North Toronto Today - Spring 2011

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NORTH TORONTO Today

Artsy folks

SPRING 2011

• Our gems

Four neighbours we treasure

• Move over Casa Loma

Making the scene with local artists

This neighbourhood’s got castles of its own Another MulticomMedia Publication

NORTH TORONTO ToDAY Town Crier 2011

Another

MulticomMedia Publication

Diversity Publishers & Printers

Lori Abittan Publisher

Joe Mastrogiacomo

Vice President of Finance

Contents

Doreen Iannuzzi

Vice President of New Media

EDITORIAL Eric McMillan EDITOR-in-chief

Gordon Cameron managing EDITOR

Kelly Gadzala

Special projects EDITOR

Shadi Raoufi

EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR

PRODUCTION SERVICES Tony Lomuto Supervisor

Mark Winer Production

Advertising & Sales Don Bettger

Director, GROUP Sales

Jennifer Gardiner

Director, Corporate Sales

Kathy Kerluke Business Manager Printed and Distributed by

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Gone and perhaps forgotten: North Toronto’s many missing castles

6

105 Wingold Avenue, Toronto, ON M6B 1P8 For all your printing and distribution needs call: 416 785 4311 ext. 614

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PAINT LOCAL: Local artists find ways to exhibit their talents close to home

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ere’s to our community H as we celebrate the fifth

annual edition of the Town Crier’s North Toronto Today. What began as a newsprint publication in 2007 has morphed over the years to a larger magazine size, culminating this year in our most exciting development yet: a compact format with glossier pages. Looking back over past editions, we have explored North Toronto’s history our unique neighbourhoods, and our parkland. We’ve also detailed the vast community resources available including various neighbourhood groups and the impact they have on the community at large. This year, we’ve gone in a new direction, as Joshua Freeman’s article on the North Toronto arts scene demonstrates. But sometimes old themes are worth revisiting. As a follow-up to an article written in the inaugural edition about

the sports rivalry between North Toronto Collegiate Institute and Northern Secondary School, Brian Baker looks at the untold story of the relationship between the schools and at how friendly the rivalry truly is. And as Kelly Gadzala discovers, archival photos and old drawings bring to light a more regal picture, perhaps, of North Toronto’s history than you would generally suppose. As always, we continue to celebrate the people who make a difference through their commitment to improving North Toronto and take great pleasure in bringing you their personal stories. We trust you and yours will enjoy this year’s North Toronto Today and we welcome your feedback. Here’s to another five years. Lori Abittan Publisher

WHO YOU GONNA CALL? Volunteer Lorne Simon helps cops catch the bad guys

On the cover: Members of the North Toronto Group of Artists show they’re ready for their close-up

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Anna Maria Arcuri

SCHOOL SPIRIT: How North Toronto Collegiate and Northern Secondary really feel about each other

101 Wingold Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M6B 1P8 Tel: 416 785-4300 Fax: 416 785-7350 MulticomMedia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Multimedia NOVA Corporation, an integrated communications company publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol MNC.A

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Group of 50

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STREAM SCENE: Painter John Nussbaum, a member of the North Toronto Group of Artists, works on his latest watercolour at Karma Creative Art Studio. The group brings together professionally minded artists of all types from across the community.

You’ve gotta have art North Toronto artisans show that great works exist outside of big downtown galleries

H

• BY Joshua Freeman arry Tanner’s paintings are like photographs. At 78, the self-taught painter has spent years researching and perfecting Renaissance and Baroque painting techniques to bring his subjects to life. But you won’t find his work in any chichi Yorkville galleries. Tanner is one of a growing number of artists in North Toronto choosing to show his work closer to home rather than lugging their canvasses downtown to the traditional centre of the city’s arts scene. “Art needs to be spread out,” says Tanner. “We have a lot of competition, from hockey to Lady Gaga. We have to do our best to

NORTH TORONTO ToDAY Town Crier 2011

spread the word.” Having been raised by Canadian parents in Cuba, Tanner worked for years as a Spanish translator for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, all the while keeping his art to himself. “For a while I’d been living the life of the lost artist disconnected from humanity,” Tanner says. “I decided I shouldn’t be like that any more. “You’ve got to join your community sometime.” But with a physical impediment that makes it difficult for him to get around, he wasn’t interested in transporting his works to the remote galleries of the city. Rather,

he opted to join a local collective, the North Toronto Group of Artists, whose work he’d seen in the community. Started by professionally minded artists impressed with one another’s work at a community centre art show several years ago, the group has grown to include 40–50 members. Living within strict boundaries (Wilson Avenue to Eglinton Avenue and Avenue Road to Mount Pleasant Road), members work in diverse media, such as photography, sculpting and water colours. “We’re starting to gain a bit more momentum,” says Sonya Davidson, a member of the group’s executive. “People are noticing the way we do things is quite professional.”

