De Grassi Kids, Bridges & Blizzards
Plus the glory of the Eaton Centre & a very old post office
During this week in 1892, the Haudenosaunee poet Pauline Johnson delivered her breakout performance, blowing the audience away with a dramatic recitation at the Toronto Art School on King Street. That night (which I wrote about in The Toronto Book of Love) was one of the pivotal early moments on her road to becoming one of the most famous Canadian literary figures of all-time. (We also shot an episode of Canadiana all about her, which is free to watch on YouTube.)
During this week in 2022, we’ll talk about the original De Grassi kids, a bittersweet bridge, the worst snowstorm in Toronto history (amazingly, it wasn’t the one on Monday), and more. I’m still getting a handle on just how much heritage news we’ll have every week, and how much I’ll fill out with other stories, but this week seems to have been a big one — I couldn’t even get it all in before Substack started warning me that I’m almost out of room.
But before we get started, let me mention very briefly that if you’re interested in learning even more about the history of the city, I’m offering an online course that kicks off this Thursday. You can learn more about “From Hogtown To Downtown: The History of Toronto in 10 Weeks” here.
Now, on to this week’s stories!
REBELLION & THE REAL DE GRASSI KIDS
NEWS — This week we learned that one of the biggest cultural success stories in Toronto history is returning to our TV screens. HBO Max is planning a new iteration of the Degrassi franchise, promising a “darker” take on the teen drama. They’ll be shooting it in Toronto this summer.
There’s no actual, real-life school called “Degrassi High,” but the show does take its name from a real place in our city: De Grassi Street. (It’s in Riverside, running between Queen & Dundas just a couple of blocks from Broadview.) The road owes its name to a family that arrived in our city 150 years before Drake was born. A family that quickly found themselves caught up in one of the most dramatic episodes in Toronto’s history.
So, this week I thought I’d tell you about the real De Grassi kids: Charlotte and Cornelia.
Their father was a soldier from Italy. Filippo De Grassi had been born in late 1700s on the banks of the Tiber River in Rome, just across from the Vatican, the grandson of an Austrian baron. Rome was conquered and occupied by the French when he was just a little boy, and when he grew up he enlisted with them, fighting under Napoleon until he got captured by the British and switched sides.
So, it was in England that he got married. And where his eight children were born.
As De Grassi neared middle age, his health began to suffer. That’s when the family sailed for Canada, apparently hoping life in the open air of the frontier would be better for him. They made the long journey across the Atlantic and deep into the North American continent, travelling all the way to the Don Valley. They became one of the very first Italian families to settle in our city.
It wasn’t an easy life. The family’s mill burned down just a few years after they arrived. As they watched the flames consume nearly everything they owned, their neighbours offered to help. But instead of rushing into the flames to save the furniture, as they’d promised, those neighbours just grabbed the wine instead — proceeding to get trashed on the De Grassi’s booze, no help at all. And that tragedy would soon be followed by even greater danger.
This was the 1830s. Rebellion was brewing in Toronto.
In the winter of 1837, former mayor William Lyon Mackenzie launched an ill-fated revolution. And when he heard about the rebel plan, Filippo De Grassi refused to stand idly by. The old soldier rushed off to defend the colonial government, riding out from the Don Valley toward the governor’s residence (which stood where Roy Thompson Hall is now). And he took his two teenage daughters with him.
Both Charlotte and Cornelia De Grassi would play important roles in the events to come.
The De Grassi’s didn’t get far before they ran into a group of rebels gathering at a local brewery before their uprising began. It was a dangerous moment. The revolutionaries may very well have taken Filippo prisoner if it weren’t for some quick thinking from Charlotte, who distracted the men while her father and sister slipped by. Thanks to her, they made it into the city safely.
And her work wasn’t done. Charlotte became a messenger for the Loyalist side, risking her life to carry a secret message to a government ally along Kingston Road. She delivered it successfully, but when she finally got head toward home she was spotted by another group of rebels. As she raced away, they opened fire. One musket ball struck her pony. Another hit her. Wounded, she made her escape.
Meanwhile, Cornelia had volunteered to act as a spy for the Loyalists, riding up Yonge Street to gather information about the rebels’ main force as it gathered at Montgomery’s Tavern (just north of Eglinton).
When she got near enough, Cornelia stopped at a wheelwright’s shop and pretended to be interested in buying a sleigh while trying to spy on the rebel camp. But they didn’t fall for it. She was quickly captured and taken prisoner.
It was when Mackenzie himself showed up that she saw her chance to escape. The rebel leader had good news: they’d captured a stagecoach filled with mail that would have given the government valuable information about what they were up. And with the rebels distracted by the celebration, Cornelia jumped on a horse and made a break for it, musket balls hissing through the air. One sliced through her saddle, another through her skirt. But she was luckier than her sister. She managed to race away unscathed and deliver her report to the government.
Armed with the knowledge that the rebel army was small — and still reeling from a skirmish the night before — the Loyalists were filled with renewed confidence. The next day, they marched up Yonge Street to crush the rebels.
