From The Toronto Evening Telegram, July 6, 1926 Southeast corner of Grosvenor Street and Surrey Place, which has been purchased for $57,500. The corner property was bought from Wm. H. and Elizabeth S. Van der Smissen for $29,000 and takes in Nos. 73 and 75 Grosvenor Street and No. 15 Surrey Place. The house on…
Tag: toronto
Dancing at Jewish Wedding Violates Sunday Blue Laws (1912)
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From the Toronto Star, February 19, 1912 Shall Dancing Be Allowed in Civic Halls on Sunday? The Caretaker Could Not Put a Stop to It Mild weather has anticipated the action of the City Council in prohibiting Sunday tobogganing, but the Lord’s Day observance question is to the fore in another aspect. Is dancing to…
Deputy chief says police census was carefully done (1912)
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As nearly correct as it is humanly possible to make it From the Toronto Star, February 6, 1912 ◊ This article describes a census conducted one century ago by the police of Toronto for their own purposes only six months after the federal census of Canada. It is unknown what information was collected: did the police…
Hucksters versus housewives in Kensington market (1925)
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Note: This is an early and very colourfully written article about what would become a city institution, Kensington Market. It is described as being in “the Ward,” but technically it lies outside of the Ward’s unofficial western boundary of University Avenue or McCaul Street; what the author really meant to say was that it was…
Toronto’s chief librarian a remarkable fellow (1913)
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From the Toronto Star Weekly, July 5, 1913 Emphatically the right man in the right place is Dr. George H. Locke as Toronto’s chief librarian. Possibly he does not look quite look the part, for there is a notable absence of “mustiness” about him. And “mustiness,” to many people’s minds, should be the lot of…
Canadian Jews fought in American Civil War
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Hard to believe, but there were Jews in Toronto and probably Montreal as well who were drawing monthly pensions from the U.S. government as late as 1925 for their participation as soldiers in the American Civil War. An index of Civil War pension recipients indicates that some 4,966 veterans of America’s most sanguinary conflict filed…
A ‘gipsy’ encampment near Davisville (1911)
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Note: The following article, which appeared in the Toronto Star Weekly of January 28, 1911, describes a so-called “gipsy” encampment of a century ago in the woods to the east of the Toronto neighbourhood of Davisville and Eglinton. The people then commonly described as “gypsies” are today referred to as “Roma.” * * * A…
Police Raid Matzah Factory (1909)
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From the Toronto Star, November 4, 1909 ◊ This article reflects two problems sometimes faced by members of the city’s Jewish community in regard to the police. The first is selective enforcement of the law, seemingly targeting the Jews (and certainly other minorities probably even more). The second is the specific Sunday blue laws that meant…
Toronto’s junk trade worth $10 million a year (1913)
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From the Toronto Star weekly October 4, 1913 Some men who began with the bag over their shoulders now worth around $1 million — Old iron sold to the foundaries to be recast — Bones made into glue, fertilizers, and used in refining sugar – Paper and rags go to the Mills — Nothing is…
From Post Office Manager to Prison — A Tale of the Ward
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◊ The following newspaper stories tell of young Joseph Gurofsky’s rise from assessment clerk to bank manager in Toronto’s “Ward” neighbourhood where mostly “foreigners” reside — and how, one fall day, he was drawn into a violent street fight with some Italian ruffians that led to his trial and short imprisonment. Somewhat grandiosely and inaccurately, the…