The group runs two main events each year: A Spring Studio Tour and a Fall Fine Arts show in Lawrence Park. It also works closely with the Yonge Lawrence Village Business Improvement Area to exhibit members’ work in local stores and at events like the annual Artwalk. Though the group boasts a mix of amateurs and professionals, its work has garnered growing media attention of late. “People are quite surprised at the calibre of the art that we offer,� says Davidson. “To find out that ‘oh, this certain artist was showing at a Yorkville gallery. Well here they are residing in North Toronto.’ � To keep things manageable, the group remains a strictly North Toronto affair. “There are a lot of groups in Toronto that will charge membership and accept everybody, whether they get exposure or not,� says Davidson. “So we kind of keep it tight within our boundaries so we can give everybody (in our group) enough exposure.� That means if someone moves out of the neighbourhood, they step aside to give their spot to someone else. And there’s no shortage of people lined up to join. Davidson says the group has a maximum membership of 50 artists. Currently, there’s a waiting list to join the group of about 15 artists. With growing interest and only one or two spots opening up each year, newcomers like Tanner are lucky to have

“People are quite surprised by the calibre of the art that we offer.�

Continued Page 6

francis crescia/town crier

MIXED MEDIA: Maggie Doswell, left, and Moira McElhinney may express their creativity differently, but both have found a home with the North Toronto group.

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Cont. from Page 5

painting courtesy harry tanner

PAINTER Harry Tanner spent years perfecting his skills.

made it in. But the collective isn’t the only game in town. Independent artists, like Sheila Denaburg, are making inroads for on their own as well. Now in her 60s, Denaburg has exhibited her work at area Starbucks several times. When she isn’t painting, she can be found sketching people and scenes in coffee shops around town. Denaburg laughs after being told this journalist has spotted her sketching at a bagel shop before. “I’m the mad sketcher. “I’ll always give them the sketch if they’re in it. Some guy said no once — he thought I was selling something.” Like Tanner, Denaburg says she lives and breathes art. “You have to really invest a lot in your art, in time and keeping up your craft,” she says. Though her work has shown at Gallery Hi Art downtown, she says she’s just as happy to show in Starbucks uptown. “I’ll show anywhere,” Denaburg says. “I think there are people who are interested in art everywhere.” And although she doesn’t rely on art for her income, she says showing closer to home makes good business sense. “A lot of artists aren’t naturally business people,” says Denaburg. “They want to spend time in their studio and it’s kind of an entirely different life where you’ve got to get on the phone and contact places (where you want to show). It’s sometimes luck.” With the law of averages, the more places she shows the luckier she’ll be in terms of gaining sales and recognition, she says. But exhibiting in an area that’s family friendly has some constraints. “I’ve been primarily a figurative artists” Denaburg says. “But I couldn’t go into (Starbucks) with my nudes. You have to be family oriented,” she laughs. Davidson agrees and says her group is also in line with the community. “We bring art to a comfort level,” she says. “You’re not going to get what you get

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downtown in some of the more obscure art galleries.” At the same time, showing in the neighbourhood means costs stay lower for artists. Tanner, Denaburg and Davidson all agree showing in galleries can be an expensive affair. But with limited space and resources in groups like Davidson’s and a growing number of independent artists like Denaburg, there might soon be a third option. The Toronto Arts Council is working to form a new group to nurture artists in the north end of the city. Though it’s still in it’s exploratory stages, the group would generally act as a resource to connect, inform and help support artists, not just in North Toronto, but also in the whole of the former North York. “It’s a way of connecting local arts groups with their audiences and with the public,” said Susan Wright, director of operations at Toronto Arts Council and Toronto Arts Foundation. Though Tanner says it’s still too early to say what kind of a role community arts groups will take in the larger art world, he favours any outlet that helps artists show their work without having to navigate the complex system of galleries, critics and promoters. “The arts scene is a very difficult one in a sense,” Tanner says. “It takes a lot to be recognized and keep honest with yourself. “I would think a young artist looking around to see who’s who in the arts world would tend to go down to Hazelton Avenue and see what’s there in the galleries, who’s making the money, making the papers and being influenced by that.” However, he sees community arts groups changing that. “People have become aware of the fact that that young lady or man down the street is an artist, but they’re okay.”

painting courtesy Helena Wulff

GETTING SEEN: North Toronto does offer opportunities for artists to have their work shown, but it may involve a little work or creating an event for yourself.

