Heritage Toronto will be providing a weekly recap of heritage news in our city.

Feel free to add your comments at the end of this posting, including any stories we may have missed.

Relive 'that end of summer feeling' with CNE online archives (Toronto Star) 

The day Shakespeare was banned (Toronto Star) 

Heritage grants ‘unfair,' Rossi says (Toronto Star) 

Mayoral Debate (National Post)

Mayoral candidates debate heritage (Toronto Sun) 

By Jamie Bradburn

While Torontonians have cast their ballots for their municipal representatives in the fall for the past few decades, a century ago voting day coincided with the start of a new year. January 1 is often associated with drinking (or one's recovery from one tipple too many), and alcohol was top of mind for many voters on the first day of 1909 thanks to a question on the ballot regarding a bylaw that would reduce the number of licensed establishments one could enjoy a boozy beverage from 150 to 110. Would the upstanding citizens of Toronto mark an X, as temperance proponents hoped, in favour of protecting public health and morals?

George Brown College, the Toronto & York Region Labour Council, and CUPE Local 79 have launched a downloadable map that highlights Toronto's labour history through self-guided walking tours of the city.

The map includes three walking tours, each covering a different time period and area: Map A, 19th Century Toronto, begins the city's working history; Map B, Early 20th Century Toronto, records Toronto's early industrial growth; and Map C, Post-War Toronto, takes in key labour sites from the end of World War II to the present.

To download the map, please click here: http://labourcouncil.ca/labourhistorymap.pdf

On October 5 and 6, The Culture & Heritage Institute of Centennial College will host a Symposium on Cultural & Heritage Tourism in Toronto. The 2010 theme is "Intercultural Dialogue in Tourism: 2020 Vision".

Participating in this year's event is Heritage Toronto's Executive Director Karen Carter, who will be partnering with Claire Hopkinson, Executive Director, Toronto Arts Council, Jonathan Tourtellot, Founding Director, Center for Sustainable Destinations, National Geographic and Mike Williams, General Manager of Economic Development, Culture and Tourism, City of Toronto to discuss the "The Toronto Geotourism MapGuide".

For more details on the conference including how to register, please visit: http://www.centennialcollege.ca/chi/symposium

Heritage Toronto will be providing a weekly recap of heritage news in our city.

Feel free to add your comments at the end of this posting, including any stories we may have missed.

On The Bridle Path, one couple sacrifices square footage for ‘vision' (Globe & Mail) 

Beachfront homes for sale (Inside Toronto) 

Historicist: A Village Grows on Markham Street (Torontoist) 

Toronto's concrete heritage can't get no respect (BlogTO) 

Saturday, August 28 - 1:30 PM NEW

The Natural Heritage of the Scarborough Bluffs

Walk down the road built through the Scarborough Bluffs from the Guild Inn to the shoreline of Lake Ontario. Discover the flora and fauna of this dramatic landscape. Learn how the bluffs were formed, the forces which attempt to destroy them, and the methods which have been developed for their preservation.

LEADER: Donald Smith
START POINT: The Guild Inn, 201 Guildwood Parkway, halfway between Livingston Rd and Galloway Rd, S of Kingston Rd, Scarborough. Meet at boarded-up front entrance of main building.
FINISH POINT: Same as start point
LENGTH: Approx. 2 hours
FOCUS: Natural, historical
DIFFICULTY: Challenging walk on hiking trail. Includes a steep 200 foot high hill (down and up)

By David Wencer

In the first half of the Nineteenth Century, the military presence in Toronto was a varying combination of British forces and local militia, with the first Upper Canada militia legislation passed in 1793 (Chambers, 12). While various militia companies existed in and around Toronto in the 1850s, they lacked sufficient numbers and organizational structure to form a full regiment.

Toronto's interest in military affairs was growing, as patriotism increased throughout the Empire due to Great Britain's involvement in the Crimean War. In 1859 a new militia act was passed which allowed for the formation of battalions of infantry and rifles units wherever possible (Chambers, 38). Nine volunteer companies in Montreal were soon assembled into the First Battalion Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada. Lieutenant Colonel George Taylor Denison, commander of the Toronto district, saw the advantage in forming a similar battalion in Toronto (Chambers, 39) and initiated the process to have the regiment organized.

In September, the Toronto Public Library (TPL) will kick off its six part History Matters lecture series.

The goal of the series is to encourage the development of community and exchange between active Toronto historians and the broader Toronto community. All lectures are free.

