Free hike on Thanksgiving Weekend

Saturday, October 10 - 10:30 AM - Rosedale and Yellow Creek
My second ramble for the Toronto Field Naturalists. Some history, some nature. I have family ties to Rosedale and spent time there as a kid.

TYPE OF WALK: Heritage
MEET AT: Rosedale Station (outside)
BRING: binoculars, lunch (optional)

DURATION: 2-3 hours.
END: Sherbourne Station (Not circular)
DIFFICULTY: Steep hills

View map

TFN guidelines ask that walkers do not bring pets, particularly dogs.
Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Free walks in August

Sunday, August 2 - 2PM - Lawrence Park and Burke Brook
My first ramble for the Toronto Field Naturalists. Some history, some nature. I grew up in Lawrence Park and walked through the ravines from my days as a kid.
View map

TFN guidelines ask that walkers do not bring pets, particularly dogs.
Children must be accompanied by an adult.


Sunday, August 9 - 1:30PM - The Splendour that was Sherbourne Street
Again for Heritage Toronto, I'm co-leading this with Dave Parry, a professional tour guide. We're tweaking a walk that hasn't been led in a few years, talking about Sherbourne's history and the changes it's seen.
Heritage Toronto site
View map

Dogs ARE welcome on this walk.
Bicyclists, please note that the sidewalks are narrow so consider parking your bike along the route. The end point is only about 1 KM from the start point.

City Halls walk

Historic and architectural walk featuring three city halls plus other sites significant in Toronto's history as a city and centre in Ontario and Canada.

Sites include:
* Site where council met from 1834-1844
* Toronto's first purpose-built city hall
* Front Street East, old warehouse centre of Toronto
* Wellington Street East, Toronto's first fincial district
* The second financial district
* The current financial centre of Canada
* Old City Hall
* New City Hall
* plus more

Monday, July 27, 2009
6PM
$7.50

Meet in Market Square, beside 145 King St. East.

View map

Toronto's Fire Halls

Historic and architectural walk featuring three halls still standing and many more sites significant in Toronto fire history. I wrote a paper on the history and architecture of fire halls in Toronto. This is a walk close to my heart.

Stops include:
* Site of 1st and 2nd Parliament Buildings that burned down
* Berkeley Street Firehall
* Firehall #333 (formerly #5)
* Site where Great Fire of 1849 started
* Lombard Street Firehall
* Site of York's first fire hall
* Court House Square
* Site of Bay Street Firehall
* Site where Great Fire of 1904 started

Monday, July 20, 2009
6PM
$7.50

Meet at the southwest corner of Parliament St. and King St. E. (Map) Outdoor only.

Added walk during the Fringe! The UofT venues

Following up on the tour I'm doing for Heritage Toronto, this one will feature the sites at UofT that are or have been used as venues in the Fringe of Toronto.
Monday, July 6, 2009, 6 PM
Price: Pay-what-you-can

Meet at the southeast corner, Charles St. W. and Queen's Park (Avenue Road)
Map

Sites we'll see:

• Emmanuel College
  
• Royal Conservatory of Music
  
• George Ignatieff Theatre
  
• CIUT
  
• Innis Town Hall
  
• Glen Morris Studio
  
• St Vladimir's Theatre
  
• Benson Pool, UofT Athletic Centre
  
• Daniel Wilson Residence
  
• Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse
  
• Knox College
  
• Robert Gill Theatre
  

Fringe Festival walk!

The Fringe walk is really coming together. (Sat. July 4, 11 AM, meet outside the Palmerston Library, 2 blocks west of Bloor and Bathurst)

Here are the sites, I'll be covering.

• Palmerston Library Theatre
  
• Honest Ed's
  
• Victory Cafe
  
• Bathurst Theatre
  
• Annex Theatre
  
• Central Tech
  
• Pauper's Restaurant
  
• Bloor Cinema
  
• Sonic Boom
  
• Lee's Palace
  
• Intrepid Travel
  
• Ye Olde Brunswick House
  
• the former Poor Alex Theatre
  
• the TRANSAC club
  
• James Joyce Pub
  
• Miles Nadal JCC
  

It will be a mix of building histories, Fringe history and concepts of the Fringe.

