Spring 2010
friends in
Fundraising
Roads scholar: Our storied street names
Forest Hill gal pals help Haiti and other causes
Trailblazing: A walk through Forest Hill history Another MulticomMedia Publication
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Dear Town Crier Reader
F
or the past three years in the Town Crier’s Forest Hill Today, we have explored the question, “What makes up a community?”. For the fourth annual Forest Hill Today, we take a closer look at the people that comprise this distinctive community, like Forest Hill Collegiate graduate Stan Levenson, who became an Olympic class runner only to be struck down by illness and rise again. Speaking of those who spent their formative years in Forest Hill, we visit well-known celebrity photographers Tom and Aline Sandler in their Upper Village home, chatting with them about working together as they work the red carpet, and learning more of their roots in the neighbourhood. We also tell the stories of locals who create community in different ways. Friends Judy Joseph and Jayne Miles Simpson, who grace our cover, are active in their respective church communities and beyond. Their helpful reach even extends to other countries to help the youth there. And we don’t forget the younger generation. Twenty-something style blogger and aspiring interior decorator Jessica Waks tells us about being a Forest Hill trendsetter and how the Beltline Trail
ON THE COVER: Judy Joseph, left, and Jayne Miles Simpson became friends through doing charity work at their churches. photo by francis crescia
Another
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,i} ÃÌiÀÊ- sparks her creativity. Lorne Lampert of Mystic Drumz shares his ideas on educating the younger generation through music and exposure to different cultures. Of course, we can’t showcase Forest Hill without looking at the physical places that make the area so wonderful. That’s why we’ve reprised our Forest Hill tour this year, and also tell the stories behind some of our street names. This is your community. Enjoy.
Lori Abittan, Publisher
FRIENDS IN
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Roads scholar: Our storied street names
Forest Hill gal pals help Haiti and other causes
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Trailblazing: A walk through Forest Hill history
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Helping Haiti
francis crescia/town crier
A friendly way to raise cash Judy Joseph and Jayne Miles Simpson
I
Kelly Gadzala
t’s a tale of two churches, and of two friends helping their community and beyond. Judy Joseph and Jayne Miles Simpson met each other through their respective churches about seven years ago — and that meeting spawned friendship that’s rooted in helping others. The friends have just wrapped up their May 15 fundraising bash, From Tents to Schools, held at the Yorkminster Park Baptist Church benefiting Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake earlier this year. The bazaar and straw market raised over $5,000 for the Pierspective Entraide Humanitaire, a charity run by the consul general for the Republic of Haiti. The funds will help build a school in the earthquake ravaged zone. Miles Simpson says she was pleased with the volunteer efforts and the donations to the event, which included original work by local Haitian artists. “The support recognized for the Haitian community in Canada is spectacular,” she
4
FOREST HILL ToDAY Town Crier 2010
says. The Caribbean Island nation is close to both of their hearts. Joseph was born in Tobago and Miles Simpson lived in the Bahamas for years. And it was a charitable effort for Haiti that brought the women together in the first place. Living around Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue, Joseph and Miles Simpson attend church across the street from one another, Joseph at the Yorkminster Park Baptist Church and Miles Simpson at Christ Church Deer Park. Chair of her church’s community ministry since 2003, Miles Simpson co-organized a charity event called the Caribbean Jump In, where she met Joseph. The following year, the two organized the same event together to raise funds for Haitians who had been affected by the 2004 flood in the country. Years later, Haiti brought them together again. On the day after the earthquake earlier this year, Joseph says she was walking to work with tears in her eyes. When she walked by her friend’s church, she says she wondered to herself if Miles Simpson would want to do something with her to help the people of Haiti? When she got to work the first email she opened was from her friend. It read: “Judy. Haiti. Call me.” Miles Simpson says she wrote to Joseph because she wanted to do something to help Haitians. “I didn’t know what else to do,” Miles
Simpson says. “I knew Judy would.” With a team of friends and colleagues, the duo put together the From Tents to Schools event, canvassing local businesses and friends to volunteer and donate items. “I think I called everyone in my phone book to donate,” says Joseph. She says she’s always had a passion for giving back as her mother taught her to help others. After living and working in Montreal for years as a fashion show producer, Joseph recently staged a fashion show at the Ministry of Environment where she works benefitting The United Way. Miles Simpson, meanwhile, is winding down her term as community ministry chair at her church, but she has other volunteering plans in the works. The church is soon to open a permanent art gallery, and her volunteer efforts will be going towards that, she says. Without a doubt, the friends say they inspire each other in what they do. But there’s also something to be said for being the source of inspiration for others. A number of younger people involved in From Tents to Schools who have never volunteered before told Miles Simpson how much they loved being a part of the event and feeling they are making a difference, she says. “This effort is more rewarding to me when I see we’re extending this to the next generation.”