This fall's lectures are:

Making the Scene in 1960s Yorkville

Stuart Henderson
Tues. Sept. 14, 2 pm
Yorkville Branch
22 Yorkville Ave. 416-393-7660

I'll Drink to That: Booze in Hogtown

Craig Heron
Tues. Sept. 28, 7 pm
Annette Street Branch
145 Annette St. 416-393-7692

A Public Technology: The Building of Toronto's Yonge Street Subway

Jay Young
Thurs. Oct. 14, 7 pm
Beaches Branch
2161 Queen St. E. 416-393-7703

Isolating Undesirables: Prisons, Pollution and Homelessness in Toronto's Don River Valley, 1860-1932

Jennifer Bonnell
Thurs. Oct. 14, 7 pm
Bendale Branch
1515 Danforth Rd. 416-396-8910

Heritage Toronto will be providing a weekly recap of heritage news in our city.

Feel free to add your comments at the end of this posting, including any stories we may have missed.

Combining the CNE and Ontario Place: Urban renewal on the lake (Toronto Star) 

Danforth's Music Hall shuttered (Toronto Star) 

Bringing a little Mad Men to St. Clair West (Globe & Mail) 

Saturday, August 21 - 11:00 AM

The Royal Alexandra Theatre and its Neighbourhood

The Royal Alexandra Theatre, anchor of the Theatre District, celebrates its 103rd birthday this year. Hear the story of the theatre and explore the multi-layered history of the surrounding neighbourhood.

LEADER: Janet Langdon
START POINT: Simcoe Park, just E of the CBC Broadcast Centre and across from the Toronto Convention Centre (Front St W)
FINISH POINT: Royal Alexandra Theatre, 260 King St W
LENGTH: Approx. 1 ½ to 2 hours
FOCUS: Historical, architectural
DIFFICULTY: Average walk on sidewalks

Heritage Toronto will be providing a weekly recap of heritage news in our city.

Feel free to add your comments at the end of this posting, including any stories we may have missed.

Baltic stylings on the shore of Lake Ontario (Globe & Mail) 

Bringing back the glory days of Ontario Place (Inside Toronto) 

Plaques Mark Toronto's Heritage Heroes (Torontoist) 

Time versus the Sylvan Apartments (Open File) 

Saturday, August 14 - 10:00 AM NEW

The Trees of Queen's Park

In 1860, Edward, the Prince of Wales presided at the naming of Queen's Park in honour of his mother Queen Victoria. The park itself and some of the trees date back even further. Hear about some of the most compelling trees in this park - from giant oaks that are likely over 250-years-old to white pines planted to commemorate an event - and how they help tell the story of these historic grounds.

LEADER: Todd Irvine
START POINT: NE corner of College and University Avenues, on the grass just north of the Queen's Park Subway Station entrance
FINISH POINT: War monument at the top of Queen's Park Cres (northernmost point of Queen's Park)
LENGTH: Approx. 1 ½ hours
FOCUS: Natural, historical
DIFFICULTY: Rough ground, park paths and grass

By Nicholas Thompson

In August 1887 the Toronto World commented on the "strange looking building" being erected on the south side of Front Street. With sixteen sides, an elegant dome, and virtually no windows, the five-storey building cut a peculiar figure alongside the Walker House Hotel and the old Union Station. Financed by an outfit called the Toronto Art Exhibit Company, and designed by local architects Kennedy & Holland, it was to be called the Cyclorama. Inside, the building offered much more for thought for comment. When it opened to the public the following month, on 12 September, Torontonians encountered an epic battle scene depicted in colossal oil paintings, hung from the walls in panoramic sequence and illuminated by gaslight. "It is so lifelike," a World reporter wrote, "as to be almost deceptive."

Heritage Toronto will be providing a weekly recap of heritage news in our city.

Feel free to add your comments at the end of this posting, including any stories we may have missed.

Historicist: Self-Taught Naturalist (Torontoist) 

Saturday, August 7 - 1:30 PM

Cabbagetown - South

Cabbagetown, a residential area developed in the late 1800s, is rich in Victorian architecture - from workmen's cottages to villas. Explore the architecture and hear stories of the people who have lived here.

LEADERS: Cabbagetown Preservation Association
START POINT: NE corner of Winchester and Parliament Streets
FINISH POINT: Carlton and Parliament Streets
LENGTH: Approx. 1 ½ hours
FOCUS: Architectural, historical
DIFFICULTY: Average walk on sidewalks

Sunday, August 8 - 1:30 PM

Baby Point: 10,000 Years of History

Explore some of Toronto's First Nations and French history with this tour of the area named after the estate of James Baby, an early French settler, and the Humber River valley below. Tours will be offered in English and French.

