History
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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 -
The tale of two Canadian children’s authors vs. the President of the United States
Once upon a time (by which I mean the late 1800s and early 1900s) stories about intelligent, anthropomorphized animals were all the rage. The trend had...
By Adam Bunch -
One of the CNE’s weirdest exhibits ever: live animal surgeries in the early 1960s
The Ex had never been more popular than it was in 1962 and ’63. More than three million people walked through the gates during those years. The...
By Adam Bunch -
Simcoe’s vision for Toronto: a city so awesome it would undo the American Revolution
1791. Just ten years earlier, John Graves Simcoe had been fighting on the British side of the American Revolution. He made a name for himself in that...
By Adam Bunch -
MOD TORONTO: The CNE goes Modernist
To coincide with the cover section of Spacing’s summer 2013 issue, we bring you a series of posts by local architect Robert Moffatt that examine...
By Robert Moffatt -
A brief history of Dufferin Street
Dufferin Street, looking north at Dupont, 1950. Note the wires for the new Annette Trolley Coach route on Dupont and the level crossing with the busy...
By Sean Marshall -
IN THIS ISSUE: History of playgrounds in Toronto
The Summer 2013 issue of Spacing is jammed packed with a slew of great articles, photos, and interviews focused on Toronto urbanism. This article appears...
By Spacing -
MOD TORONTO: A sculptural art school at Central Tech
To coincide with the cover section of Spacing’s summer 2013 issue, we bring you a series of posts by local architect Robert Moffatt that examine...
By Robert Moffatt -
The Great Toronto Stork Derby — why the city went baby crazy during the Great Depression
It all started on Halloween in 1926. That’s the day Charles Vance Millar died. He was a rich Toronto lawyer and financier — best known for modernizing a...
By Adam Bunch