JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

This installment of my "Retro T.O." column for The Grid was originally published on July 10, 2012. Toronto Star , May 8, 1986 “The most expensive beer commercial in Canadian history unfolds this weekend on the grounds of Toronto’s Exhibition Place,” observed the Globe and Mail’ s Stephen Brunt on the eve of the first Molson Indy a quarter of a century ago. At stake for the brewer were $50 million worth of insurance and the wrath of Parkdale residents petrified that their neighbourhood would be left in shambles. As back as the late 1960s, several attempts were made to bring a major auto race to central Toronto. Efforts in the late 1970s to hold races at Exhibition Place met fierce opposition from a Parkdale-centric citizens group known as the Anti-Grand Prix Coalition (AGPC) and city councillors like John Sewell (“it’s a stupid idea”). The AGPC reformed in the spring of 1985 when a proposal from Molson to run a CART Indy-car race gained momentum. As AGPC chair Susan S...

On the way over to walk through Exhibition Place, we saw this sign through a basement window in the Scholastic building. It appeared to be a storeroom...or was it? What secrets truly lay in this black sheep of a room? The Princes' Gates...or Piazza Prince's Gates , as the area surrounding it is now known. Left: a fountain detail. Right: the floor of the piazza is laid with provincial mottos and stones showing the official provincial flora. Sadly, the territories are not deemed worthy enough to have a motto. We passed through the south end of the grounds, passing barracks and tugs, resting for a moment at seats left over from Exhibition Stadium . We then arrived at our main destination... Toronto's newest stadium, BMO Field is the home of Toronto FC. We joked that based on the sponsor's initials, it could easily gain the nickname "Bowel Movement". Somebody noticed a gate was open, so most of the group wandered in to take a look around. They r...