildings and ghost ads in the city - documented before they can suffer some horrid fate at the hands of "progress" and new development.

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Much Ado on the Danforth

Banner image is of the Danforth looking east from Logan in 1932. Courtesy of City of Toronto Archives. Danforth Avenue (or, the Danforth as we locals call it) is, undoubtedly, one of the city’s great strips. A bustling, vibrant stretch, chock-a-block with shops, restaurants, bars and venues, it is a true gem in the city’s grid. But, naturally, it wasn’t always that way.  Laid out in 1851, it…

Much Ado on the Danforth

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Davids and Daniel - King St Druggists

Davids and Daniel – King St Druggists

Banner image is of E. E. Rutherford’s Cut Rate Drug Store at Spadina and Nassau, circa 1915. Courtesy of Toronto Public Library. If I had a time machine, there’d be many aspects of 19th century Toronto life which I’d love to travel back to and experience firsthand – but medical care would not be one of them. That’s because, up until the mid-19th century, doctors were most commonly general…

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Duane's on Roncesvalles

Duane’s on Roncesvalles

Banner image is of a Toronto Hydro Electric storefront, with shoe display, taken on June 12, 1924. From the Toronto City Archives. For some years now I’ve been prowling the city, hunting and photographing the terrazzo entrances of bygone Toronto businesses.  Some of these inspired entries in my book, Toronto: City of Commerce 1800 – 1960, while others I’ve been saving up to write about here. …

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Toronto: City of Commerce 1800 - 1960

Toronto: City of Commerce 1800 – 1960

Hello friends! I’ve a line-up of fun entries to post here soon, but I would be seriously remiss if I did not share some rather big news in this gal’s world … This past week marked the official release of my book! Getting my first look at the book in print. Inspired by ghost signs found around the city, Toronto: City of Commerce 1800 – 1960, is a collection of stories about the city’s early…

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The Last Ghost of Scarboro Beach Park

The Last Ghost of Scarboro Beach Park

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The Last Ghost of Scarboro Beach Park

The Last Ghost of Scarboro Beach Park

Banner photo is a view of attractions at Scarboro Beach Park, 1910. Courtesy of Toronto Public Library. For a devotee of the Canadian National Exhibition – or “Ex” as it’s better known – this is an odd, vaguely melancholy time. This weekend would normally mark the last weekend of the annual fair and, by this point, I would’ve already visited at least once, had a candy apple and purchased a…

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Joselin Bros

Banner image is of traffic at Bathurst-Fleet St intersection in 1945. Courtesy of Toronto Public Library. Well, here we are nearing the end of the long, hot summer and I realize – once again – that it’s been far too long since I’ve posted anything new. Believe it or not, this has not been due to a lack of material but, rather, that I’ve so many projects on the go I hardly know where to start.…

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The Boot and Shoe Men of 142 King St E

The Boot and Shoe Men of 142 King St E

Banner photo is of King St E, looking west from Jarvis, 1868 – Courtesy of the Toronto Public Library. On the north side of King St E, at Jarvis, stands a building which has been watching Toronto’s progress since the late 1840s. Once part of a clutch of early commercial buildings which sat just east of St James Cathedral, 142 King St E is now the last of the gang. Photo: K. Taylor, 2019. The…

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The Taylor Girls' Toronto

The Taylor Girls’ Toronto

Banner image is of the Toronto skyline at night, between 1976 and 1994. Courtesy of City of Toronto Archives. It has been far too long since I last wrote here and so much has changed in that time that it’s hard to know where to begin.  Of course, it would be impossible to write a word here without mention of COVID-19 which, ages ago now, seemed a story happening elsewhere but has since stretched…

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Sign of the Eye: The Story of Dr. F. A. Cadwell

Sign of the Eye: The Story of Dr. F. A. Cadwell

Banner image is of King St looking east from west  of Leader Lane, 1847.  Courtesy of Toronto Public Library.

The history of ophthalmology in Toronto is quite an interesting one, if not a particularly long one.  As with a number of other medical specialists in the early 19th century, there weren’t a whole lot of ophthalmologists – or oculists, as they were then known – kicking about town.  Which…

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Christmas Shopping

Banner image is of a Christmas window display, featuring gas ranges and water heaters, in 1937.  Courtesy of Toronto City Archives. 

Well, here we are on the cusp of Christmas once again and, I have to say, I’m feeling quite festive.  The tree’s up, carols are tinkling in the background and I’ve big plans for baking a bunch of stuff I don’t need to eat.  I’ve even managed to get some Christmas…

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Jordan and Melinda: In the End

Jordan and Melinda: In the End

Banner imagine is of Jordan St, looking north from Melinda to King, in 1907.  Courtesy of Toronto Public Library.

In our last visits to Jordan and Melinda, we first met the streets in the 1830s as they emerged from the once private land of an American named John Van Zant, and watched as they grew from a quiet residential neighbourhood into the tony address of some of the city’s biggest movers and…

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Jordan and Melinda Continued

Jordan and Melinda Continued

Banner image is of the north-east corner of Melinda and Jordan, circa 1858.  Courtesy of Toronto Public Library.

When last we left Jordan, in the late 1830s, the young street had begun to see some development.  Carved from a lot belonging to Jordan Post, it soon became home to a number of tradesmen, as well as William Gurd’s gun factory and the Rev. James Richardson‘s Christian Guardian newspaper.

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Jordan and Melinda: In The Beginning

Jordan and Melinda: In The Beginning

Banner image is of Melinda St looking west to Bay, circa 1910.  Courtesy of Toronto City Archives.

Street-wise, the Financial District (as we now know it) is much as it was when first laid out as New Town in the late 1790s.  It is where the famed Toronto grid is sparest and, to my mind, most evident.  But, happily, there are a few oddball streets to be found here – rare cuts into the old town…

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Moss Park Historical Tours

Moss Park Historical Tours

Banner photo is of Queen and Sherbourne, looking NW, on July 3, 1923.  Courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives. Hello all! I’m very pleased to announce that Amazing Moss Park – a wonderful community group made up of residents and business owners – has invited me to lead two historic tours of the neighbourhood on Saturday, April 28th. The first tour will explore the history of William Allan and…

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Gifford Street

Banner image is of Toronto General Hospital on Gerrard St.  From A History of Toronto General Hospital, 1913. Tucked away between Sackville and Sumach, running north from Gerrard, is a short street with a rather unique history. Gifford St looking north from Gerrard. If you were to look it up, you would find that Gifford St is most notable for its lack of Victorian architecture – something that’s…

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Window Dressing

Banner image is of the Murray Kay Co store windows.  From the Dry Goods Review, 1912. In 1890, with very little fanfare (i.e. none), a man named George Cole, who worked at Simpson’s department store, became the very first person in Toronto to claim the title of “window dresser.” From the Toronto City Directory, 1890. Sadly, beyond the fact that he lived on Cumberland, next to the Church of the…

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