A new community profile has been posted, written by Krystyna Cap, which profiles Toronto's small Albanian community. You can find the profile in our Your Stories section.

If you would like to see your community profiled, please send a note to email@heritagetoronto.org. 

Heritage Toronto will be providing a weekly recap of heritage news in our city.

Feel free to add your comments at the end of this posting, including any stories we may have missed.

Frank Gehry's childhood home to be razed (Toronto Star) 

Sold! 140 year old house on Peter St. in the Club District (BlogTO) 

Historicist: Opening the Cinesphere (Torontoist) 

By Jamie Bradburn

Nineteenth-century Toronto journalism was often a war field of conflicting political outlooks. Some newspaper proprietors, such as George Brown of the Globe, had deep ties with the parties of the day but (usually) kept their publications separate from the official party apparatus. Not so with the Empire, whose operations were maintained by the federal Conservatives. For just under a decade, the Empire provided morning readers with the news as filtered by the Prime Minister and his associates. But, as reporter Hector Charlesworth noted in his memoirs, "a newspaper established and conducted primarily by an official partisan junta has in its system the seed of death from the outset."

On Monday, August 30th, Heritage Toronto and the Toronto Historical Association will host a public mayoral debate at St. Lawrence Hall to discuss the state of heritage in Toronto in 2010. The debate will be moderated by former Chief Planner for the City of Toronto, and Adjunct Professor of City Planning at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University, Paul Bedford.

Heritage Toronto and the Toronto Historical Association have run a series of community consultations throughout the city which will result in a report of what Torontonians see as significant issues relating to heritage preservation. The information collected through the consultations and public input will be used to develop a heritage report card, with key issues being raised at the debate. The report card will also be accessible to the public and media in the fall.

Heritage Toronto will be providing a weekly recap of heritage news in our city.

Feel free to add your comments at the end of this posting, including any stories we may have missed.

Old Empress Hotel caught in tug-of-war (Toronto Star)

Downtrodden lower Yonge on the road to recovery (Globe & Mail) 

Another modernist gem faces the wrecking ball (Globe & Mail) 

A heritage honey full of treats (Globe & Mail) 

Join us for two new walks and a special Wednesday walk of the Exhibition grounds. 

Saturday, July 24 - 10:30 AM NEW

Canada's Candy King Lived Here

Explore the North York neighbourhood around Maryvale, the 1920s estate and farm of Frank P. O'Connor. O'Connor founded Laura Secord candy stores and later served in the Canadian Senate.

LEADER: O'Connor Irish Heritage House
START POINT: SE corner of Victoria Park Ave and Ellesmere Road (near Parkwoods Mall)
FINISH POINT: Victoria Park Ave and Lawrence Ave E
LENGTH: Approx. 1 ½ to 2 hours
FOCUS: Historical, architectural, natural
DIFFICULTY: Long walk on pavement, slopes/bridge over railway track

The full list of 2010 Heritage Toronto Walks can be found here!

Join us for new walks including Canada's Candy King Lived Here, Cabbagetown People: More Remarkable Lives, The Trees of Queen's Park, William Lyon Mackenzie: Toronto's First Mayor, Faces on Places: Toronto's Architectural Sculpture, Toronto Botanical Garden and Edwards Gardens and Library to Library in Riverdale.

Hope to see you soon!

Photo of William Lyon Mackenzie from the Archives of Ontario

Saturday, July 17 - 1:30 PM

The Queen's Park Stroll

Discover the history of our provincial Legislative Building and the fascinating monuments that surround it. Free 30 minute tours of the interior of the Legislature are also available before and after the tour of the grounds (call 416-325-7500 for details).

LEADERS: Legislative Assembly Staff
START POINT: The start point for this walk has been moved (from the front steps) to the statue of Queen Victoria, just east of the main entrance of the Legislature
FINISH POINT: East entrance of Legislative Building
LENGTH: Approx. 1 ½ hours
FOCUS: Historical, architectural
DIFFICULTY: Easy walk on pavement and park paths, some rough ground

Sunday, July 18 - 1:30 PM

The Splendour That Was Sherbourne Street

In the 1880s, Sherbourne Street was one of the most fashionable streets in Toronto. Glimpses of its noble past survive in its architecture - grand homes built for wealthy businessmen, and imposing churches.