THE IRREGULAR NEWSLETTER OF THE COMMUNITY HISTORY PROJECT
Mail: c/o Spadina Road Library, 10 Spadina Road, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2S7
Office and Meetings: Second Floor, 719 Yonge Street (south of Bloor) 416-515-7546
Membership: $20 annually for the period 31 May to 1 June of the following year
Meetings: 7:30 pm on the fourth Thursday of each month (except July, August) at the Office
Early Spring Issue 9 March 2007
COPING WITH A BIG YEAR AHEAD
As all know, the struggle to raise funds and finish the Tollkeeper's Cottage has dominated CHP's schedule for some years. It is still our hope that this $500,000 project will find the remaining $140,000 to finish the job and open this year. All are asked to help as much as possible by canvassing relatives and friends for any disposable income they can part with, or hold a coffee party, or something! At present, the carpenters are finishing the subfloor and walls around the bathroom and mechanical room, and will start work on building the huge cabinet for the north wall (an activity which will allow some advance preparation of displays for that unit). With much more money than is presently in the Tollkeeper's Fund, we would be able to schedule the plastering, sanitary sewer hookup, and attention to the woodwork in the Cottage (although the volunteers still have to complete stripping off the old paint).
As if we did not have enough to do, the word we were expecting for some time about our tenancy at 719 Yonge has finally arrived. All tenants must be out of their quarters by the end of this year, as demolitions are to begin at the beginning of February 2008. Not only do we have to find a new home but we have to raise the funds required for the actual move. While we were in Cumberland Terrace we had the use of 3000 square feet free of charge, courtesy of Hammerson Canada. We left those quarters when the property was sold to new owners and moved across the intersection to 719 Yonge, courtesy of Nastapoka Holdings. At Yonge, we have 2700 square feet and have managed to fill it to overflowing. If we can get the Tollkeeper's Cottage finished sooner rather than later, we can move the stuff there which we have been collecting for it and so relieve some of the pressure. If we have enough help and have a gigantic Junque in June sale this year, that too will relieve some pressure. Those are some important "ifs".
What we need is at least 2500 square feet or preferably more, which is on a TTC route for the benefit of our older members. What would be ideal is that amount of space preferably on ground level (because the carrying up and down stairs of loads and displays is quite taxing and limiting). We can clean up a space and find ways of illuminating it and making it secure. And we should stay within our research area which runs roughly from the Don to Dufferin at least, and from below Bloor to above St. Clair. Everybody, please help!
Office: 6. Place for transacting business; room etc. in which the clerks of the establishment work, counting house; (with qualification) room etc. set apart for business of particular department of large concern.
HERITAGE SHOWCASE
The modest presentation in the Tollkeeper's Cottage was by several groups: Lost Rivers Project, Toronto Field Naturalists, Heritage York, Toronto Historical Association, CHP, and the Regal Heights Residents' Association. The latter group puts some heritage groups to shame because it has raised the funds for restoring two murals (by G.W.Reid, Doris McCarthy) in the Dufferin-St. Clair Library, have managed to get the Regal Road School on the City's Inventory of Heritage Properties and are raising funds to restore the school's portico, for both of these efforts they received a Heritage Toronto award. The highlight of each day were the goodies being made on site by Dorothy Duncan: Sugar Plums on Saturday and Chinese Chews on Sunday. The two day show allowed us to deposit $344 in the Tollkeeper's Fund and $60 in CHP's account.
ST. PATRICK'S DAY, SATURDAY 17 MARCH
This is our next fundraiser and public education programme. Ann Gilbride is, once again, making authentic Irish sodabread, Peggy Kurtin is making the necessary marmalade and visitors will be able to enjoy a slice with butter, marmalade, and a cup of tea for $5. All of our tollkeepers were Irish with one exception, so we take a display on Toronto's Irish history and this year will add some information about our tollkeepers.
THE MAGNIFICENT NORTH, FRIDAY 30 MARCH
This event will be a slide show and talk by a man who has hiked extensively in the Arctic generally and in Canada's Arctic in particular. The northern landscapes are spectacularly beautiful and the images captured on film are equally beautiful. The showing will be in the fine theatre ofthe City of Toronto Archives, starting precisely at 7 pm and running for an hour-and-a-half There will be no ticket sales at the door so tickets will have to be purchased in advance through the CHP office or from one ofthe members. At $25 each, they will pay for rental ofthe space with the balance applied to the Tollkeeper's Cottage. The lecturer is donating his services to help raise funds. For those who never expect to go to the Arctic the show illustrates what makes Canada distinctive and for experienced hikers the evening will provide tips on how to plan and pack. The evening is also linked to another slide show later in the year of images from the Tyrrell collection.