I hope you'll be able to join me.

I'm also thinking of doing a follow up on the sites at UofT that the Fringe has used. That would run maybe on Monday the 6th or Tuesday the 7th. Stay tuned!

After thoughts - Doors Open 09

So I'm a little slow getting my report on Doors Open up.

I had a good time this year. I wasn't as successful as I wanted to be on Saturday but was surprisingly successful on Sunday. Part of it was having to give up on the Don Jail in favour of paying to see it later this summer. There was just no way I could take 5 or 6 hours out of the weekend to see it when there was so much more to catch. The other disappointment was the Albany Club. I should pay better attention to where the guide says small tours because they were letting in only 50 at a time and the wait was over an hour. By the time I found out, I just couldn't take that hour out of Saturday. So I got to one fewer place than planned on Saturday.

Of what I did get to, the highlights were the Stantec building which used to house the McGregor Socks factory and the Greenwood subway yards. Turns out I'm a geek who likes to see how things work. The delight on kids' faces at the subway garage as they looked at complete cars hoisted up for maintenance or painting was fun. Plus they had a miniature streetcar set running around on tracks and FREE POPCORN. More free popcorn at the Shamrock Bowling alley. But no available lanes and it's not open to the public. I'd LOVE to go 5 pin bowling there and hope they occasionally have public access nights, not just corporate functions. The wood of the alleys was gorgeous.

I also finally got to the green roof at Mountain Equipment Co-op. It was interesting but I didn't realize I'd be climbing up and down a ladder to get to it and my nerves for that just aren't what they used to be. I made it, but not without a bit of hesitation.

Not so successful on the list? The McArthur Publishing house. It was in a building I talk about from the outside and as a former publishing house employee it was fun to see all the madness of editing jobs in progress, but not much else to view.

I then went to St Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Beautiful. The 48th Highlanders' museum downstairs was a little dark and musty. Needs some flash to get the younger folk of today to go in and see it. I thought the same last year with the Canadian Military building on University.

Sunday, I had the afternoon mostly blocked off to volunteer at the TD Centre for Heritage Toronto. That meant I had only 3.5 hours to see things. Having decided against the Don, I headed west to catch the firehalls. Since I do a tour of firehalls in Old Town and I wrote a paper on them, they were a personal must.

Firehall 423 (formerly #20) was great. The bonus was historical photos, maps and copies of news stories on the walls. It's the "Junction"'s firehall and takes pride in being the archives for Junction fire history. I also got confirmation that a church that stands where Firehall 19 was, is in fact, that firehall converted! I thought so. I then headed to the Swansea station. It was not as spectacular but fun to see. What was great was all the little kids at each station absolutely captivated by the trucks and the firemen. At the Swansea hall (#425), a fire fighter was even putting kids in the driver's seat of one truck to let them pretend they were driving it. So cool to watch.

I made a quick trip into the Swansea Town hall which was somewhat depressing. They had too much on offer there. Better to pick two things and focus than try to offer things on every floor, including a wine tasting with fake wine.

So I headed back downtown to the Inglenook School. Much better. I was able to wander into the rooms and just look at the old architecture with the new art. Then I realized I still had a little time so I headed to the Distillery. Two buildings that weren't participating last year were on the list this year and I took a quick look. So thinking I'd see only two venues on Sunday, I'm happy to say I got to six.

Doors Open weekend

This weekend, May 23-24, is Doors Open Toronto. It's a day when Toronto fans can overdose seeing the insides of the more notable sites in the city.

I won't be running any walking tours this weekend because, well, I'm a Doors Open addict. There. I admit it.

I've been going since the very first one in 2000 and I've saved all the guides to the annual event. I'm just that crazed about it.

Usually I set my sights on getting to 5 or 6 buildings each of the days and find I hit the target on Saturday but not Sunday. Why? Partly exhaustion, and partly the TTC. It seems there's always something slowing up the transit on the Sunday -- be it a charity walk or construction -- so a 90 minute slot I set to visit one venue becomes 2.5 hours and at least one site must get scratched from the list.

This year, I'm purposely cutting my Sunday short to do my bit for Doors Open. I'll be volunteering with Heritage Toronto at the TD Centre on Sunday afternoon.

