Category: Toronto

Davisville hotel to disappear (1928)

Photostory From the Toronto Evening Telegram, June 1928 Old North Toronto landmark at southeast corner of Yonge and Davisville has been sold for $80,000 — may become site for an apartment house. The sale was made to a Toronto investor through Sam D. Boyd, Ltd., St. Clair and Yonge realty firm. ♦    

First Home of Heintzman Piano Factory

From Toronto Evening Telegram, 1928 When King Street, from Yonge Street to the Market, was Toronto’s busiest shopping district, Heintzman’s piano factory was at number 117, just east of Church Street, opposite St. James Cathedral. This is a picture of the factory taken about 1880. “Ye Olde Firme” occupied these premises until removal to the…

Toronto’s ‘400’ Sometimes Visit Pawnbrokers (1914)

From the Toronto Star Weekly, June 13, 1914 “It is a great mistake,” said a local pawnbroker, “to imagine that the pawnbroker deals only with the poverty-stricken classes. The pawnbroker in a big way of business could reveal, if he so chose, some very surprising secrets of the business he transacts with customers whom the…

Archaeology of Toronto’s ‘Ward’

The Ward Uncovered: The Archaeology of Everyday Life, edited by Holly Martelle, Michael McClelland, Tatum Taylor, and John Lorinc. (Coach House Books, 2018) In recent years the history of the old “Ward” neighbourhood of downtown Toronto has been reclaimed and remembered in books, museum exhibits, and, most significantly, a vast archaeological dig behind City Hall…

Toronto City Guide befits a great city

Toronto Architecture: A City Guide (McClelland & Stewart) From the Canadian Jewish News, February 2018 In 1985, when architectural journalist Patricia McHugh released the first edition of her encyclopedic Toronto Architecture: A City Guide, the old industrial and residential neighbourhoods near the downtown core were still in decline, and, although the city was experiencing a…

OJA exhibit pays homage to Benjamin Brown

From the Canadian Jewish News, February 2016 “Location, location, location,” they say, are the three most important things in real estate. If so, the Ontario Jewish Archives (OJA) has scored a wonderful coup by securing the Urbanspace Gallery in the majestic loft building at 401 Richmond Street West as the venue for an exhibition in…

Infuriated Toronto Youths Riot Over Showing of Swastika (1933)

Police Rushed to Willowvale Park After Ball Game to Restore Order From The Montreal Gazette, August 17, 1933 Toronto August 16 — Hundreds of infuriated Jewish and Gentile youths clashed, and a mob of 10,000 surged riotously around Willowvale Park tonight after a large swastika emblem painted on a white quilt had been displayed on the…

Saving the Babies of Toronto’s Poor—Pure Milk Depots Doing Grand Work (1911)

From the Toronto Star Weekly, August 26 1911 Enterprise of the Household Economic Association Has Achieved Wonderful Results—Little Ones so Frail They Had to Be Carried on Pillows Have Been Bolstered Up Into Strength—Certified Milk Sold for Eight Cents a Quart, the Society Paying Difference Between Cost and Selling Price — Three Depots in Active Operation.…

Toronto had 3,000 cars in 1911 (Star Weekly)

  Hamilton man owned first motor in Canada J.C. Eaton of Toronto Bought the Second – Wonderful Development of the Automobile in the Past Six Years – 3,000 Cars Owned in This City From Star Weekly Feb 11 1911 The development of the automobile during the past five or six years has been simply wonderful.…

Christian missions proselytized Jews in ‘the Ward’

From the Canadian Jewish News, April 2015 Having recently marked its 25th anniversary, the organization Jews for Judaism continues to counter the activities of missionary groups in Toronto that deceptively target Jews for conversion. However, Christian missions to the Jews are certainly nothing new in this city. In the era before the First World War, a…