LARGE HERITAGE SHOWCASE, FRIDAY 20 APRIL
The Toronto Historical Association is sponsoring a larger showcase with more heritage groups and displays in the Rotunda of Toronto City Hall. The purpose is to educate the politicians and bureaucrats about the work done by the volunteer sector. CHP will be there with a display about the Tollkeeper's Cottage, and about Sir Frederick Banting and his homestead in preparation for the first United Nations World Diabetes Day on 14 November, Banting's birthday. During the critical years of developing insulin for human use at the U of T laboratories, Banting lived on Bedford Road.
SUNDAY 22 APRIL, EARTH DAY
Doing something nice for Mother Earth and beautifying the city at the same time will involve some heavy labour in clearing trash and garbage out of all of Davenport Square Park. Some growing things will also be removed to prepare for the long term programme of naturalizing this section of the escarpment and the park.Both CHP and the Parks Department have planned some improvements and plantings. You can help by showing up with gardening gloves and a willingness to get dirty!
SATURDAY 26 MAY, HERITAGE SEEDS AND PLANTS SALE
Both 26 and 27 May are days for Doors Open in Toronto. The Tollkeeper's Cottage will be open to visitors on an unofficial basis both days, but the most activity will be on the Saturday when heritage seeds and plants will be for sale at both the Cottage and on the front lawn of155 Upper Canada Drive, in Willowdale. The seeds and plants will be of indigenous species appropriate to the Toronto region and will include herbs as well as flowering species. Assisted by Richter's, the funds raised at both locations from 10 am to 1 pm will help the Tollkeeper's Cottage.
It is needless to say that man and the domestic animals have destroyed many plants that at one time were abundant here. Many rare and beautiful species that formerly flourished on the Island are, if not entirely extinct, rarely to be met with. "Ladies' tresses" could always be found in abundance. The exact locality where they were so common is now several feet under the sand which was pumped over the land to raise it. The only locality in which Scleria verticillata was known to grow has been "improved" so that this rare plant is now extinct. A few years ago both the valleys of the Humber and the Don were the homes of many varieties of Orchids and rare plants, as Ginseng and the Painted Cup. These have disappeared .... In the flora of Toronto and its immediate neighbourhood there are 104 families, 398 genera and 798 species.
William Scott article in TheNatural History of the Toronto Region,Ontario,Canada, 1913
TEA ON THE LAWN
A traditional afternoon tea is being served on Saturday 9 June and Sunday 10 June on the rear lawn of 155 Upper Canada Drive at the traditional hours of 2 to 4 pm. For the price of your ticket you can enjoy sandwiches, relishes and assorted dainties and browse among the tables with displays, home baking, culinary magazines and books. Proceeds from the event will assist in the restoration of the Tollkeeper's Cottage. If tickets are purchased by 1 June they will cost $10 per person; after that date the tickets will cost $15 and there will be none for sale at the event itself. For further information call either 416-222-3668 or 416-515-7546.
DONATIONS
From a personal friend of long standing, Larry Priestman has obtained for the Tollkeeper's Cottage a brand-new microwave oven. Larry is also investigating an outlet for appliances that is used by people in the construction industry. We had a rude shock, after pricing the three appliances at retail level for home use, when we learned that we should be installing commercial equipment, particularly the dishwasher which will sterilize what it washes at 180° to meet provincial standards for serving food to the public. The discovery has jacked our budget up from $130,000 to $142,000.
Rolande Smith continues to bring in books, some for our library and some to sell. One of the most fascinating books in a recent load is called British Chimney Sweeps by Benita Cullingford. You might be inclined to discount the importance of such a book to our research library, but reading just the very first page reveals just how fascinating a range of history is being treated. The book gives the evolution of chimney design and how it altered the design and size of houses, and in a number of places the book treats the subject of child labour. The book provides a background of ideas which the immigrants to Canada would have brought with them. Another book is a biography of Dr. T.T. Shields which also gives an outline of most of the history of Jarvis Street Baptist Church which has links with other churches in our study area. Another useful volume is Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things which contains, among its many useful articles, one on the origin of Planter's Peanuts which was located in Canada at the former Ford Factory at Christie and Dupont Streets. Four other volumes complete this donation, to which must be added books for sale.
