JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

Part one of this journey . 1 - Northern Secondary School 2 - Brennan Pontiac/Buick 3 - Esso station Northern Secondary School marks Broadway's crossing of Mount Pleasant Road. There was considerable debate on what name to bestow upon what was then planned as a joint commercial/vocational school. Possible monikers were tossed around on the front page of the February 8, 1930 edition of the Toronto Star , along with fussy reasons for their unsuitability: "North Toronto": Would conflict with North Toronto Collegiate a few blocks away. "Eglinton": Would conflict with the public school of that name. "Mount Pleasant": Would sound too much like the cemetery of that name. "Roehampton": Name of one of the streets on which the school will stand, is deemed rather an awkward sort of name. Opinion now seems to favor the name "Northern Vocational School" as expressing both the location and the scope of the school. One further...

Readers of this site love Croft Street . Hits still come in for the series of posts I wrote four years ago about one of the city's most interesting streets. The graffiti, murals and other decorations that line the street are ever-evolving—several of the works I captured back in 2005 are long gone. A post-Nuit Blanche stroll through the neighbourhood provided an excuse to snap a few shots of the current crop of art along Croft Street's garage doors and walls. A departing citizen wishes peace on Toronto before heading to the west coast. Someone has to look out for the well-being of the neighbourhood.

Disclaimer : After a long hiatus, an old feature of this site returns. Blame it on several factors—diving into other projects, time factors, lethargy, stubborn belief in finishing one massive instalment before moving on to the next one, lumbago, etc.—choose the excuse you wish to believe. Most of the photos used in this post were shot in December 2006, in case you notice any outdated elements. The final entry in this series may include photo updates. It may not resemble Manhattan's similarly monikered main artery, but Toronto's Broadway carries its share of history and stories, from rebellion launch site at its west end to a gateway to the Don Valley park system in the east. Broadway was one of the few side streets that ran through three municipalities in pre-amalgamation Metropolitan Toronto (Toronto, North York, East York). Among its homes and buildings lies several pieces of my family's history. This three-part look will begin with most of its run through the old c...

After a break of a few months, time to ease back into exploring the city's backstreets with a short trip through Chinatown. Larch runs a short distance, from Grange Ave to Dundas St W. Haven't been able to find much history about the street, other than it existed with its current name in the 1880s. Our journey starts at the south end. On the left is the complex at the the northeast corner of Larch and Grange, which reminded a fellow walker of an old hotel. On the right are the buildings opposite Larch - if anyone can translate the signs, leave a comment. Most of Larch is occupied by public housing, opened in 1996, that curls around from Grange. The west side of the street is shown on the left, east on the right (note the leftover election sign). As Richard Milgrom wrote in East/West: A Guide to Where People Live in Downtown Toronto : Both buildings are three storeys high, fitting with the scale of the neighbourhood. The address the streets by providing many ...

Be a good neighbour and you could have a street named after you. Frank Kovac owned a garage on Harbord St for three decades before passing away in 2002. According to this report , the local residents association proposed to name the laneway by the garage "Frank's Alley". Apparently apostrophes and "alley" are frowned upon by those in charge of street names, so the more formal "Frank Kovac Lane" was the name given in April 2003. Note in the report the objections raised by police and emergency services, due to too many streets named after guys named Frank. This should not discourage all other Franks out there from being neighbourly. Globe and Mail piece by Rick Salutin on Kovac . Another story about Kovac's passing . The lay of the land - Frank Kovac Lane is in green. Our journey begins with Church of St. Mary of Magdalene Anglican Church , bounded by Manning, Ulster and Frank Kovac. Opened in 1888, the exterior was completed 20 years ...