Jane's Walk - The Landscape Archaeology of Garrison Creek

Teena and I really enjoy the Jane's Walks that are put on during the first weekend in may each year.

Today we did the Landscape Archeology of Garrison Creek walk with Jon Harstone, who is an author and local historian who lives in the west end of Toronto, with a background in architectural history and archaeology, he also is a former board member of Heritage Toronto and the former Chair of the Toronto Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee.

A small group of 30 started with us but doubled in size along the way.

We started at Christie Pits, which was not only around the origin of the former creek but was a huge sand pit.

The pit is almost square and that is because when the Bloor Subway was built, the south end of the park had to be built up to accommodate it.

This is Bickford Park at Harbord and Grace. It was once a brickyard that had a concrete bridge built over it. The Harbord bridge had since been buried with only this retaining wall left above ground. A man named Bickford owned the brickworks and Grace St is named after his daughter.

It is at the north end of the park that I saw the first bloomed flowers of the year. Nice to see some colour.

Along Grace you can notice how the houses slowly step down and then back up again in the distance. A tributary to the creek came through this section,which is why it is lower.

Jon also pointed out that when you see the front of houses with retaining walls and built on an upgrade, it usually means it was built at the edge of a ravine. 

Between the brickyards, and industries that lined Garrison Creek, it became dangerous and polluted and finally was buried in a brick sewer, now known as the Garrison Creek Sewer. This picture is from the Vanishing Point.

These houses on Crawford lined the west side of the ravine. Across the street on the east side were homes built around the 1880s.

 

Then and now pictures are always interesting. Here are four homes on Crawford at College from around a hundred or more years ago, and as they are now. Yes, the stores at the bottom were buried by landfill.

 

Jon explained that only one story buildings were allowed to be built over a sewer so all along the Garrison Creek sewer are schools with a one floor wing sticking off one end. That is because that part of the school is built over the sewer.

Many years ago on Harrison St which runs into Ossington Ave in a gully, homes were built. Then the city came along and raised the grade with landfill. Three story homes became two story homes with a lower level. The living room windows and front doors had the be changed. Not much a view from the original living room window!

 

 
The three manhole here trace the line of the sewer. The third one is on the driveway. The house on the right is set back from the others as the sewer runs under it's front yard.

 

At the corner of Shaw and Dundas sits two buildings which sit on an angle to the rest of the  intersection. The reason? The sewer runs between them.

In Trinity Bellwoods Park sits a statue dedicated to the liberator of South America, Simon Bolivar. Why? I really have no idea but it's fun that it's there.

Another then and now shot. Here is now. These homes sit on a weird angle to the street to the left. The reason? They used to be on the edge of the ravine, plus a bridge ran over the ravine. These houses are in the background of the bridge.

Our last stop was at the oldest tree in Trinity Bellwoods Park.

It was a fabulous day, sunny and we had a great guide. If this walk is put on next year, I would recommend it! Thanks, Jon!

Jane's Walk - Visions of Parkdale Past and Future

 On the first weekend of May, Toronto hosts a series of  Jane's Walks.

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was an urbanist and activist whose writings championed a fresh, community-based approach to city building. She had no formal training as a planner, and introduced ground-breaking ideas about how cities function, evolve and fail that now seem like common sense to generations of architects, planners, politicians and activists. Jacobs saw cities as ecosystems that had their own logic and dynamism which would change over time according to how they were used. She promoted higher density in cities, short blocks, local economies and mixed uses. Jacobs helped derail the car-centred approach to urban planning in both New York and Toronto, invigorating neighbourhood activism by helping stop the expansion of expressways and roads. 

She lived in Greenwich Village for decades, then moved to Toronto in 1968 where she continued her work and writing until her death in April 2006. A firm believer in the importance of local residents having input on how their neighbourhoods develop, Jacobs encouraged people to familiarize themselves with the places where they live, work and play.

 

The walk Teena and I did in our neighborhood today was called Visions of Parkdale, Past and Future, in the Balance.  

Alec Keefer will lead us through what remains of the first lakeside Estates near King street, then show us remnants of the Mansions on Jameson. Where are they? We will see the Middle class homes and Institutions on Dunn and other streets. We will see the various pockets of blue collar housing. Why are they in these places? Alec will trace the changes in Spencer and Tyndall, leading us into Liberty Village, at the border of Parkdale. 

Jack Gibney will describe a vision of a beautiful Historic village with increased housing, commercial and parking space and plans to preserve some beautiful buildings and make Parkdale the Paris of Toronto.

Alex Keefer, to the left below, has lived in Parkdale for 30 years and has written many books mostly on the architectural growth of Toronto. Jack Gibney, in the middle, helped to organize the Parkdale Village Historical Society. Mona, the society's secretary, is in costume on the left.