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s a kid growing up in Nova Scotia, Lorne Simon wanted to be a cop. The North Toronto resident never became one — Simon owns his own media and communications company — but has been helping the police for the past 15 years working as a volunteer for Toronto Crime Stoppers. Chair for a decade, Simon puts in a good 30–40 hours a week overseeing the board, chairing monthly meetings, approving rewards paid out to tipsters and acting as media spokesperson for the organization. He also coordinates fundraising initiatives and marketing materials. “It’s like a full-time job,� he says. Crime Stoppers partners with the community, the media and police services to give citizens a way to anonymously supply authorities with information about a crime or potential crime. For Simon, it’s his media background and connections that have proved invaluable in his community work. When he was public relations director for CHIN radio over 15 years ago, he was asked to sit on Crime Stoppers’ board of directors. He says he was nervous but said yes to the offer. “I knew I had something to contribute.� Over the years, Simon has helped launch various programs and campaigns, including a Toronto School Crime Stoppers program and a Report Animal Cruelty to Crime Stoppers campaign he worked on with the Toronto Humane Society. He’s received numerous Toronto Police Service awards for his dedication, including the 2006 Chief of Police Excellence Award. Perhaps his biggest accomplishment has been the various sponsors he’s recruited, most notably the Toronto office of DDB Canada, an advertising agency which has been doing pro-bono work creating ad and marketing materials for the organization since 1995.

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Known for her non-confrontational style, good listening skills and reputation for honesty, integrity and diligence, Lucille’s philosophy to "guide them well, but let them make the final decision," works well for her. In addition to earning the James Malcolm McGillivray Award of Distinction for outstanding achievement and contribution to the community, she has also earned the President's, Chairman's, Founder's Awards and highest dollar volume in her office.

Lucille’s expertise is in North and Central Toronto, Lawrence Park, Rosedale, Forest Hill, Summerhill and Annex. "I enjoy working with such a variety of people. I find it rewarding when, over and over again, I am able to assist my clients with their housing needs."

francis crescia/town crier

“That’s got to be one of the proudest moments,” Simon says. “They’ve donated over a million dollars.” Marketing materials — everything from sleek posters to magnets and brochures — litter the North Toronto office of Simon’s company, Michael Communications PR Group. These materials have come a long way from the early days, when all Crime Stoppers had were TV reenactments of crimes. One of the biggest challenges with his work, Simon says, is educating the public that calling in with a tip to the Crime Stoppers program is anonymous. “People don’t call for the cash reward,” he says. “Some people are scared.” Part of the reason, he suggests, is people think the organization is run by the cops. “It’s not a police program,” he says. “It’s a community initiative that partners with the police.” Working closely with the North Toronto police divisions, Simon has played a role in various community initiatives including a graffiti eradication program for which he designed the poster. He’s also teamed up with senior officers to distribute Crime Stoppers promotional materials at picnics and community events, to encourage people to come forward if they see a crime happening. At the moment, Simon is busy coordinating the 15th Annual Chief of Police Dinner on May 10th, an event he’s been overseeing for the last five years. The dinner is important as it funds the cash rewards Crime Stoppers pays out to tipsters as well as other items and services that aren’t donated. “The dinner is the key fundraiser of the year.”

“I knew I had something to contribute.”

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fficer Viktor Sarudi is a cop on the beat in North Toronto. He’s not out there spending all day investigating bank robberies or car thefts. No, Sarudi’s job is to walk the streets of the community and build lasting relationships with the people in the neighbourhood. Sarudi began his career with the Toronto Police Service as an volunteer auxiliary officer. From there he wound his way to 53 Division and has spent the past two years in the Community Response Unit. “There is satisfaction of going home at the end of the day knowing you have made a difference in the community.” Sarudi says. As his focus is on working with the North Toronto community, Sarudi doesn’t carry a dispatch radio that would draw him off his beat to the latest reported crime. Most of the time he’s on foot or bicycle so he can be accessible to those in the neighbourhood who may need his help. Sarudi patrols back alleys, parking garages, public stairways and the nooks and crannies of parks looking for anyone disrupting his neighbourhoods. He looks for anyone hanging around schoolyards who may be dealing drugs. From his experience, Sarudi knows the names and faces of students and can pick out those who don’t belong.

“The more you work with these people the more you get to know them.”