Where Casa Loma is unique in Canada is in the fantastic and conspicuous waste it displays. There never was, I suppose [as George Orwell put it] in the history of the world a time when the sheer vulgar fatness of wealth, without any kind of aristocratic elegance to redeem it, was so obtrusive as in those years before 1914... From the whole decade before 1914 there seems to breathe forth a smell of the more vulgar, un-grown-up kinds of luxury, a smell of brilliantine and creme de menthe and soft-centred chocolates - an atmosphere, as it were, of eating everlasting strawberry ices on green lawns to the tune of the Eton Boating Song. Something of that atmosphere still pervades Casa Loma; it is unique, in short,not for any architectural merits,but as a social document of those fantastic times when 'the public depended [this is Walter Lord speaking now, of the social world that sank on the Titanic] on socially prominent people for all the vicarious glamour that enriches drab lives. Never again did established wealth occupy people's minds so thoroughly. On the other hand, never again was wealth so spectacular. That kind of spectacular wealth,that infatuation with sheer money, jumps out at you from every page of the official Casa Loma guide book.
Alan Gowans, Looking at Architecture in Canada, 1957
What would Mr. Gowans say about luxury condos costing 3 million and up?
NEWS
KOIVlINEK Camera and Optical Repair has been the only such place in the city where camera repairs could be done and where quality used equipment was available for purchase. This company is closing down and will be converting its sales to purchases via the web. If you are a camera user and are interested in finding out what is available, please contact Russell Forfar's website at www.kominek.com his email: service@kominek.com. He has almost every type of equipment available, including fully professional process cameras,
Here is the state of the following major heritage properties: The Guild Inn, lauded by Miller as fine heritage work by the City, is being demolished. Casa Lorna, which was neglected for years by the City which owns it, is having conservation work done on the exterior (at hugely greater costs because of the years of neglect) but nothing done on the interior. The castle awaits the outcome of a power play by the City to oust the Kiwanians and a takeover by the Culture division to convert it into yet another arts venue. The TTC Wychwood Car Barns are being converted into a live-work space for artists. The John Street Roundhouse is finally finished as a heritage property, with the brewery expanding into more bays, the rolling stock being taken outside, and a shell company taking over the rest of the site for retail purposes. The "railway museum" is to be confined to three bays and - presumably - placed under the jurisdiction of a society which has no credibility within the serious rail heritage community. The fate ofthe artefacts left by the CPR (linen, china, lamps, etc.) is unknown. The Don Valley Brickworks is being converted by the Evergreen Foundation with monies from the City and Province, into a complex of restaurants, gardening, and recreational activities. Todmorden Mills is being converted into an arts venue, and a specially restored field of wildflowers paved and built over, and the little Don Station is to be moved to the John Street Roundhouse grounds as a token of a railway presence. Preserve us!
The only real conservation and preservation work being done in Toronto is being
done by two professional/commercial organizations (the Carlu, and projects by the
Zeidlers) and by volunteers in the heritage community: CHP with the Tollkeeper's
Cottage, and Heritage York with Lambton House.
Heritage York sponsors programmes at Lambton House to the limit of its volunteer staff. Among these programmes are Pub Nights at which you can see the building and purchase a very good sandwich and a beer or pop or coffee or tea. Pub Nights are held on Fridays as follows: 2nd March, 13th April, 4th May and 1st June. You are welcome to attend and compare their restoration work with what is being done at the Tollkeeper's Cottage. And you may assist with the furnishing ofLambton House if you have lace curtains to donate or odd wooden kitchen chairs. They have no funds for restoring furniture so the chairs would have to be usable and pre-1920. They are also looking for fireplace surrounds, but you would need to talk to them about the specifics. If you have anything to donate, please call Madeleine McDowell at 416-767-7633, leaving your name and number on her machine if she is out. In case you have forgotten, Lambton House was a hotel run as one of the family businesses by Sir William Pierce Howland, a Father of Confederation.
A FUN PROJECT!
If any hobbyist in our ranks would like to try to build some birdhouses, please contact us. We have a supply of the 1884 siding stripped off the Tollkeeper's Cottage; TRCA has already taken away a pile of this material to build birdhouses and bird feeding stations and told us that birds like dirty old lumber that does not smell of paint or glue, so our supply fits the description. The birdhouses should be made for little birds only, meaning the holes for openings should be quite small, and nails or screws used to fasten parts together. We have permission to mount these houses in the park, but will not be mounting any feeding stations using seed in order to avoid attracting more rats and squirrels than we already have. Birdhouses should try to be squirrel proof (hard to do), and hang from a branch. We will be making plantings as food sources for birds, and will offer a hummingbird feeder until our plantings alone can attract them. It would be nice if we could have a workshop for children, at the Tollkeeper's Cottage, for any kids wanting to learn to build the right kind of birdhouse to take home! We supply the materials. Any potential instructors out there?