Anyway, having been to all of the Doors Opens, I have come up with a few tips.

1. Each festival often highlights buildings in a particular area of town. So usually there are several venues close together and I try to hit that group on the Saturday to get my tally up on day 1.

2. Highlight opening and closing times that are outside the norm.

For example, often the theatres that participate are only open from 9AM to noon, usually on the Saturday. This is because of prep time they need for the shows they're hosting. The great thing is they usually do open at 9AM, so you can start your day early at a theatre. I noticed the Canon is open this year. Well worth the visit.

I use different colours for short hours versus long hours. Yellow if it's just 3 hours or only on one of the days. Green if a building is open an hour later than the others. Most buildings this year are open 10-5 on each day.

3. Accept that Sunday traffic will usually keep you stuck in one place for a while and don't sweat it.

4. Accept too that the energy level for seeing more buildings can die around 2PM on the Sunday, if you've been out both days.

5. And let your schedule go if you luck into a free tour or special event at one venue. Take time to enjoy it.


So those are my tips for enjoying Doors Open.

The Toronto Star publishes its guide to the event this Thursday. But to see the list of buildings now, you can go to the Doors Open site or download the quick PDF list.

Walks on Victoria Day Weekend

On Victoria Day weekend, I'm leading two walks.

Saturday, May 16, 2PM
John Street
Meet by St George the Martyr Church tower,
South end of Grange Park (north of Queen and John Streets)

Monday, May 18, 2PM
Old Town Banks
Meet by the old O'Keefe Centre, Front & Yonge Streets

Each tour will last about 1.5 to 2 hours and is $7.50.

Jane's Walk - Dawlish Ave: Garden Suburb meets Automobile Suburb

Jane's Walks are free neighbourhood strolls that emphasize the importance of walkable and diverse cities and neighbourhoods. Led by locals who know from experience what's important and interesting about the areas so they focus on personal observations.

Saturday, May 2, 2009
4:00pm, 2 hours


Dawlish Avenue was first laid out in W. S. Dinnick's plan for the Lawrence Park Estates in the early 1900s. Bordered by a park, it curved south eastward away from Yonge but was still close to transit and shopping. After World War II, the eastern end was developed quickly and with a focus toward car owners. Come along and see a this interesting street with a gal who grew up there.

Tour guide: Janet Langdon

Meeting Place: Parking lot at the south west corner of Bayview Avenue and Dawlish Avenue.
TTC Directions: From Lawrence Station, take the Sunnybrook 124 bus to the Dawlish Avenue stop.

End Location: St Edmunds Drive and Yonge Street. Not a circular route.

Difficulty: Gentle hills along the walk. Rough pavement with no sidewalks for the first 40% of the walk.
Parking: Some street parking. Note, this is a non-circular walk and the walk back to your car may take 20-25 minutes.


There’s never been a better opportunity to get out and meet your neighbours, and, as urbanist and author Jane Jacob said - “You’ve got to get out and walk”.

Picking a name

It's tricky picking a name for my business.

I want it

• to be catchy and professional;
  
• to be unique - at least for Toronto;
  
• not to bring to mind an existing entity that has an image I don't want for my own business;
  
• not to be preachy or dictatorial.
  

I originally went to my friends and got 18 suggestions. Some already existed. Here's what we whittled it down to.

• Touronto
  
• Histourical Toronto
  
• Merrily we stroll along in Toronto
  
• Toronto on your toes
  
• Toronto in a Nutshell
  
• When in Toronto, Roam
  

The top four were Touronto, Histourical Toronto, Toronto on your toes, and Toronto in a Nutshell.

I'm partial to "Toronto in a Nutshell", but I think I'd have to contact the person who originally used the name for a course I took as a kid. A kids'guide written by us kids came out of the course, and I need to make sure it's OK to use as a business name.

What do you think?