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NORTH TORONTO ToDAY Town Crier 2011

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“The more you work with these people the more you get to know them,” says Sarudi. The officer says his proudest accomplishment as a community patrol officer is his role in the cleaning up of Sherwood Park following complaints about nighttime drinking. After a summer of patrols on evenings and weekends the park was no longer used as a nocturnal hangout, and the areas with broken glass were cleaned and made safe for the public. “We restored the park to a state where everyone feels safe to go and enjoy with their families again,” says Sarudi. He’s also been active in recruiting high school students to help clean up their communities. Sarudi has helped the young adults paint over graffiti in David A. Balfour Park and the Rosedale Valley Bridge and will be arranging another such event in May. 2011 NORTH TORONTO ToDAY Town Crier

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• BY Shawn Star ou’ve probably seen him. You might have given him some change, or even a bill. If not, then at the very least, you’ve probably thanked him. Every year leading up to Remembrance Day, Second World War veteran Mo Polansky helps sell poppies at Eglinton station. “It’s a tremendous place,â€? he says while sitting at the dining room table, his medals displayed in front of him. “People just come off the trains in hordes and I find that people are so magnanimous in giving and donating money for poppies.â€? Polansky says at first he was amazed by how thankful people were, but the donations were even more amazing. “I used to think people would come by and put in a quarter or two quarters,â€? he says. “But holy cow — dollars, two dollars, five dollars, 10 dollars — and the odd person, 50 dollars.â€? In fact, the generosity is so strong, Polansky has a message for the Canadian mint. “I always joke and say if they ever convert the five dollar bill to a coin, I quit,â€? he says with a laugh. Humour is a constant with Polansky, who is celebrating “the big 9-0â€? as he calls it in mid-April. He says working five hours a day can take its toll, so luckily he’s built up rapport with the collectors at Eglinton station. “They’ve got a stool in there,â€? said Polansky, who uses that knowledge to his advantage after a few hours of standing. “So I knock on the door and I say ‘Can I borrow our stool?’ â€? Joking aside, he says his favourite part is being able to raise money to help others. “That I find very gratifying,â€? he says. “That’s my incentive, to be doing that and helping others out.â€? Polansky also enjoys the conversations he has with people, and laughs when he recalls the different things kids say to him. “They ask me questions like ‘Where did you serve?’, ‘Did you shoot somebody?’, ‘Did you kill somebody?’ â€? he says, laughing. “ ‘No I didn’t,’ I say. ‘But I killed a few trucks.’ â€?

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� Polansky started as a truck driver shortly after enlisting in 1940, which was only made possible by hitchhiking from his hometown of Oxbow, Sask. into Winnipeg. “In those days hitchhiking was good, it was easy,” he said, adding that he also frequently hopped on trains because money was tight. “(But) the main thing was that you never rode into cities because then the police would arrest you.” Soon after, he heard the army was looking for tradesmen. That’s when Polansky says he found his calling as an electrical engineer. He worked on vehicles and building wiring in England, Italy, France, Belgium and Holland before the war ended, arriving back in Canada on New Year’s Eve, 1945. Fast forward four years and Polansky had a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Manitoba. He was also married, and had his first of two children. But the job market was flooded with engineers, so Polansky again donned the hitchhiking cap, and wound up in Toronto. “I got a permanent job with Canadian Standards Association,” he said. “I ended up being very happy there, I was there for six months under 35 years. They were very good to us.” Polansky also became highly involved in his community, serving various positions at his local synagogue, including president for a few years. Shortly after retiring, Polansky said he found a rather unusual job to fill the gap that retirement left. “I started off by interviewing Jewish prisoners at the Don Jail,” he said. “I would go there once a week and listen to their tales and woes — I don’t know why they were in jail. They claimed they were all innocent. “They lied like hell, but I listened,” he says with a laugh. After three years, Polansky says he felt “a little disenchanted with that” and began tutoring the younger prisoners in mathematics. After nine years of algebra, geometry, trigonometry and on occasion, calculus, he left, eventually finding his way to Ontario’s only Jewish Legion hall — the General Wingate Branch, located near Lawrence Avenue West and Marlee Avenue, where he is now its first vice president. “I’m a Johnny-come-lately with the Legion,” he says. “I’ve only been there about 10 years.” Polansky says it’s difficult for the Legion to get a lot of work done because the average age is ever-rising, but its members still work hard at the poppy campaign. And he doesn’t intend to stop anytime soon. “I’m going to work as long as I can,” he says. “As long as my health, my physical abilities and my mental abilities stay intact, I will keep on going.” And he’s showing no signs of slowing down. “I walk five days a week, three and a half miles almost, which isn’t bad for an old codger like me,” he says laughing. “I try to keep active in my old age — older age, sorry.”

