Issac Christie and his wife, Isabella Graeme, came to Scarborough from Armagh, Ireland, and in 1836 purchased 40 hectares of Clergy Reserve land in Lot 33, Con. IV. This land had been rented...
Appointed City Archivist in 1960, Robert Woadden (1922-2010) transformed the attic of Old City Hall into the first municipal archives in English- speaking Canada. Before then, thousands...
Once dominating the Toronto skyline, the Canadian Bank of Commerce building was the tallest building in the British Commonwealth for three decades. Rising to 34 storeys, it was designed by...
This Neo-Gothic inspired church replaced an earlier Centennial Methodist Church built on this site in 1891. Notable design elements include decorative stone trim, three central Tudor-arch windows,...
This house was built for William and Caroline Harris and was named for Caroline's ancestral village. Designed by Toronto architect Henry Simpson, it has elements of two architectural styles. The...
This church was made possible by a gift from Mary Lambert Swale of Yorkshire, England, who stipulated that 'the seats be free and unappropriated forever'. At that time most other Anglican churches...
This house was the residence and studio of one of Canada's leading historical artists. Born in Rochester, England, he came to Toronto about 1880, and first worked as a lithographer's...
The Anglican parish of St. Simon-the-Apostle was founded in 1883 to serve the expanding Rosedale community. The congregation first worshipped in the chapel of St. James-the-Less,...
He arrived in Toronto a celebrity, but at home Winston Churchill's star had fallen. When he spoke at Maple Leaf Gardens on March 3, 1932, the great statesman had entered the Wilderness Years, a...
On this site once stood the Colborne Street Theatre a ramshackle former stable where, during the autumn of 1829 a murder took place that today is looked upon as one of the instigating moments that...
Once known as Ulster Avenue, this narrow lane was re-named in 1908 after John Croft, sole fatality of the Great Toronto Fire of April 19, 1904.On May 4, Croft, a 38-year-old explosives expert,...
Designed in the Renaissance Revival style by architects Strickland & Symons, this building was part of a major expansion of the Consumers' Gas Company manufacturing plant. The final stages of coal...
The country home of Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada 1791-1796, stood on these heights just south of this site 1794-1829. Named after Francis...
Born in Exeter, Huron County, this renowned archaeologist, teacher and administrator was educated locally and in Toronto. Completing his studies at Victoria College, he received his B.A. from the...
This sculpture of Canoe and Calipers, marks the meeting of two technologies: the calipers a symbol of the old world and the canoe a gift of the First Nations. Both were instrumental in shaping...
William Cornell, a descendant of a Rhode Island colonist who came to America in 1636, settled here on two lakefront lots in the forest in 1799. With other pioneers he cut out Scarborough's...
It's a crisp late winter day in March, 1935. Since late last night, Canadian Pacific's Hudson 2815 has been drowsing in the steamy warmth of Toronto's John Street roundhouse, while the shop forces...
The world renowned star of English musical comedy, Beatrice Lillie, was born May 28, 1894 at 68 Dovercourt Road. She was educated at Alexander Muir-Gladstone Public School and Loretto Academy in...
Department stores revolutionized shopping in the late nineteenth century by offering selection, low prices and money-back guarantees. In 1895, Robert Simpson commissioned architect Edmund Burke...
On this site Robert John Turner (1795-1872) built his house "Bracondale Hill" about 1847. A lawyer, he practised in the chancery courts at Osgoode Hall and became referee of titles and...