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Toronto's Neighbourhood Architecture
This Continuing Education course at U of T will explore a dozen of the city's neighbourhoods through discussion and hundreds of images.
Click here for more information and registration:
http://2learn.utoronto.ca/uoft/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?metho...
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FacebookThe Queen's Plate turns 150
Horse race's humble beginnings began in the Junction
By David Wencer
A one hundred and fifty year-old tradition began in 1860, when the first Queen's Plate took place on what was then a quiet estate near the Toronto suburb of Carlton (sometimes spelled "Carleton").
In the 1850s, horseracing was still in its infancy in southern Ontario. There were very few thoroughbreds in Upper Canada at this time, meaning that the bulk of the racing stock was of inferior quality. The result was an industry lacking in both high-quality races and in credibility.
A solution was sought by the Toronto Turf Club, which had established itself as the Toronto area's chief horseracing concern in the 1840s. Believing that a race with royal import would give the industry a boost and improve the level of competition, the Toronto Turf Club petitioned Governor General Edmund Walker Head in April of 1859, requesting an annual royal horseracing prize from Queen Victoria. On July 18, the response came from the Duke of Newcastle that Victoria had granted a plate in the value of 50 guineas.
The Heintzman & Co. Ltd
Toronto's piano company
By David Wencer
For over one hundred years, Heintzman & Co., Ltd. was a Toronto-based company which produced some of the highest-quality pianos ever manufactured in Canada.
Theodor Heintzman (courtesy of the West Toronto Junction Historical Society)
The early years of the company's founder, Theodor August Heintzman, were spent in Germany learning the trade of manufacturing pianos from the man who became his father-in-law. Around 1850, already in his 30s, Heintzman emigrated to New York with his family, seeking an opportunity in North America.
After brief business ventures in Greenwich Village and in Buffalo he came to Toronto in 1860, apparently at the invitation of Frank Thomas, whose owned a piano factory downtown. Heintzman company advertisements credit this as the beginning of Heintzman & Co., although the company would not be officially incorporated until 1866.