“I didn’t know what else to do. I knew Judy would.”
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very day Sherry Lamb looks at the photos of her two-year-old nephew on her desk and hopes he never has to experience the effects of cancer. Lamb has lost loved ones to the disease but those experiences motivate her in her role as the senior special events manager for the Toronto branch of the Canadian Cancer Society. The Forest Hill area resident’s first personal experience with cancer was her uncle’s death from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma 10 years ago. “He’s the only uncle I had,” she said. “He was 6-foot-4, strong as an ox. He could do everything.” Her uncle didn’t tell her family he had cancer until almost a year after his diagnosis, at which point it was quite advanced. “It changed him so much between losing the hair and then losing weight and size,” she said. “He just became, physically, such a different person. That was really impactful to see the physical changes with him.” Those memories resurfaced when her father told her he was diagnosed with prostate cancer four years ago. “It was a difficult phone call,” she said. “However, with my dad, because it was detected quite early, the prognosis was so much better.” Her father survived and has been cancer-free for two years. Two-and-a-half years ago, one of Lamb’s close friends developed breast cancer and was later diagnosed with brain cancer. She died in March. “She was an incredible inspiration,” Lamb said. “I was so fortunate to be with her in so many of her treatments and was there holding her hand when she passed away.” She said losing someone to cancer is difficult but she tries to a positive approach in helping others fight against the disease. “What can we do to make this situation better?” she said. “It doesn’t help losing the person, but hopefully (my work) is helping society overall FOREST HILL Page 8
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2010 FOREST HILL ToDAY Town Crier
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FOREST HILL ToDAY Town Crier 2010
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Fun, silly and cultural Photo courtesy Mystic Drumz
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Kelly Gadzala
hat do you get when you combine world music and cultures with drums, state-of the-art screen projections and sound effects, and a wooden frog named Larry? One heck of a show. Annex resident Lorne Lampert, founder and self-styled chief drumming officer for the Toronto-based Mystic Drumz, says he teaches kids about music and world cultures in a silly, fun and accessible way through his traveling shows. In business for 15 years, Lampert took what started as a part-time job before university and grew it into a successful educative model, performing over 500 interactive percussion shows a year to over 100,000 people across Canada and the US. Because of the fun and interactive nature of the shows, Lampert says he’s fond of saying that he puts the edge in education. It’s an approach that’s far from hippie, he says. “It’s not soft,” Lampert says. “Kids like strong leadership.” The presentations started as interactive music workshops where students learned to play various percussion instruments from around the world, but now they incorporate the history of the instrument and information about the country and culture it came from, he says. “We’re trying to broaden their understanding of the world.” A member of Scouts Canada for 11 years who ended up using his father’s ENTERTAINMENT Page 8
“We try to get a little bit (of an eco message) in there.”
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www.tfs.ca 2010 FOREST HILL ToDAY Town Crier
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Entertainment key Cont. from Page 7
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Scout group to test his drum shows, Lampert clearly understands what makes learning appealing to kids. They need to be entertained to hold their attention, he says. “We found we had to attach a fantastical storyline.” Hence the Legend of the Marshmallow presentation, where Lampert and his fellow performers use carved wooden animals as characters that travel a mythical land and learn of different world cultures and instruments. “The show is working on so many different levels,” he says. Lampert also incorporates ecological references through the animal characters in the show. Larry the Frog, for instance, talks about frogs as ecoindicators, which makes the learning all the more accessible, he says. “We try to get a little bit in there,” he says of the eco message. “I’m not standing on a soap box but I think I have a responsibility.” Lampert recently launched the program, Drumming a Difference, which allows the Mystic Drumz group to visit and perform for children in developing countries. Partial proceeds from the sale of all frogs — which are hand-carved and painted by a woman in Thailand, he says — go towards funding the trips. The group’s first trip through the program was to a Cambodian orphanage, where each child was given an instrument of their own to keep.