Upcoming free walks I'm part of in 2009

Saturday, April 25 - 1PM - 1834 Toronto: Beating the Bounds (not your average Heritage Toronto Tour). I did some of the research behind this self-guided walk that opens the Heritage Toronto walk season. Free. Starts at Market Square, between the old CaseWare office (145 King St E) and St Lawrence Hall. I will be there, but as I said, it's not really a led walk. If you do the whole route, it ends at the Distillery District. Details: http://www.heritagetoronto.org/news/story/2009/04/06/1834-toronto-beating-bounds-saturday-april-25th

Saturday, May 2 - 4PM - Dawlish Ave: Garden Suburb meets Automobile Suburb.
For the Jane Jacobs Walks weekend (janeswalk.net), I'm leading a walk of my old street and talking about it, not from a historical point of view, but following Jane Jacobs' teachings in The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
Cost: Free.
Meeting Place: Parking lot at the south west corner of Bayview Avenue and Dawlish Avenue.
End Location: St Edmunds Drive and Yonge Street, close to Lawrence Station. Not a circular route. (About 2 hours)
Public Transit Directions: From Lawrence Station, take the Sunnybrook 124 bus to the Dawlish Avenue stop.
Accessible Gentle hills along the walk. Rough pavement with no sidewalks for the first 40% of the walk.
Parking Available Some street parking. Note, this is a non-circular walk and the walk back to your car may take 20-25 minutes.

Saturday, July 4 - 11AM - Unique Sites of the Toronto Fringe Festival
I'll be leading this for Heritage Toronto, highlighting a dozen or so theatres and other venues that have been used by the Fringe of Toronto since it started in 1989. There will be a little history of the festival too. Great for fans of small theatre and of the Bloor-Bathurst neighbourhood.

Sunday, August 2 - 2PM - :Lawrence Park and Burke Brook
My first ramble for the Toronto Field Naturalists. Some history, some nature. I grew up in Lawrence Park and walked through the ravines from my days as a kid.

Sunday, August 9 - 1:30PM - The Splendour that was Sherbourne Street
Again for Heritage Toronto, I'm co-leading this with Dave Parry, a professional tour guide. We're tweaking a walk that hasn't been led in a few years, talking about Sherbourne's history and the changes it's seen.

Researching a walk

This weekend, Heritage Toronto opens their season with an event I put soem research into along with Kimberley Landoni and Lee Rickwood. It's called 1834 Toronto: Beating the Bounds and invites walkers to take a hike around the boundaries of the 1834 city.

A lot of planning, reading and searching was done by all of us. We started off by brainstorming the types of information walkers would want to know about 1834 Toronto.
* What exactly did the City of Toronto Act say?
* How did the Act change things?
* How much of Toronto was settled and what was the lay of the land?
* What was life like here?
* What else started in 1834?

We divvied up the list and set out searching in our favourite places.

Me? I love city directories and maps. I love to track how a neighbourhood came together. In this case, my big focus was on the park lots and Dundas Street. I knew that Dundas was twisting road because it was cobbled together from streets each of the park lot owners had put through his own lot at some point. Mostly this happened as the lot was being subdivided for housing.

So the first task was to track when each of the park lots (100-acre strips of land running from Queen to Bloor) was being sold and divided. The eastern boundary, Parliament St., fell between lots 2 and 3 and the western line, Bathurst, was between lots 18 and 19. Then it was a matter of tracking between the maps and the directories, when each little street -- Arthur, St Patrick, Agnes, Anderson, Crookshank and Beech was put through.

The big challenge for me was that directories and maps were not updated each year back then. And city directories only sometimes included listings by street. Nevertheless, the picture started to emerge.

The earliest segment - just west of Yonge -- was laid out by the early 1840s. Most of the rest was laid out in the 1850s with one hold-out -- the part through the Grange estate, not going through until the early 1870s.

Bathurst Street itself, remained just a country lane through George Crookshank's estate, which comprised two of the original park lots. Crookshank, a one time Receiver General in the Assembly of Upper Canada, didn't sell of his land until the 1850s, letting the lane be renamed to match the street south of Queen -- Bathurst -- and letting it run through to Bloor.

Researching takes a lot of hours because to get at the real story, tracking down publications made at the time is required and they aren't computer searchable, nor were they written ro compiled with future researchers in mind. For history buffs, that's part of the fun. And when you get a story out of it, it's magic.


More details of the research we did is to be published on the Heritage Toronto website shortly after the walk.