Cornelia was there, watching as the cannons and muskets opened fire on the tavern, rebels fleeing for their lives. The battle only lasted about ten or fifteen minutes. The rebellion was put down.
The De Grassi girls’ help had been vital. And they still weren’t done. On her way home from the battle, Cornelia discovered that another group of rebels — led by the farmer Peter Matthews — had burned a bridge over the Don River in a failed attempt to create a diversion. She raced back into town to raise the alarm. Matthews was captured and hanged.
Both of the De Grassi girls would eventually leave the city, moving to the United States. But the family’s memory would live on in the name of a street in Toronto’s east end. And more than a century later, that name would become famous around the world.
It was in the 1970s that a local Toronto schoolteacher — Linda Schuyler, who taught media classes at Earl Grey Senior Public School — teamed up with a local filmmaker to make a series of short films. They aired on the CBC as after-school specials, praised for their realistic portrayal of teenage life. They were so successful that they quickly led to the development of an entire series. And for the title of their new TV show, the creators turned to a local name. The Kids of Degrassi Street was born. And over the next 30 years, that first series would be followed by four more.
The fifth is due to premiere in the spring of 2023.
Read more about the new HBO series
TORONTO’S MOST HEART-ACHINGLY ROMANTIC BRIDGE IS GETTING REPLACED
NEWS — My favourite plaque in our city sits at the edge of the Rosedale Valley. It commemorates the famous Toronto author Morley Callaghan. Back in the 1920s, he became good friends with Ernest Hemingway when they were both young journalists working at The Toronto Daily Star. And when Hemingway left for Paris, Callaghan and his wife Loretto followed. They all hung out together on the terraces of the cafés with the other famous artists, poets, and writers they’d befriended.
It was in Paris that Callaghan and Hemingway faced off in one of the greatest and most ridiculous boxing matches in history: an informal bout refereed by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Hemingway, plagued as always by his fragile masculinity, was desperate to prove he was a better boxer than the much more experienced Callaghan. And when Callaghan knocked him flat on his ass after Fitzgerald let a round go too long, it shattered the friendship between Ernest and F. Scott forever.
Morley and Loretto returned to Toronto after their adventures in France. They spent their later years living in Rosedale, which is why that plaque stands on that spot overlooking the valley. It was erected right next to the Glen Road Pedestrian Bridge, sharing a bit of information about Callaghan’s life and work before ending with the most bittersweet sentence I have ever read on a plaque in our city:
Callaghan moved to Dale Avenue in 1951. Neighbours often saw and talked to him as he crossed this bridge with his wife and dog, Nikki, then with his dog, then alone until he died in 1990.
The bridge has its own long history. There’s been one crossing the valley at that spot since the 1800s…
And while the bridge that stands there today isn’t the original — it was rebuilt and turned into a pedestrian bridge in the 1970s — the current version is the one Callaghan regularly walked across in those final days of his remarkable life. In fact, it’s so deeply connected to the author’s story that it’s officially known as “The Morley Callaghan Footbridge.”
Sadly, in recent years, it has been falling into serious disrepair. And so, the City has announced that they’ll be demolishing the entire thing and replacing it with a new bridge.
Read more about the plans for the new bridge
Read my old Twitter thread about that infamous boxing match
THE EATON CENTRE’S GLORY, SLOWLY CHIPPED AWAY
NEWS — Last week, we talked about Eb Zeidler; his grisly experiences during the Second World War, his dramatic escape from East Germany, and the architectural legacy he left behind in Toronto when he passed away earlier this month — iconic designs like Ontario Place. And in the time since the last Toronto History Weekly went out, there’s been a lot of talk about another one of his creations. Because just days after Zeidler died, the owners of the Eaton Centre announced they’ll be doing yet more renovations to the mall.
The Eaton Centre was originally designed in the 1970s — with the involvement of Jane Jacobs — to be a futuristic, light-filled “indoor street.” But as Shawn Micallef pointed out in the Star this weekend, much of that original vision has already been eroded over the years.
The lush plants. The elegant white railings. The way the mall meets Yonge Street. All have been overhauled. “The greenhouse-like entrance at Yonge and Dundas,” Micallef complains, “once a cathedral of light and vegetation and commerce, has the charm of a cheaply-built aircraft hanger.”
Three years ago, things had already gotten to the point that the Globe’s architecture critic, Alex Bozikovic, called the treatment the building has received “dismantling.” And the new renovations promise to chip away at Zeidler’s original vision even more. (Though thankfully, at least, Zeidler Architecture Inc. is involved in the project.)
I’ve never loved malls. They’re easy to hate. And as you push your way through the crowds, the Eaton Centre can feel like a painfully mundane part of life in Toronto. I suspect that all makes it easy to lose track of the importance it holds in the architectural history of our city. Especially since all those changes have eroded so much of the 1970s futurism that made it so special in the first place.
It reminds me of something my mom once told me about her father and his generation. That to them, born in the early 1900s, some Victorian architecture seemed passé, even depressing. Certainly not worth saving. I suspect that’s part of what led Toronto to demolish so much of its built heritage, destroying buildings we wish we could still enjoy in 2022.