Photo courtesy Mystic Drumz
LORNE LAMPERT tours the world with his Mystic Drumz shows.
The show was great for the children there, Lampert says, as it brought them an experience many kids here may take for granted. “Drumming is such a great community experience.” His work isn’t a profitable thing, he says, but that’s not why he does it. “I feel like when I look back on my life there’s going to be substance, an echo,” he says. “Music can lead a person to great things. “I think it can really have a ripple effect.”
Forest Hill perfect for relay Cont. from Page 5
and maybe preventing someone else from developing cancer.” In her professional capacity with the Canadian Cancer Society, Lamb is overseeing Relay for Life events across the city. However, she’ll also be participating in the June 11 fundraiser at Forest Hill Memorial Park. Participants begin the 12-hour relay at 7 p.m., walking or running laps around the track. At dusk, they hold the luminary ceremony — lighting candles in honour of those who have died of cancer. This is the sixth year the event is being held at Forest Hill Memorial Park. Lamb said the site is a great spot for the relay because it is the heart of the community. “It has a wonderful track,” she said. “People camp out overnight. We have a stage set. That park just brings out such a community feel.” Lamb said the event is more than just a fundraiser. It is also an opportunity for cancer survivors, patients and supporters to come together and share their experiences, she said. Everybody at the event has a powerful story, she said, but what affects her the most emotionally is seeing children in survivor t-shirts. “It stops you in your tracks,” she said. “They can be so young and have already gone through so much.” The deaths of her uncle and her friend, and her work around those with cancer, has given Lamb an appreciation and awareness of life. “It sounds cliché, but you really don’t know how much time you’ve got,” she said. “You really want to focus on the positive and focus on enjoying life.”
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FOREST HILL ToDAY Town Crier 2010
2010 FOREST HILL ToDAY Town Crier
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Award namesake
Comeback specialist Olympic sprinter Stan Levenson
M
Brian Baker
elbourne, Australia 1956. For 18-year-old Forest Hiller, Stan Levenson, the cavalcade into the Olympic stadium, rimming with 100,000 fans, made his heart race faster than his legs could carry him. He was representing his country at the games as a sprinter. That memory never loses luster, much like the medals he strived for. “Literally I almost passed out from fear,” he said of entering the stadium of the opening ceremonies. “It was a hell of an experience,” he said. “You walk through this tunnel, you walk out into the stadium and all you see are thousands and thousands of people.” He sits across a table, his eyes dampened by his recollections, as he shared his memories at the Town Crier office. “Back in the ’50s track and field wasn’t a big thing as we know it today,” he said. “In ’56 Canada was just getting involved with the Olympics. Up till then we had some success and our big success came in 1928 when Percy Williams won the gold medal for Canada in 100-metres.” Leading up to his Olympic appearance Levenson lived like a hermit, devoting his young life to nothing but running. “My years in high school I gave up my social life because I was busy training six days a week,” he said. “It sounded corny in those days, but I couldn’t stay out to 10 or 11 o’clock at night go to parties, what have you.” He was also the hot story for sports reporters like Milt Dunnell, but the print suitors who came calling didnt impress everyone.
