JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Source: the Globe and Mail , March 19, 1976. Click on image for larger version. "A master plan for Aquatic Park in Lake Ontario calls for expenditures of $26 million for a 5,000 seat ampitheatre, campsites, a wildlife area, fishing piers, and accomodation for 1,500 power and sail craft," opened a 1976 Globe and Mail article on future plans for the Leslie Street Spit . The plan also provided for the private sector to build attractions like hostels, hotels, and a "20-acre marineland park." A Metro Toronto and Region Conservation Authority official noted that over 150 potential uses for the site were studied so that the proposed park would complement, not compete, with existing recreational facilities along the waterfront. Under the plan, the public would enjoy unrestricted access to 70 percent of the park's shoreline. The article doesn't address the pressing concern of what to do with the quonset hut in the middle of the spit , whose naming rights wer...

When reading Toronto's early newspapers, you have to remember that half of what you're reading is either partisan sniping or satirical attacks. That little context is provided for most of these attacks can drive a researcher mad, unless you're already deeply immersed in the subject. Reading these stories at random can be a head-scratcher - you know it's supposed to be funny, but you're not sure why. And then there are times when a great headline lures you into an attack piece. Take the case of the following headline I stumbled upon in the January 12, 1849 edition of the Toronto Mirror : Death from Intense Cold Naively, I thought Toronto might have endured a cold snap 165 Januarys ago similar to the new ice age we've enjoyed this month. Maybe this headline topped a tragic tale of a victim of deep freeze. Nope. Instead, the story "mourns" a rival newspaper, the original incarnation of the Toronto Standard (whose modern-day namesake has endur...

Source: The Telegram , October 14, 1961. Click on image for larger version. An amazing fact: if this was the first accident on the DVP, it occurred a month-and-a-half after its first section (Bayview/Bloor to Eglinton Avenue) opened. Were drivers that much more careful in 1961, or was it plain old luck that nobody else had spun out or suffered a fender bender? If you're wondering when the DVP experienced its first traffic jam, the answer is: August 31, 1961, the day it opened. Star reporter Fred Hollett was brave enough to experience the DVP's first evening rush hour. I rode the new five-mile section of parkway yesterday during its first evening rush-hour. And it was a five-minute trip from Dreamsville to Nightmare junction. Dreamsville was the Danforth Ave. entrance to the parkway, where I had all three lanes to myself for nearly a mile. Nightmare Junction was the Eglinton Ave. exit where hundreds of motorists celebrated the parkway's official opening with one o...

While doing some research for the next installment of Torontoist 's "Meet a Mayor" series at the city archives this week, I found a photocopy of the following letter to the editor, submitted to the Toronto Star in late 1972. Seems this correspondent was no fan of our first "rebel mayor," William Lyon Mackenzie. Source: Toronto Star , December 5, 1972. Click on image for larger version. The writer was wrong to state that Mackenzie's writings had never been republished; Oxford University Press published a curated selection of our fiery first mayor's opinions in 1960 ( The Selected Writings of William Lyon Mackenzie ).  The letter writer's tone echoes sentiments felt by the Family Compact and their Tory allies during the 1820s and 1830s, who were as guilty of "yellow journalism" as Mackenzie. *** Speaking of former mayors, here are the questions to round two of our Jeopardy-style quiz: 1) Who was Robert John Fleming ? The street...

Before we go into round two, here are the questions to yesterday's answers (from top to bottom): 1) Who are the Howlands? (William Holmes Howland 1886 to 1887, Oliver Aiken Howland 1901 to 1902). Some may try to claim Rob and Doug Ford, given the latter's penchant for assisting his brother. 2) Who is Fred Beavis?  I wrote about the hat draw for The Grid . 3) Who is  Henry Sherwood ? Mayor from 1842 to 1844, Sherwood expired while traveling through Bavaria in 1855. ending a career which also included an eight-week stint as the attorney-general of Canada West. 4) Who is John Shaw? Here's a fuller excerpt of Shaw's remarks on the opening of (Old) City Hall in September 1899 (Shaw served as mayor from 1897 to 1899): Why people will spend large sums of money on great buildings opens up a wider field of thought. It may, however, be roughly answered that great buildings symbolize a people's deeds and aspirations...It is now the most attractive place in Toronto, ...

This week was yet another goldmine for people to make fun of our fine city's mayor. Even Jeopardy got into the act . Which got me to thinking...what if there was a category on everyone's favourite quiz show dedicated to Toronto's mayors? Thanks to a clue screen generator , we have made this possible. Over the next two posts, test your knowledge of our city's past chief executives! Here's the first quintet of questions. Place your answers in the comments section. Enjoy...and no cheating! Answers will be posted with round #2 tomorrow!

This post offers supplementary material for an article I wrote for Torontoist , which you should read before diving into this piece. An illustration of Powell escaping the rebels on December 4, 1837. I wasn't able to figure out the exact documentation for it, though it was suggested by the fine folks at Mackenzie House that it probably belongs to the National Archives. The image was sourced from this article about William Lyon Mackenzie and the rebellion .

Click on image for larger version. Don't click on it expecting to go to any of these stories. Foods you shouldn't eat. Celebrities you shouldn't care about. Items that could change the destiny of humanity. Forgotten child stars as they look now. Sensationalistic photo galleries depicting people who require quiet, sensitive help. You know what I'm talking about: those squares of content, usually at the side or bottom of a webpage, which drag you into an infinite hole of linkbait. There are whole sites whose grand purpose is to link you to links that will link you to links that will link you to linkbait links. The depths you can plumb are depressingly impressive. After seeing one roundup o' linkbait too many, a light went on in my head: what if this stuff had existed a century ago? The result: the collage above, based on what a websurfer might have run across had the internet existed in January 1914. Some of the faux links are based solely on...

\ Source: the Toronto Sun , November 1, 1985. The Warehouse starts off 2014 with from a visit from our old pal Brett Halliday, purveyor of advertorial delights in Toronto for decades. Today's selection could be classified as an outright ad, as it lacks the tidbits about the entertainment scene, local retailers, and pieces of wisdom which usually broke up Halliday's advertorial columns.  The tone's the same, as is the colourful language. When was the last time you heard anything referred to as a "neon of activity?" Dammit, let's revive this phrase!  SPEAKER 1 : I'm bored tonight.Where shall we go? SPEAKER 2 : Let's go to ( fill in the trendiest neighbourhood in your city or village )! I hear it's a neon of activity! SPEAKER 1 : Good enough for me. Or, we could go to ( fill in the second-trendiest neighbourhood in your town or crossroads ). I hear it's a gaslight of activity! SPEAKER 2 : Better toss your cyberpunk gear on if ...