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NORTH TORONTO ToDAY Town Crier 2011

auren Witte is standing beside a pink piece of printer paper stuck to the brick wall in the main hallway of Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute. The piece of paper reads, “Trangendered,” and underneath, the definition of the word. It’s one of a rainbow of sheets tacked on the walls, each with its own word and definition, with 23 definitions in all. A grade 12 student at the school, Witte co-chairs a club called Panther Pride — Queer Straight Alliance. This latest definition campaign is part of the club’s mandate to educate students on sexual diversity and combat homophobia and transphobia. “We found a lot … of people don’t understand what the words mean,” Witte says of the campaign, which used definitions provided by the school board. The club also helped bring about two gender-neutral or bi-gendered washrooms in the school which she says are a first in the board. If students don’t identify with a particular gender, what are they supposed to do, Witte asks. “You’re here to learn,” she says. “Going to the bathroom shouldn’t be a problem.” Witte also helps run The Buddy Program, which assists in integrating new students into the school. She was one of 13 out-of-district students who started at Lawrence Park when in grade 9, she says, and the program helped her. “I benefited from it so I wanted others to benefit from

“I benefited from it so I wanted others to benefit from it.”

it,” she says. Creating a welcoming and safe environment for young people to flourish in, whether educational or otherwise, seems to be a theme for Witte. She also co-heads safe school initiatives through the Empowered Student Partnerships club, acting as student liaison. Outside of school she co-chairs the Kids Help Phone Student Ambassador Council for the Toronto chapter, which helps fundraise, run training programs and so on for the organization. That’s when she’s not volunteering at her church or lifeguarding during the summer at Girl Guide camp. Witte says she simply works best when she’s busy. “I’m so lucky to have all the things I have.” Her mother has always volunteered, she says, and she followed in her mom’s footsteps from an early age. As to her personal philosophy, Witte says she lives by the golden rule of ‘Do unto others ….’. “You treat others the way you want to be treated,” she says. Another motto that’s influenced her is something she heard on a TV show once —“Lift as you climb” — which means, if you don’t stop to look back and help those behind you, your accomplishments will mean very little, she says. “Eventually you become stronger if you stop to help your neighbour.” Witte says she doesn’t always think of herself as a role model. She says she knows if she needed help, someone would help her, so why shouldn’t she help others when they need it? The payback for her is simple: “Watching how others have been able to benefit from what I’ve done.” At the moment Witte is waiting to hear back from her top university picks — she’s been accepted to three but there are three more to go. It’s been a dream since grade 3 to be a doctor, she says. Even so, she’s applied for a mix of arts and sciences programs for her undergrad. “I don’t think you should limit yourself to one stream of study.”

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eil Irwin remembers catching his second wind as he passed Northern Secondary School while running cross-country at North Toronto Collegiate Institute. It was post-war Toronto. The cityscape of midtown was a lot less lofty, with rows of semi-detached homes and bungalows nestled along boulevards on Broadway and Roehampton. “I could remember puffing around there and seeing the building,” he said. “I lived on the other side of Yonge Street and south of Eglinton. (When) I would walk up to North Toronto … I wouldn’t (pass) Northern. “But when we were doing this cross-country, I’d see it, and it was very impressive.” Built in 1930, Northern was in its teenage years at that time, but in the community the rivalry between the schools was a gentle one. “We flaunted the fact that we were older,” Irwin recalled. “But it was a friendly rivalry.” In fact, many North Toronto students would make use of their technically minded neighbour for classes. “I went to Northern (to take) what we would call manual training and we learned to make things,” said Irwin, who graduated from North Toronto in 1950. “The building was

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ON THE BALL: Northern Secondary School’s head of phys ed John Lombardi, pictured with coaches Tram Nguyen, left, and Jane Lee says that his teams like to compete against North Toronto because the players are all friends.

so huge and new and full of so much terrific machinery.” Back then the old Toronto school board had established North Toronto as an academic centre and Northern as a commercial school, said North Toronto principal Joel Gorenkoff. Regardless of their former roles, the old differences are largely gone and feeder schools are sending kids to both, sometimes splitting siblings up. The two schools are currently thriving, but in the 1990s North Toronto relied heavily on out-of-district students to keep up its enrollment numbers. Only 20 percent of students in 1999 actually lived in the school’s catchment area, recalls North Toronto’s head of phys ed Lorne Smith. “We were really in trouble,” he said. “It’s probably changed since the announcement of the new school.” It was on the courts and playing fields the rivalry achieved its most active expression, but it never approached the animosity of the rivalries that can exist between other schools. “Our kids like to play (North Toronto) because they’re friends,” said Northern’s head of phys ed John Lombardi. “They came from the same feeder schools but one of them chose Northern and the other North Toronto.”

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“Our kids like to play (North Toronto) because they’re friends.”