“This drove the high school nuts because Forest Hill Collegiate in the’50s and ’60s was strictly academic,” Levenson said. “All of a sudden this athlete comes along who couldn’t spell the word athletics.” After making it to the Olympic semi-finals in the 100-metre dash, the same school he flustered decided to name a trophy given to the school’s top athlete after him in 1961. “A couple of fathers got together, and I knew their sons really well, and they wanted a trophy named after me, called the Stan Levenson Athletic Award, which is given out to grade 13 students who graduates. “The ironic part is I wasn’t the best student in the world, so I had to laugh. You have to have academic standing and athletics to get the award.” With a fifth place finish at the Olympics and a scholarship to University of Houston, where he would break American sprinting legend Jesse Owens’ freshman record in 200-metres, Levenson gained celebrity status. But when he got pleurisy in his junior year that all changed. “They said I would never run again because my lungs were so badly damaged, so my scholarship was cancelled in 1959,” he said. “I was really heartbroken because my parents couldn’t afford to send me to school.” But like any tenacious athlete he shook it off, and returned to the track at the 1960 Maccabiah Games in Israel. “I came back to Canada in the early ’60s and I’m coming fifth and sixth, and people are looking, ‘Who is this kid, what a bum he’s become’, not knowing how sick I was,” he said. “A month before we went to Israel, everything started to click.” Indeed, as he won the gold in the 100-metre dash. But another tragedy put an end to his career. “We used to run in the middle of the after-
noon, it was a 100 degrees – hot as hell,” he recalled. “I was lying behind the stadium in the grass trying to keep cool and some guy was throwing a shot put and didn’t see me. “It glanced right off my knee,” he added. “I ran the semi-final and collapsed.” With a split meniscus, days spent training on the track would become a sepia-tone photograph tucked in his scrapbook. But there is no discontent with Levenson. “Truthfully I could never appreciate as I do today what it meant to be an Olympian,” he said.
francis crescia/town crier
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FOREST HILL ToDAY Town Crier 2010
Celeb shooters
Famous photogs Tom and Aline Sandler
T
Kelly Gadzala
om and Aline Sandler match but couldn’t look more different. Sitting in their Upper Village dining room munching on goodies from a local bakery, Tom sports a faded red shirt with the sleeves rolled up, while his wife sparkles in short red dress she’s paired with a black sequined jacket, inky cut-out high heels and shiny footless tights. A small stud glistens in Tom’s ear; Aline is bedecked with glittery rings and pendants. They both look great. Making people and places look great is what the couple does. On any given night you can find them at hottest gala or charity event — but don’t try to buy them a drink. They’ll be too busy snapping away at some of the hottest celebrities and personalities in the city and beyond. Arguably Toronto’s top celebrity photographers, the Sandlers are prolific in their scope. His photographic expertise ranges from politics to parties, from Bill Clinton to Elton John. He shoots regularly for the Globe & Mail, Hello! and Variety, and is the official photographer for Prince Edward when the royal is in town. Meanwhile she her clients include HOToronto Magazine, the National Post and the Toronto Star. The couple has lived and worked together for over three decades, and Forest Hill has always been their home. “I really am truly a Forest Hill original,� says Tom, who grew up in the Upper Village and describes his family as typically Leave it to Beaver. His mother, Ruth Lowe, was a Grammy Award-winning songwriter and pianist, whose first song, “I’ll Never Smile Again�, made Frank
francis crescia/town crier
SMILE FOR THE BIRDIE: Husband and wife photographers Tom and Aline Sandler have made a name for themselves shooting the rich and famous when they come to Toronto.
Sinatra famous. There were parties and galore when he was growing up, Tom says. When asked, he admits being around all those famous folk may have predisposed him to be at ease around celebrities. “I was comfortable with people who had big accomplishments in life.� Surprisingly, though, photography wasn’t his first love. Music has always been his passion, he says, but photography was safer. It made him less vulnerable. “You knew where your boundaries were,� he says. “The photo was the star (and) you were able to protect yourself behind the camera.� Still, the rewards of some of the photographic work he’s done — like shooting at the Easter Seals camp for years and taking photos of sick
children with Prince Edward during hospital tours — have given his life profound meaning, he says. “You know it’ll changes their lives,� he says of the children he’s photographed. “It’s not just a photo-op. It’s so much more.� After documenting the waterfront for an audio-visual production company in the early 1970s and working with Harbourfront Corporation from 1979-89, Tom eventually branched out on his own to form Tom Sandler Photography. Working with him since the beginning, Aline says she can still remember the day she met Tom — March 15, 1973. A native Manhattanite, she had just moved from Montreal, where she was raised. Her family was friends with Tom’s, and one day she 35-YEAR Page 15
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Kelly Gadzala
oogle “Brunch” in “Forest Hill, Toronto” and a restaurant review by Jessica Claire pops up on page number one — even before the reviews of major dining and lifestyle publications. Dubbed an expert trendsetter from Forest Hill by ourfaves.com, an online city guide where locals and experts share their favourite places, Jessica Claire Waks posts reviews on everything from Forest Hill brunch hotspots to top shopping picks in the city. She can tell you where to find glass Venetian mirrors in the Upper Village, and that the California omelet at the Hope Street Café is the best. “When I find something that’s inspiring I like to share it,” she says. The 25-year old Waks has lived just north of Forest Hill Village her whole life, and while the neighbourhood inspires her it wasn’t just her love of the area that set her on her trendsetter track. One of her first jobs out of university was working in TV, she says, and she hated it. “I needed a creative outlet,” she says. “I was really bored.”
