{"id":2361,"date":"2007-10-09T02:41:30","date_gmt":"2007-10-09T06:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2361"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:51:57","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:51:57","slug":"2361","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/","title":{"rendered":"The public square we never got"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2202\/1519185863_37c4c817de_o.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2202\/1519185863_08f4b9c7ab.jpg\" height=\"378\" width=\"500\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Stephen Otto, one of the board members of the Friends of Fort York, slipped a print-out under Spacing&#8217;s office door a few weeks ago. It was the image above &#8212; an illustration from the January 1898 edition of Canadian Architect &amp; Builder of the proposed Victoria Square to be situated right out front of the soon-to-be opened City Hall (today&#8217;s Old City Hall). Click on the image to see a <a href=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2202\/1519185863_37c4c817de_o.jpg\">larger version<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Having read through a handful of Toronto history books, I was aware of the square&#8217;s proposal but I had never seen a rendering or illustration until I picked up that piece of paper. The square would&#8217;ve been the northern point of Federal Avenue, a grand boulevard stretching south to Union Station, linking the two major landmarks and institutions of the day. It&#8217;s certainly a shame this never came to be. On the flipside, it certainly would&#8217;ve changed our local history and we may have never ended up with our current and <a href=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/images\/spacing07-cover-shadow.jpg\">amazingly unique city hall<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen Otto, one of the board members of the Friends of Fort York, slipped a print-out under Spacing&#8217;s office door a few weeks ago. It was the image above &#8212; an illustration from the January 1898 edition of Canadian Architect &amp; Builder of the proposed Victoria Square to be situated right out front of the<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;The public square we never got&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,24,20],"tags":[368,1814,6944,2713,6942,12,22085,6943,19,647,2508],"class_list":["post-2361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-history","category-urban-design","tag-architect","tag-fort-york","tag-friends-of-fort-york","tag-old-city-hall","tag-one-of-the-board-members","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-stephen-otto","tag-toronto","tag-union-station","tag-victoria-square"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The public square we never got - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The public square we never got - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stephen Otto, one of the board members of the Friends of Fort York, slipped a print-out under Spacing&#8217;s office door a few weeks ago. It was the image above &#8212; an illustration from the January 1898 edition of Canadian Architect &amp; Builder of the proposed Victoria Square to be situated right out front of theContinue reading &quot;The public square we never got&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-10-09T06:41:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T19:51:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2202\/1519185863_08f4b9c7ab.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Blackett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew Blackett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/\",\"name\":\"The public square we never got - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2202\/1519185863_08f4b9c7ab.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-10-09T06:41:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T19:51:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/4f3b818d7e3504a6e4626afc774b2574\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2202\/1519185863_08f4b9c7ab.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2202\/1519185863_08f4b9c7ab.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The public square we never got\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/4f3b818d7e3504a6e4626afc774b2574\",\"name\":\"Matthew Blackett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3eb8fd719ea39ea94dc1b32911c80f51?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3eb8fd719ea39ea94dc1b32911c80f51?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Matthew Blackett\"},\"description\":\"Matthew Blackett is the publisher, creative director and one of the founders of Spacing magazine. He is the author, editor, and photographer of 11 books. He is also a graphic artist, product designer, and deeply-committed advocate for Toronto. TWITTER: @MatthewBlackett INSTAGRAM: @MatthewBlackett\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/matt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The public square we never got - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/09\/2361\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The public square we never got - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"Stephen Otto, one of the board members of the Friends of Fort York, slipped a print-out under Spacing&#8217;s office door a few weeks ago. 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