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Gorenkoff adds: “It’s quite fascinating when we play them you see they’re connected.� That camaraderie extends to the teachers and coaches as well. Smith says that it all goes back to Northern’s former faculty head Jim Hutton, after whom the school’s gym is named, and his love of competing. “He used to love beating us at basketball and we used to love beating him at basketball and then we’d go out for a beer,� Smith recalled. “It’s camaraderie. It’s a coaching fraternity and there’s no question we like beating each other but I don’t think it’s your reason to live kind of thing.� Of course the two schools don’t have the same opportunity to go head-to-head as they once did with Northern’s football and basketball squads vying for titles in Tier 1 while the Norsemen battle in the Tier 2 trenches. The admiration and respect between the two schools also exists in other areas outside the sports arena. Lombardi says colleagues like Ene Lomp of the Red Knights music faculty would laud her

North Toronto Collegiate Institute Founded: 1912 Motto: Hard work conquers all Colours: Red and Grey Team Name: Norsemen Population: ~1,200 Notable Alumni: Malin Akerman, actor, The Watchmen Christie Blatchford, columnist, Globe and Mail David Cronenberg, director, The Fly 18

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Norseman musical counterpart. However, he adds the size of Northern, sitting at over 1,800 students, allows for greater opportunities, both in sports and visual arts. “I think it’s a unique relationship,” he said. “We’re relatively close to Leaside and to Lawrence Park but you could probably hit North Toronto with a drive or sand wedge from Northern.”

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OPEN HOUSE Saturday, 16, 11:00 am - 2:00 pm structured environment dedicatedApri to challenging and nurturing your child. TELLING TALES: The cover of the 1948 pamphlet on North Toronto and its past issued by the Business Men’s Association.

A look back How the business community saw North Toronto and its history in 1948 • BY Kelly Gadzala

M

aterials that detail and interpret historical events can be artifacts in their own right. Consider the yellowed, dog-eared and crumbling paper booklet in the Town Crier’s possession, the 36 page Tales of North Toronto. Written and researched by Lyman B. Jackes, the booklet was published in 1948 and issued by the North Toronto Business Men’s Association for the entertainment and education of the residents of North Toronto.

• Dial “MA” for motorcars

Looking at the Yonge Street advertisers that helped subsidize the printing of the booklet gives us a sense of how much the business landscape has changed in just over 60 years.

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Back in 1948, for example, you could dial M-A-S-S-E-Y or MAyfair 7694 for Denton Massey Motors at 2424 Yonge Street. You could get your prescriptions filled at one of two Hooper’s Drug Store locations at 1925 and 2727 Yonge Street. The Acme Farmers Dairy Ltd., meanwhile, provided complete dairy service in North Toronto. If you didn’t like milk, no problems: Wilson’s, purveyor of “Ginger Ales Golden Amber”, was celebrating over 60 years in business at the time of printing. Speaking of long-time businesses, Ruttle & Ruttle real estate, at 1995 Yonge Street, was established in 1918 and its ad recalls the muddy roads, wooden sidewalks and single track cars that “Were the Conditions When We Commenced Business at Our Present Location in North Toronto.” And at 2411 Yonge, you could find the offices of the North Toronto Herald. Interestingly enough, some 50 years later just north at 2510 Yonge Street, you could have walked into the Town Crier newspaper offices, which were at that location until the newspaper was purchased by Multicom Media in 2001.

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• Firsthand findings

Jackes has some interesting takes on North Toronto history, some of which were firsthand. When recounting the ancient Huron settlement discovered on his ancestor Franklin Jackes’ land — a settlement he theorizes was wiped out by “bloodthirsty Iroquois” — Jackes speaks of the pottery, arrowheads and stone and clay utensils that formed the corpus of a collection he used to play with as a boy, a collection, which, he notes, had been lost by the time of his writing the booklet. “When the writer was a boy … his father, the late Price Jackes … had a large collection of Indian relics. The writer has often examined them and I recall the very high degree of finish and the elaborate decoration of the various pottery items.” Jackes includes a drawing of the Huron village he speaks of and interestingly enough, the owner of the booklet, Elizabeth Gartshore (also grandmother of one of the Town Crier’s longstanding employees) has penciled in the location of the Gartshore property. Gartshore also perhaps corroborates the existence of the ancient Indian village as she has penciled in the location of a forest on the map, which she calls “Indian Woods.”

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• Dry zone

Under a section titled “Church Life,” Jackes adopts a sermonizing tone when writing of the dry zone in North Toronto just north of St. Clair Avenue, crediting the churches in the area for withstanding the “assaults” and “savage attacks” on the anti-alcohol sentiment of the day. “But,” he continues, “this is not a temperance sermon.”

