History
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The Torontonian roots of Doctor Who — the Canadian behind the legendary TV show
Doctor Who turned 50 years old over the weekend. The Guinness Book of World Records calls it the most successful science-fiction series of all-time...
By Adam Bunch -
A.Y. Jackson goes to war — the Group of Seven on the Western Front
“What war?” In the summer of 1914, A.Y. Jackson was far from home, high among the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. He was there to paint. This...
By Adam Bunch -
Crowdfunding Queerstory — a free app that will tell Toronto’s LGBTQ history
A new project started by Year Zero One YZO, some of the folks behind the award-winning TXTilecity project (stories about Toronto’s textile heritage...
By Shawn Micallef -
The ghost of Christie Mansion — the grisly story of a Toronto cookie baron’s secret mistress
Mr. Christie first came to Toronto in 1848. He was still a teenager back then, but he had already spent a few years as an apprentice to a baker back home...
By Adam Bunch -
Toronto celebrates the false end of the Great Boer War — the anatomy of a photo from 1901
It’s the summer of 1901 and we’re looking east down King Street from the intersection at Yonge. (You can see what the same view looks like...
By Adam Bunch -
Icon and architecture in the land of Mirvish + Gehry
In response to Christopher Hume’s piece on Jennifer Keesmaat’s concerns over the proposed Mirvish+Gehry development, I would like to raise a few concerns...
By Kristen Gagnon -
Is this the oldest catch basin grate in the city?
Down at Fort York, amongst the War of 1812 buildings and the construction site of the new visitors centre, lies a grate for a catch basin that may be the...
By Matthew Blackett -
Star Trek and Toronto City Hall
Toronto has made an appearance in the Star Trek universe twice and both times it’s been thanks to Nathan Phillips Square. When our new City Hall...
By Adam Bunch -
Toronto-itis: How I dealt with that uneasy feeling returning home to an adolescent city
I had traveled in Europe for a month, taking in the sights and rubbing elbows with fellow city-enthusiasts (also known as tourists). It was my first time...
By Sheraz Khan -
Sam’s Sign: Giant neon records need good home
“We had a deal,” was the constant refrain as city councillors and deputants alike grilled representatives of Ryerson University and Heritage Preservation...
By Glyn Bowerman -
One of Toronto’s most famous early monuments — and its connection to Sam the Record Man
It was one of Toronto’s most famous early monuments — so well-known to locals that many simply called it the Monument. It was erected in 1939, in...
By Adam Bunch -
LORINC: The Wychwood Barns, Sam’s sign, and how we know what heritage means
Not long after I moved into the St. Clair West area, in the mid-1990s, I heard about a City-run consultation on the future of the long shuttered TTC car...
By John Lorinc