FURNISHING THE TOLLKEEPER'S COTTAGE
We have all of the large furniture that we need. All of it has been donated and is being professionally restored, with our volunteers to do any final finishing under the direction of the restoration expert. As well, we have all of the linens that we need, but are hunting for authentic woven blue-and-white striped ticking to make pillows and paliasses for the beds.
But our greatest needs are for small furnishings, such as lamps, tableware, cutlery, wooden pails, crocks of all kinds and sizes, a wooden scrub board, clothing and shoes, hats, children's toys, inkwell and quill pens, old pencils, an engraving ofthe young Queen Victoria, very old schoolbooks, braided rag rugs, a wooden butter churn, a wooden butter press, a wooden maple sugar press, another tin candle mould (we have one for six candles), some iron trivets and sad irons, and an old British flag.
With his poking around antique and used book shops, Brian found a small volume with
columns headed by rates payable at the tollgate, but the pages at the front which were,
presumably, filled in, had been ripped out. But it is still a real find!
All items have to be 1860 or earlier, and must be vetted by Dorothy Duncan.
For the modem classroom Addition, we are looking for 40 durable folding chairs, a large coffee urn, a large teapot, an electric kettle, and the necessary funds to purchase a compact refrigerator, compact stove, and compact dishwasher. These three items have to fit under our "kitchen" counter, above which will be storage cabinets to hold the glasses, mugs and plates that have been donated in the past.
TWO ANNEX MEN OF IMPORTANCE
At 46 Bedford Road there was once a brick house that was the home of Sir Frederick Banting (1891-1941) in the critical years of 1921 and 1922 when he and Charles Best were working at isolating insulin for human use in the laboratories ofthe University ofToronto. The research work earned Banting the Nobel Prize in 1923. Honours flowed to him from around the world and in 1934 he was knighted.
Banting was born and raised on the family farm near Alliston, and went to local schools until the time came for him.to go to university in Toronto where his career began to progress rapidly. By the time he was given an appointment to teach for one academic year in London, the idea of insulin was beginning to dominate his thinking. He returned to Toronto where his work with Best would change the world, and from which he would travel all over that world. But he frequently returned to his roots at the farm. The buildings are all still there and visitors come from afar to visit them.
The Ontario Historical Society was willed the farm with its building and large
acreage containing evidence of very early aboriginal occupation. Astonishingly, the OHS decided to sell the property to a developer and the Society is also fighting
municipal designation. The Bedford house has vanished, but the property which
nurtured and moulded his thinking is still in place, although badly neglected.
A short distance away and around the corner is 36 Prince Arthur Avenue. With its tower at the southwest comer, the house is distinctive and unlike others that survive on this street. Built in 1891, the house was purchased in 1922 by Dr. Edmund Boyd, a surgeon and ear, nose and throat specialist who had served in World War I and came back to head the otolaryngology unit at Sick Childrens Hospital and at Toronto General. In the Prince Arthur house, he kept his office and saw adult patients, but the property he had purchased two years earlier in Vaughan Township was closer to his heart. He called his Woodbridge lands "Braeside".
At Prince Arthur, he kept the house as it was, using.the main floor with its huge
livingroom as a waiting room, and other rooms for his office and examining room.
A secretary had an office, and a married couple lived on the third floor and looked
after the house. The second floor was barely used. But at Vaughan Township he
bought more land and designed and built.a house to. suit all of his interests which
included the natural features of the rolling landscape and the Humber River. Like
Banting, he was fascinated by the aboriginal artifacts that came to the surface but,
unlike Banting who collected them, he put them back in the earth where he found
them. He wrote about how landscape should preserved and treated, and
worked at his research on laterality (which side of the brain controls which side of
the body) -the first person in history to investigate the subject. Before he could
publish his research he became ill and died on his estate. His land was purchased by
the Conservation Authority which renamed it the Boyd Conservation Area but they
tore down his house and made flat picnic areas out ofthe rolling landscape. Dr.
Boyd's dates are 1882-1963.