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francis crescia/town crier
FLOWER POWER: Nature inspires Jessica Waks’ creative side.
After realizing that more and more people were asking her about where to go for shopping and eating in the city, Waks started cataloguing her journeys on her blog, www.jessicaclairesworld.blogspot.com, which went online in 2008. Eventually she was invited by ourfaves.com to become an expert reviewer. Meanwhile her blog has evolved to include tidbits on decorating trends and products, as well as Wak’s décor makeovers and inspiration. During the day, she does communications for an architectural firm and dabbles in interior decorating for her employer, while studying the subject part-time at George Brown. Her blog is great for people who can’t afford design magazines, she says, and she often gets emails from designers whose clients have seen items on her blog. Quite a few readers are from New York City, she says. And she’s even received emails from little girls asking her to help decorate their rooms. Forest Hill is definitly a backdrop to Waks’ creative talents. She says she loves walking her Great Dane Leya along the Beltline trail, and all the greenery and flowers in the area sparks her creativity. “I really borrow from what I see around me and bring that to my work.”
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2010 FOREST HILL ToDAY Town Crier
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Historical roads
What’s in a name The stories behind three area streets francis crescia/town crier
Jeanne Hopkins
THE GLEBE ROAD United Church sits on land once owned by the Anglican Church,
Glebe Road Glebe Road was named in 1911 when the 59-hectare Glebe Farm was sold to Wilfrid Servington Dinnick for development. The land had been granted to the Church of England. When the province of Upper Canada was created in 1791, the British government set aside one lot in seven as a glebe for clergy reserves. The name Glebe was from an ancient Roman word for field. The glebe properties on Yonge Street were given to the Church of England when the Upper Canada elite (the Family Compact) thought
Canada’s state church would be the Anglican Church. In November, 1911, the Glebe Farm was sold to the Dovercourt Land Company for $3,300 an acre — the money to be divided among the 20 or 30 churches in Toronto and help pay the salaries of the clergy. By 1914, land on both sides of Yonge Street had been built on. Duggan Avenue Duggan Avenue takes its name from Edmund Sidney Duggan, engineer and partner in the real estate firm of Duggan, Gormley and Baker who
developed much of the Deer Park area during the real estate boom of 1905. The street was laid out two years later with lots selling for $15 a foot, but was not completely built on until 1923. In 1912, a two-storey house on Duggan Avenue was advertised for $4,000. In 1929, Edmund Duggan sold his home at 5 Burton Rd. for $15,000 and moved to the Bayview Heights area, where he was vice president and largest shareholder of the Bayview Heights Syndicate. In his new area, Sidney became active in helping the development of the Glen Mawr Riding Club, where he kept his horses and was an active member in his neighbouring
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Young heiress Bayview Golf Club. He was also a partner in See and Duggan Motors. On his picturesque land in Bayview, Duggan was having an elaborate mansion built and developing the creek into a swimming pool and fish ponds. But he was suffering a nervous breakdown and committed suicide in 1932. He told his associates that he was going for a ride, but his friends soon noticed something was amiss when they found he car on the Bayview Avenue bridge with the doors open. Looking down, they found Duggan’s lifeless body a hundred feet below in the ravine. After a funeral held on November 23, 1923, Edmund Sidney Duggan was buried in St. James’ Cemetery.
francis crescia/town crier
NINA WELLS taught Sunday School for many years in St. Alban’s Cathedral where she met her husband.
