Category Archives: Toronto History and Institutions

Toronto history and institutions

05.19.13
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Frank William Micklethwaite (1849-1925) & turn-of-the-century TORONTO

MICKLETHWAITE7MICKLETHWAITE1The legacy of FRANK WILLIAM MICKLETHWAITE is a huge collection of photographs portraying turn-of-the-century TORONTO and Ontario.  These unique images are more than ‘photographs of record’.  They make our city’s early streetscapes and architecture come alive.

Born in Lancashire, England, he moved first to Ireland (PHOTO – the family’s photography wagon, Ireland), and then to Canada in 1875.  After three years of proofreading at the Globe, Micklethwaite opened a commercial photography business in downtown TORONTO.  Specializing in outside views and landscapes, as well as architectural images, he became one of this city’s best known photographers.

Many of F.W. Micklethwaite’s photographs are held by the Library and Archives of Canada and the City of Toronto Archives.  He died on December 5, 1925, and was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery next to his wife, Ruth.

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PHOTOS ABOVE – 1) Road and sidewalk repairs, Adelaide Street;  2) corner of Front and Yonge Streets;  3) corner of Church and King Street East;  4) the Micklethwaite studio above John Wanless Company

05.16.13
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YORKVILLE’S RIVERBOAT – LONG GONE, BUT FONDLY REMEMBERED

RIVERBOAT1YORKVILLE was the epi-centre of TORONTO’s youth and hippie culture back in the sixties.  And the RIVERBOAT COFFEE HOUSE was the epi-centre of Yorkville.  All that remains of this famous establishment is a plaque in front of a new five-star hotel.  Some of the biggest names in music – Canadian and otherwise – played at the Riverboat: Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLauchlan, Dan Hill and Neil Young, among others.

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The cafe is immoralized in ‘Ambulance Blues’ by NEIL YOUNG, shown below in 1965 performing at the RIVERBOAT.  <PHOTO – Manfred Buchheit>

Back in the old folky days
The air was magic when we played.
The Riverboat was rockin’
in the rain
Midnight was the time
for the raid.

Oh, Isabela, proud Isabela,
They tore you down and
plowed you under.
You’re only real
with your make-up on
How could I see you
and stay too long?

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03.15.13
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St. Michael’s Boy’s Choir – 190 voices strong – sang for POPE FRANCIS in April.

CHOIR1St. Michael’s Choir School, founded in 1937, is sending its famous boy’s choir to perform for newly-installed Pope Francis.  Some 190 students sang at Vatican City’s Basilica of Saint Peter on April 7 – as part of a mass conducted by the Archbishop of TORONTO, Thomas Cardinal Collins.  The appearance will mark the first Vatican performance for St. Michael’s Choir School in 16 years.  The school is located at 69 Bond Street.

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02.07.13
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The Canary – a defunct greasy spoon – has some new neighbours

CANARY2The re-routing of Bayview Extension spelled the end for TORONTO’s popular Canary Restaurant on Cherry Street.  This was the place for hot turkey sandwiches, meatloaf and coffee from a bottomless pot.

The structure has been saved, and will soon become a restored Canary neighbourhood landmark – adjacent to the 2015 Pan-American Games Athlete’s Village.

The building was first constructed in 1859 (Joseph Sheard, architect), with additions built in 1869 (William Irving, architect), 1890 (David Roberts Jr., architect) and 1891 (Sproatt and Rolph, architects). It was originally the Palace Street School, later the D’Arcy Hotel, and in 1906 it became the Cherry Street Hotel.

<PHOTO BELOW – Bill Wrigley, the Canary Restaurant; as it is today; shooting the crime drama “Get Rich or Die Tryin’” with rapper, 50Cent>

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02.06.13
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LEICESTER finds King Richard III; TORONTO finds dozens under the asphalt

CARPARK1As the song goes, “we’ll all be lying equal in the grave”.  This was proven true when the University of Leicester unearthed the skeleton of King Richard III recently.  The last Plantagenet king of England had been lying underneath a parking lot for about 500 years.  Who knew?

CARPARK2TORONTO is an old hand at digging up carparks and finding skeletons under them.  No kings, but at least 11 skeletons (PHOTO BELOW) were found buried beneath the Don Jail carpark in 2007.  Evidence shows they were prisoners sent to the gallows in the late 19th century.  The old Don Jail, which opened in 1864, was the scene of more than 24 executions before the death penalty was abolished in 1976.

CARPARK3Below the asphalt of St. James Cathedral’s parking lot were several unmarked graves, and beneath the schoolyard of St. Paul’s Catholic School (adjacent to the Basilica of St. Paul’s) is an unmarked graveyard of victims of the Great Irish Famine.

01.28.13
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1928 OSHAWA-built Buick – used extensively by royalty – on the auction block . . .

BONHAMS<1928 model year McLaughlin-Buick 496 Tourer, PHOTO – Bonham’s>

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is, and has long been, a major automobile manufacturing region.  From 1876, OSHAWA was home to the McLaughlin Carriage Company, which produced  more than 25,000 carriages a year.  By 1915, under the presidency of “Colonel” Sam McLaughlin, the company was turning out roughly one horseless carriage every ten minutes.

  The McLaughlin-Buick 496 Tourer (ABOVE) was one of only two built for a royal visit to Canada.  Custom-built McLaughlin-Buicks, designed and detailed with elegance in mind, were used extensively by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), his brother the Duke of York (later King George VI) and shipped from province to province by train.  Somehow they ended up in the United Kingdom.

A few of these classic vehicles will be auctioned off by Bonham’s in Oxford, England on March 2/2013.

01.19.13
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The Scadding townhouse & Scadding cabin connect us to Toronto’s past . . .

SCADDING5SCADDING1TRINITY SQUARE, cradled by the Eaton Centre and a stone’s throw from City Hall, was home to the Reverend Henry Scadding from 1862 to 1901.  His modest brick townhouse, with its little balcony, sits between downtown’s largest indoor shopping centre and Church of the Holy Trinity.

This Gothic Revival church was built in 1847 by architect Henry Bower Lane, with funds provided by Mary Lambert Swale of Sette, England.  Holy Trinity was the fourth Anglican church in Toronto, after St. James Cathedral, Little Trinity and St. George the Martyr.

HENRY SCADDING, a native of Devonshire, came to Upper Canada in 1821.  He was educated at Cambridge University and Upper Canada College, and was ordained to the Anglican priesthood in 1838.  In that same year, he was appointed Master of Classics at Upper Canada College, and nine years later rector of  the Church of the Holy Trinity -  next door.  He served until 1875.

The townhouse, which complements the church, was designed by Scottish architect William Hay.  In this house, Scadding wrote numerous religious, literary and historical works, including his best-known books, ‘Toronto of Old’(1873) and, in collaboration with J.C. Dent, ‘Toronto: Past and Present’ (1884).

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TORONTO’s oldest house, the John Scadding Cabin, was constructed by the Queen’s Rangers in 1794.  JOHN SCADDING (1754-1824), clerk to Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, and eventually the father of three sons, lived here in a single room.  The cabin, constructed of squared, white pine logs with dovetailed corners, was a typical settler’s first house.

It was originally on the east bank of the Don River.  In 1879, the York Pioneer Society moved the cabin to its present location at Exhibition Place – Toronto’s earliest example of architectural preservation.

These buildings still exist – the Church of the Holy Trinity and Henry Scadding’s townhouse in Trinity Square; and John Scadding’s log cabin at Exhibition Place.  They’ve played an important role in building our city – and the church continues to do so today.

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