Today, as Micallef points out, Zeidler’s work is in that same vulnerable position — just like so much modernist architecture. Not yet old enough to be properly treasured. But it’s important to care for the best of every era in our city’s story, to protect and preserve it for the future generations who will see it with fresher eyes than ours.
So, as I learn more about the building and its history, I’m trying to the forget the pain of all the December 23rds I’ve spent rushing from shop to shop and see it in a new light. Because there’s no question Zeidler’s work ranks among the best our city has ever had to offer.
A HUNDRED YEAR-OLD POST OFFICE IN TROUBLE?
NEWS — And while we’re on the topic of threatened buildings…
You might know Postal Station C. The historic post office has been standing on a prominent stretch of West Queen West since 1902 — right across the street from the Drake Hotel, which had opened only about a decade earlier. It was a working post office for more than a century, all the way up to 2020. But as Canada Post has been selling off assets, the fate of the old building has been up in the air.
A campaign by local residents has been pushing to preserve the building and turn it into a community arts hub, with the support of local politicians. City Council even passed a motion calling on the federal government to halt the sale of the building. But to no avail.
This week, we learned the old post office has been sold to “Queen Street Post Inc.,” whose directors include a friend of Doug Ford’s — a fact that doesn’t exactly seem to be filling the community group with confidence. For the moment, the company says it has “zero plans” for the site. And the local councillor, Ana Bailão, tells the Star that now that the building is privately owned, the City can go ahead with trying to give it heritage protection.
Follow the WQW Community Post (the group opposing the sale) on Twitter
THE GREAT TORONTO BLIZZARD OF 1944
TWITTER THREAD — It might be hard to believe as you dig your car out from beneath a mountain of snow or listen to your neighbour’s tires spin wildly in the drifts, but this week’s snowstorm wasn’t the biggest Toronto has ever seen. Not even close. On Twitter this week, I shared the story of the Great Toronto Blizzard of 1944. It buried our city under nearly 60 centimetres of snow, claimed 21 lives, and even shut down the munitions factories that had been hard at work during that last, bloody winter of the Second World War.
TORONTO HISTORY EVENTS
REMNANTS OF MID-CENTURY TORONTO: A VIRTUAL DISCUSSION
January 19 — 6pm — Online — Heritage Toronto
“Join us for a virtual discussion about ‘Remnants of Mid-Century Toronto’, a collection of photos by Vik Pahwa documenting the sometimes beautiful, sometimes neglected collection of mid-century structures that still stand today, dotting Toronto’s urban landscape. Panellists: Photographer Vik Pahwa and Editor Matthew Blackett Moderator: Philip Evans, Principal at ERA Architects.”
Free to attend, but pre-registration is required.
A HISTORY OF WESTON
January 20 — 7:30pm — Online — The Etobicoke Historical Society
“Weston’s history dates back to the 1790’s when Simcoe made his first land grants. Weston’s first settlers were attracted to this area by its rich timber resources and the water-power potential of the Humber River. Cherri Hurst and Mary Lou Ashbourne will relate how Weston grew, and talk about the structures that were present in 1867 and are still standing as part of a vibrant neighbourhood that is proud of its rich history and heritage. “
Admission is limited to members of the Etobicoke Historical Society. Annual memberships are available for $25.
INNOVATION IN ITS TIME: THE WORLD FIRST TYPEWRITERS
January 25 — 6:30pm — Online — The Riverdale Historical Society
“Meet Martin Howard, Toronto collector, historian, and repairman, who for more than a quarter of a century has been building a unique collection of the world’s earliest typewriters.”
Free to attend if you join the Riverdale Historical Society’s mailing list.
FOUND OBJECTS: AN ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PORT LANDS
January 27 — 7pm — Online — Town of York Historical Society
“The revitalization of sections of Toronto’s waterfront is underway, which will prevent flooding within the Don Valley and create new greenspaces in the Port Lands. During excavation of the new Don River channel, a large deposit of twentieth century ‘garbage’ was uncovered, including some surprising objects. Join Scott Eckford, Archeologist at the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TCRA), as he discusses the history of the Port Lands and recent archaeological investigations in this virtual presentation.”
$6.32 for non-members; free for members.
MY UPCOMING EVENTS
FROM HOGTOWN TO DOWNTOWN: A HISTORY OF TORONTO IN 10 WEEKS
My online course kicks off this Thursday! The history of Toronto is filled with fascinating stories that teach us about ourselves and our community. In this ten-week online course, we'll explore the city's past from a time long before it was founded, through its days as a rowdy frontier town, and all the way to the sprawling megacity we know today. How did Toronto become the multicultural metropolis of the twenty-first century? The answer involves everything from duels to broken hearts to pigeons.
HISTORY LECTURE SERIES: LOVE STORIES WITH ADAM BUNCH
February 1 — 8pm — Online — Richmond Hill Public Library
“Rediscover Toronto through rose-coloured goggles! Discover the scandal, passion, and heartache embedded in this city's history as celebrated author Adam Bunch shares true tales of romance from The Toronto Book of Love.”
Free with registration. (Priority will be given to RHPL members in the unlikely event the event fills up.)