CHP PROGRAMMES 2007 (revised again)
CHP meetings: Mar 22, Apr 26, May 31 is AGM, Sep 27, Oct 25, Nov 23 Mississaugas demonstration about the Toronto Purchase Land Claim every Friday 5 to 7 pm at foot of Bathurst Street
MAR: 17 -St. Patrick's Day at the Tollkeeper's Cottage 11 am to 1 pm for Irish sodabread and tea
30 -The Magnificent North slide show and talk, City Archives Theatre 7 to 9 pm, advance ticket sales only
APR: 20 -THA Heritage Showcase, Rotunda City Hall all day, displays and sales
22 - Earth Day, 2 to 4 pm major cleanup of Davenport Square Park, preparation for planting
28-29 -Sweet Heritage, 11 am to 6 pm sale of maple syrup and pancakes at Tollkeeper's Cottage
MAY: 6 - Environment Day at Wychwood, full team effort at junk table sales, barbecue
6 - Tollkeeper's Tour No.1, Bruce Ferreira-Wells, 2 pm at Tollkeeper's Cottage, $5 fundraiser
13 - Tollkeeper's Tour No.2, with Bruce, $5 fundraiser
19 - Grassroots Albany Plant Sale, all day, venue TBA
20 - Tollkeeper's Tour No.3, with Bruce, $5 fundraiser
24 - Victoria Day, on the real birthday of the tollkeepers' queen, exhibit and tea with dainties
26-27 - Doors Open city-wide, Tollkeeper's Cottage open
26 - Heritage Seeds, Plants Sale, at Tollkeeper's Cottage and at 155 Upper Canada Drive, Willowdale
27 -Tollkeeper's Tour No.4, with Bruce, $5 fundraiser
JUN: Yorkville Library 100 years old this month, CHP exhibit on village history in gallery there all month
ABC Residents' Association 50 years old this year
6 -CHP lecture on village history at Yorkville Library, 6:30 pm
9 -10 -Tea on the Lawn at 155 Upper Canada Drive, Willowdale, 2 to 4 pm, advance ticket sales only
14 - ABC Residents' Book Sale and CHP there with display
15 - Gigantic Junque in June Sale, 11 am to 6 pm at Roy's Square
16 - York Pioneers hold meeting in Tollkeeper's Cottage
16 - Yorkville Library 10 am for walking tour, noon plaque unveiling and party
21 - National Aboriginal Day at the Tollkeeper's Cottage, 5 to 8 pm
23 - Rushton Road Neighbourhood Party, CHP exhibit and sales, date to be confirmed
work on grounds all month with plantings weeding
JUL: 1 - Canada Day at Tollkeeper's Cottage, can we raise sufficient funds to officially open this day?
5 - William Morris Society meets at Tollkeeper's Cottage 7:30 pm
14 - Salsa Festival on St.Clair, staffing bounce tent all day and keeping revenues
work on grounds all month with planting, weeding
AUG: 6 - Simcoe Day at the Tollkeeper's Cottage, details TBA
25-26 - Powwow of Mississaugas of New Credit Three Fires Confederacy at Hagersville, CHP exhibit
SEP: ? - Archaeology Day at Ashbridge House, CHP exhibit, details TBA
23 - Tollkeeper's Tour No.1 with Bruce, 2 pm at the Tollkeeper's Cottage, $5 fundraiser
30 - Tollkeeper's Tour No.2 with Bruce, 2 pm $5 fundraiser
OCT: 7 - Tollkeeper's Tour No.3, with Bruce, $5 fundraiser
14 - Tollkeeper's Tour No.4, with Bruce, $5 fundraiser
27 - Apples and Pumpkins, 11 am to 4 pm at the Tollkeeper's Cottage, sales
NOV: 11 - Remembrance Day, Sunrise Service at Prospect Cemetery Veterans' Plot
14 - United Nations World Diabetes Day, display at Tollkeeper's Cottage incl. Banting
DEC: 8 - Christmas Cookie Sale at Tollkeeper's Cottage, 11 am to 6 pm
If you know of anyone who would like to work as a volunteer docent, that person must first of all become a member of the Conununity History Project in order to be covered by our insurance policy. We will be offering a two-week training course (weekday evenings) for new docents and as a refresher course for those already signed up. The two-week course will be followed by another session at the Tollkeeper's Cottage to explain how everything there operates, what to touch or not touch, security arrangements, etc. The two-week course will provide sufficient background on the history of the tolling system, the history of our Tollkeeper's Cottage, the history of Davenport Road and the Yorkville and Vaughan Plank Road, about the natural heritage and history of the escarpment, the evolution of the surrounding area from dense forest to subdivisions, dealing with the public. Included in this training will be a session on CPR and first aid by a professional. As there are expenses associated with the training sessions, each docent is asked to make a commitment to operate the building on one day per month. If there are enough docents, then they can work in pairs.