Alec was a fountain of knowledge of the neighborhood and it was hard to remember or note it all. Here are some pictures and things I do remember.

Tiller Ave is an example of street design that Jane Jacobs would approve of. Beautiful residential homes on one side of the street and multi-family buildings on the other. The dark brown house on the right is 112 years old!

 

On Wilson Park Road sits this yellow house down the end of this laneway. It once was an estate house that sat on its own. The front of the house faces the lane. When it was built, these two other houses didn't exist and the laneway was in fact a long driveway from the house to King. Now the back of the house, which sits at an odd angle between two streets, has an address on Beatty, the street behind.

I loved this house at the corner of Wilson Park Road and King. It's built in a series of octagons.

This house on Dowling was built in 1870. There is a story about the original owners, that I didn't get notes on. Much research to do later.

I loved this house and the design beneath its windows. There used to be a veranda on the south side of the house where semi-circle window is. Families used to sleep on their verandas on hot summer nights to take advantage of the cool breezes that would come up off the lake.

 

 

At the corner of Dowling and King is the original home of Canada's first black doctor, Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott.

On the north-east corner across from it is the home of Canada's Postmaster when Laurier was Prime Minister. I love the dome.

These two places sit a street apart. They are sister homes. Jack and Mona fully renovated the home at the bottom to its former beauty.

 

This building was one of the first apartments built with full electricity.

I borrowed this picture from Teena. This is a picture of Cowan Ave. The houses on the right have very small backyards while the ones on the left have none. We didn't go down the street and apparently the ROM does a one hour walk just for this one street. We'll have to go back sometime.

This old apartment at the corner of Spencer and King was built around the early 1900s. Something tells me that I may have visited an aunt who lived here way back in the sixties.

We then traveled into the Liberty Village area where all the old factories have been turned to other uses. It was raining and my pictures all have watermarks. I love the area and this summer plan to got there on a bright sunny days for photos and research.

I do want to finish with pictures of one building which sits on Atlantic. It is a formidable looking place that I always wondered about. At one time it was home to the records of the Bank of Commerce. The records were held here for seven years before being sent off for more permanent storage. Now it houses items from the Eaton collection. It would be so much fun to get a tour of it!

It was the loading dock and steel doors that always intrigued me.

 

 

It was a cold, wet, fun afternoon. Alec told many interesting and humorous stories. He knows the area, probably better than anyone and is very passionate about how it should be developed in the future.

Thanks to Alec, Jack and Mona for a great afternoon!

Jane's Walk - An Insider's View of Ossington

Teena and I did two Jane's Walks today.

The first was in Parkdale. T

he second one was An Insider's View of Ossington, led by Melinda Medley and Brian Sharwood who have a blog appropriately called Ossington Village.On the walk I learned many interesting things on how the street has changed over the past five to ten years.

For instance, I never knew this building on the corner of Queen and Ossington was once a Buddhist Temple.

Think you're not 'hip' enough for this strip? Think again! Local bloggers from Ossington Village Blog will take you on a tour of the 'hood - showing you the hot spots you've read about and maybe some you haven't even heard of ... yet. We'll show off all the things that make our neighborhood a hot destination for dining, music, theatre, art, shopping and even more. Ossington Village, where entertainment starts!

Just after we met, this fellow came by and insisted on doing a rap song for us, after which he, of course, asked for money. It was quite hilarious!

This obviously was once a fire hall. The tall tower was used to dry the hoses after battling a fire. Now it is part of CAMH as a men's withdrawal centre.

We were told the history of Rebecca Street the first east-west street north of Queen. At one time, there was a toll booth at Queen and Ossington and people used this lane to avoid the toll. It was likely named after the Rebecca Toll riots in Wales.

I didn't know the street was once a hub for printers. Some evidence of that still remains

Before the neighborhood became trendy, it was mostly Vietnamese with many Pho restaurants on it. A few still exist. Two on this street made Blog TO's Best Pho in Toronto list. I have to try it some time.

I loved the brickwork on this building

The House of Horvath makes cigars, although we were told it is cheaper to buy them at the airport. St Christopher House painted a mural along its wall.

Levack Block is a great looking building. Teena and I were at a free rum tasting a couple of years ago.

In the late 1960s, the area had many rooming houses which made it easy for James Earl Ray to hide out in this building after assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. before fleeing to England where he was eventually arrested.

This building, now a sales centre for a very controversial condo which is to be built, was a boxing gym and was where Mohammad Ali trained for his championship fight against George Chuvalo in 1966

My favorite place on the street, Bellwood's Brewery.

St Christopher House at the corner of Dundas and Ossington. They have been helping people in the community for over 100 years.

Our last stop was at The Communist's Daughter. There was a band jammed in who played us one of their original tunes.

Thanks to Melinda and Brian for putting on a fun interesting walk!