Nina Street Nina Frederica Wells was the daughter of Frederick Wells and Georgina Dartnell and granddaughter of Colonel Joseph Wells (1773–1853), who built the family home, Davenport, in 1820. Colonel Wells bought the 80-hectare property from widow Ann McGill in 1821 for about $2,500. Wells built a large two-and-a-half storey house on the top of the hill with a flight of a 120 steps leading down to Davenport Road. When Colonel Wells died in 1853, he left the property to his son Frederick. Nina’s mother died in 1875 while giving birth to her. A distraught Frederick moved to England after the death with his two infant children. There, Frederick died at a young age so Nina inherited the family home, Davenport, and returned to live in Toronto. Nina taught Sunday School at nearby St. Alban’s Cathedral where she met a young priest Adam Urias de Pencier. Nina and Adam were married in 1895 and lived at Davenport for nearly 10 years. In 1899, de Pencier retired from St. Alban’s and moved to Manitoba and later to British Columbia where he became Archbishop and Metropolitan of British Columbia. In 1913, Nina sold the Davenport house to Colonel Davidson who demolished it to build a new, more modern house on the property.
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tried to call Tom’s mother but was given his number by mistake. They’ve been together ever since. Married for 35 years, the couple has two grown children and one child from Aline’s previous marriage. Also a self-taught shutterbug who says her hubby was one of her mentors, Aline started taking photos in 1997 after having worked the video cam for events. “I told (Tom) I wanted a camera,” she says. “I just started shooting.” Most of the time the couple shoots together. “She’s really fantastic,” Tom says of his wife. “She’ll plant herself at the front door … She’ll stay from beginning to end, ‘til the last man is standing.” The neighbourhood is a vital part of their lives. Most of the couple’s friends are within a few blocks of them. They could potentially live anywhere, but Tom says they’re not about to zoom in on another neighbourhood any time soon. “There’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be.”
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Forest Hill tour
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Trailblazing L
Eric McMillan
ast year’s tour in Forest Hill Today took you mainly through the southern end of the area. It’s still available on the Town Crier website, in case you missed it. This year’s tour, based on the Jane’s Walk given by local resident Danny Pivnick in May, focuses on the historical northern end of what used to be Forest Hill Village. The full tour is online at www.mytowncrier.ca/fhtour2010. Here’s a preview to get you started: 1. Where’s the fire? No worries, we have Forest Hill Fire Department Station 1 on the job. Well, the building at 641 Eglinton Avenue West no longer gets the top billing among firefighting centres that it had when it was Forest Hill Village’s premier station. This picturesque building was built in 1932 to house both the village’s fire department and police headquarters.When Forest Hill was annexed to Toronto in 1967, the site eventually became Toronto Fire Station No. 135. 2. Around the corner and up Chaplin Crescent is the Larry Grossman Forest Hill Memorial Arena. Anyone with kids who skate or play hockey knows the famous twin pad arena. It was erected in 1967 by the Village of Forest Hill in commemoration of Canada’s confederation, just as the village was joining Toronto. It was renamed in 2004 in honour of local MPP and leader of the opposition Larry Grossman. 3. On the other side of Chaplin we come across the Kay Gardner Beltline Park, next to where former councillor Gardner used to live. The Belt Line was a railway line laid in 1892 to transport people from the suburbs into the city. But passenger service ran only two years and much of the line was torn up during the First World War. Gardner pushed the city to convert the route to a 4.5-kilometre linear park. It was renamed in her honour in 2000.
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Francis Crescia/Town Crier
MYSTERY TOUR: What story lies behind this Old Forest Hill Road garden?
4. From the trail you can cut through the property of Forest Hill Collegiate, which is of interest in its own right. But also check out the former Village of Forest Hill Library. Now it’s just the Forest Hill Library branch of the Toronto Public Library system, at 700 Eglinton Avenue West. Is that enough for a start of your walk of discovery? The rest you can find online. But here are some tantalizing bits to give an idea of what’s to come: Slightly west on Eglinton is the part of town that put the Hill in Forest Hill. And what’s so special about those low-rise apartment buildings along the street? Lots. Now for the real old Forest Hill, walk south to see the great old residences of Old Forest Hill Road: What are their storied pasts? Which housed families whose names have become household words? Which one set a record for selling price? And along Dunvegan Road. You might be taken back by who has lived — or lives — in these homes. Then on to Upper Canada College and along Lonsdale Road with a stop at Grace Church on-the-hill. And then back to the villagy part of the village, the retail and dining strip at Spadina Road and Lonsdale for a surprise treat.
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