• Colonial blunder

When detailing the Mackenzie Rebellion, Jackes raises a point that many of the history books seem to have missed when he suggests that “an important historical event in North Toronto” was caused by “one of the most stupid blunders ever made by the Colonial Office in Great Britain.” According to Jackes, the Colonial Secretary mistakenly appointed a Francis Bond Head Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada instead of a gentleman named Edward Head. Bond Head, he writes, kept tossing Mackenzie out of the parliament buildings when he tried to take his seat as an elected official. Jackes suggests that this action, along with many others, “brought about the open rebellion that forms the major historical event in any story of North Toronto.” True enough, Bond Head has been painted as a buffoon with no political experience by other sources, and many others have credited him with bringing about the Mackenzie Rebellion because of his antagonism towards the reformers. But Jackes seems to have hit the nail on the head when he fingers the colonial government with the responsibility for the error in the first place.

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Road stories The truth behind how some North Toronto byways got their names

• BY Jeanne Hopkins • Lawrence Avenue

The Lawrence family came from Yorkshire, England and set up market gardens and tanneries on Yonge Street at Lawrence Avenue where they had been given land grants. Peter Lawrence (1788–1860), for whom Lawrence Avenue was named, owned a 80 hectare farm on the north-east corner of the intersection in 1829, and by 1836 was the area’s Justice of the Peace. At one time, members of the Lawrence family owned land on all four corners of Yonge and Lawrence. Until the 1920s, Lawrence Avenue was merely a muddy road that cut through a meadow and was fenced in on either side to mark its boundaries. It led from Yonge Street to the Lawrence sawmill on the Don River.

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When Blyhtwood Road was laid out in the 1860s as a right of way from Yonge Street to Bayview Avenue, it was the first residential street north of St. Clair Avenue that wasn’t a concession road. The street was originally called Victoria Avenue. For a time, it was known as Coronation Avenue after the coronation of Edward VII in 1911. But when North Toronto was annexed to the City of Toronto a year later, its name had to be changed again to avoid confusion with an existing downtown street. The name Blythwood was suggested by lawyer Hamilton Cassels, after a family estate and river in Great Britain. When Jesse Ketchum developed his farm in 1857, he sold the land in one-acre lots, and many of the homes still stand. In 1931, the Toronto Parks Commission began negotiations to purchase six hectares for a public park. A quarter century later, it expropriated hillside properties on Blythwood north of Mount Pleasant Road for the city’s park system. Today, many use these parks for hiking and cycling.

• Bedford Park Avenue

Bedford Park was the name of a farming hamlet developed on Yonge Street north of Eglinton Avenue in the late 1890s. In 1889, William Gordon Ellis created 1,500 lots extending west to Bathurst Street that would sell at an affordable price of $120, with a 60 cent down

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THEN AND NOW: Lawrence Avenue is now a bustling thoroughfare but back in 1878 the area was a much more rural place.

payment and payment of 60 cents a week. Since the city wouldn’t allow a factory to be built in the area it became strictly residential. Map from ta les of nort h toronto The area developed rapidly when in 1890 when the Toronto Street Railway electrified its system to the city limits with cars running up and down Yonge Street at the then speedy 32 kilometres an hour. On February 2, 1891, the Bedford Post Office opened with John Pearl serving as the first postmaster. Post office boxes were rented at 25 cents a year. In 1890, the villages of Bedford Park, Eglinton and Davisville joined the City of North Toronto, which was eventually annexed to the City of Toronto in 1912.

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This street was named for the apple orchard of Frederick Baron de Hoen’s farm on the northwest corner of Eglinton Avenue and Yonge Street. He was a nobleman and officer in the American Revolutionary War. For his services to the Crown, de Hoen (1764–1817) received land grants totaling 1,200 hectares, including 160 hectares of land in North Toronto. There, he built the first two-storey building on Yonge Street, which served as a haven for those who fled York in the April 1813 Battle of York. During the capture, Dr. William Warren Baldwin was tending to the wounded, so he send his father, Robert Baldwin Jr., to accompany the Russell family to the de Hoen farm. When they were there, the York Garrison was blown up and the explosion killed many Americans and Canadian soldiers. After the war ended in 1817, de Hoen returned to his native Germany, where he died unmarried. His property was sold to Englishman Hervey Price.

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NORTH TORONTO ToDAY Town Crier 2011

416-226-4140

photo courtesy City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 7152

MYSTERY MANSION: The true identity of this long-gone home only identified as “near Glen Grove” may be lost to history.

W

• BY Kelly Gadzala ho says Forest Hill has the only castle in town? Sure, Casa Loma is perhaps the best known of castles in Toronto, especially since it’s still standing and all — in fact it’s often lauded as the only real castle in North America. But that isn’t to say it’s the only castle worth noting in the city. North Toronto has been — and still is in one case — home to various structures, that by virtue of their architecture, building features and even their names can most certainly qualify as castles.

illustration from tales of north toronto

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: Castlefield gave its name to several North Toronto streets and stood from 1832 to 1918.

• Castlefield

You may drive or walk along Castlefield Avenue, Castlewood Road or Castle Knock Road without realizing the names of these streets hail from perhaps the most famous castle in North Toronto. Built in 1832 by owner James Hervey Price, Castlefield was named and modeled after Price’s home in his native Wales. The red brick castle sported four crenellated turrets and was located on a piece of land running west of Yonge Street and to the east of what was to be the Castlefield Baptist Church. The long driveway running to the house is now Castlefield Avenue. Apparently Price had to sell the castle a decade after it was built. Some say he went broke financing William Lyon Mackenzie’s rebellion — and numerous sources suggest Mackenzie even hid at Castlefield after the rebel defeat. Franklin Jackes, a former baker who made his dough during a flour shortage in 1825, bought the estate in 1842. Jackes found numerous artifacts while clearing and ploughing the land around the home, and set up display cabinets in his hallway showing ancient spearheads and pottery, remnants of the ancient Native village that occupied the site some 250 years earlier. The Castlefield home was bought by Jackes’ son after his father’s death and was eventually sold in 1885 to developers. It was demolished in 1918.

• Ansley Castle

There isn’t a ton of information on what was called Ansley Castle, but according to Don Ritchie’s book, North Toronto, Ansley Castle was located on Glengrove Avenue and what is now Heather Avenue. Also called Beaver Hall, the home was built for Alfred Ansley, a men’s hat manufacturer. The home, pictured in Ritchie’s book, had a turret with very castle-like

francis crescia/town crier

STILL STANDING: This Teddington Park Avenue home, designed by John Lyle, keeps North Toronto’s castle tradition alive.

square indentations along the top. The castle was torn down in the early 1920s, and the story goes that neighbours took pieces of the rubble and used them in their gardens.

• Turreted home near Glen Grove

Is the photo of the turret peeping through the trees near a bridge winding up a hill Ansley Castle? The Toronto Archives identifies the house in this photo as being near “Glen Grove”, but local history buffs writing on www.urbantoronto. ca have debated the exact whereabouts of the house and ravine in the photo. One person suggests the turret is from an old structure known as Glen Castle, which was located on the Glen Grove Farm property on Glengrove Avenue. Another thinks it was the old Ansley Castle at Glengrove and Heather avenues. Others suggest the ravine in question is Blythwood Ravine or Chatsworth Ravine.

Now long gone, this towering building could go down in the books as the mystery castle.

• Modern day castle

Well, the property at 174 Teddington Park Ave. is fortified by wrought iron gates, so technically it’s a castle. And according to reports, the 1,390 square metre home is known as “The Castle” by local kids. Built in the 1930s for Toronto industrialist Frederick Cowan and designed by local architect John Lyle — the same designer of Union Station and other important Toronto buildings — the stone mansion sold in early 2011 for $17.5 million and features eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and a staff and nanny quarters, not to mention a coach house. No leaky creakiness here, though. The building was recently extensively renovated and is so contemporary it boasts computerized lighting. 2011 NORTH TORONTO ToDAY Town Crier

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Downsizing

Photo courtesy Elli Davis

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HYBRID HOME: The two-storey so-called bungaloft is being marketed as an alternative to a traditional bungalow.

• BY Kelly Gadzala

s the little bungalow the next big thing in North Toronto? It may be hard to imagine that amid the sprawling North Toronto homes that smaller residences could be making a comeback of sorts. And though many of the original bungalows built in the 1940s are gone and being either built up or torn down and replaced, there are still some remaining in the area. Royal LePage realtor Elli Davis says bungalows are very popular and not just because of the land they’re sitting on. “They are … also a great downsizing alternative to a condominium without the maintenance fee for some features not always necessary to the

Still around for now Housing trend is helping to keep the bungalow alive

buyer,” she says. “When a new listing of a bungalow comes on to our system, there always seems to be a lot of interest.” Bill Joyce of Bill Joyce Real Estate says the better class of bungalow in North Toronto is drawing in older people into homes in the area south of Cricket Club. “Most people can’t do the stairs when they get old,” says Joyce. “(But) they don’t want to go into the high rise condo.” But even given the trend Joyce guesstimates there are only about 50 bungalows left in the area. A new take on the bungalow that’s gaining

popularity just on the edge of North Toronto around Bayview and Eglinton is what Davis calls the “bungaloft” at the new Kilgour Estate community. The 510 square metre space is, granted, much larger than a typical bungalow. A hybrid of a condo and a bungalow, it has an upper level loft housing an extra bedroom and open office space. But what makes the bungaloft bungalow-like is the fact that the master bedroom is on the main level. Davis says the home is attracting a mix of buyers. “It’s an option for someone downsizing from a very large property,” says Davis.

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