Somehow 2023 is already drawing to a close — and that means the second year of The Toronto History Weekly is too! I can’t thank you all enough for the support you’ve shown this thing since it first launched back at the beginning of 2022. There are now more than 3,000 of you subscribing to this little local history newsletter, with more joining all the time — proof that people really do care about the history of our city. I especially want to thank those of you who keep the newsletter going with a paid subscription. Writing The Toronto History Weekly is one of my favourite things to do, but it’s also a ridiculous amount of work — so it’s only thanks to your support that I’m able to do it.
This year has been exhausting but unbelievably rewarding, from launching the Festival of Bizarre Toronto History, to co-curating my first exhibit with Myseum, to releasing our most popular episodes of Canadiana yet, to getting recognized with a Governor General’s History Award… And while I have some incredibly exciting new projects in the works for 2024, I thought I’d end the year by sharing some of my own favourite stories from the last twelve months of the newsletter, from shipwrecks and scandals to Madonna and Moriyama…
If you’d like to support the newsletter (and all my other work, too) as we head into the new year, you can make the switch to a paid subscription by clicking right here:
Michael Snow’s Venetian Dream
“If you live in Toronto, you know Michael Snow’s work — even if you don’t know his name. He’s the artist who created Flight Stop (the Canada geese who soar through the air inside the Eaton Centre), The Audience (the giant bronzed baseball fans peering down at the city like gargoyles from the side of the SkyDome) and Lightline (the strip of purple light that runs up and down a downtown skyscraper). But when Snow died this week at the age of 94, the legacy he left behind was about far more than just adorning public buildings…”
Madonna vs. The Toronto Police Morality Squad
“It’s the spring of 1990. Toronto is changing. For more than a century now, it’s been a notoriously boring and conservative place — the kind of city where for a long time it was illegal to do almost anything on Sundays, swear or go tobogganing or even catch a streetcar, where you needed a license to buy booze on any day of the week and the government kept close tabs on your drinking. But over the last few decades, a transformation has begun. New arrivals have been coming to the city from all over the world, helping make Toronto a modern, multicultural metropolis — a city that wants to become truly world-class. That optimism has few greater symbols than the giant new baseball stadium that has just opened at the base of the CN Tower. But now, the SkyDome is about to find itself on the frontlines of a culture war — a battle over city’s soul…”
How Toronto Helped Create Baseball’s Colour Barrier
“The story begins in 1887. The Toronto Baseball Club was fighting for the pennant that season, playing at the city's first ballpark. Sunlight Park stood on Queen Street overlooking the Don Valley. The stadium had opened the previous spring with a celebratory speech from the Lieutenant Governor. And as that speech made clear, race was an issue at Sunlight Park right from the very beginning…”
The Wreck of the Anna Bellchambers
“It was sometime after seven in the morning, as the black night faded into dreary day, that the dredge crew spotted it: a ship out near Gibraltar Point, clearly in distress, trapped by the sand and nearly capsized, battered by the storm, besieged by wind and waves. The Anna Bellchambers was in trouble. Two lives had already been lost. But there was still one left to save…”
The Thrilling Spring Bicycles Arrived In Toronto
“It appeared one Monday morning in 1869. It was still winter in Toronto, a day in late February; the city was about to get buried by 22 centimetres of snow. But that didn’t keep a curious crowd from gathering on King Street, people captivated by the sight of a strange new contraption that was about to take the city by storm. According to The Globe, the bravest onlookers even took turns climbing aboard the ‘spider-like machine,’ as they attempted to propel themselves forward on two wheels; though they proved to be better at producing a spectacle of ‘amusing gyrations’ than actually getting anywhere. The most successful of them made it a whole twenty feet, using a fence to help himself along, but as soon as he ventured beyond its safety… down he went. But with that awkward ride, a new era had dawned. Toronto had just met the very first velocipede ever built in our city…”
The Canadian Coronation Arch That Accidentally Landed A Blow Against The British Empire
“London was buzzing. It was the summer of 1902 and a new king was about to be crowned. Queen Victoria had died and her debaucherous party boy of a son, Bertie, was ascending to the throne as King Edward VII. His coronation would be even more extravagant than his mother's, with world leaders gathering from all over the globe And right at the heart of those celebrations stood one of the most spectacular sights of all: a massive new Canadian monument erected to profess our country's passionate devotion to the British Empire and to promote our own brand of colonialism. A gargantuan archway that was about to do the exact opposite of what it was designed to do. This towering mountain of Canadian kitsch was about to deliver a bloody blow against British imperialism...”
A Lovestruck French Aristocrat in the Skies Above Toronto
“The summer of 1910. Crowds have gathered at a farm just outside the town of Weston — near the corner of Jane & Lawrence. They stand in the pea fields, perch on fences, sit in the new grandstand built for the occasion or in the seats of the automobiles they’ve driven out onto the grass; others clamber up on a billboard to get a better view. Their eyes are turned to the sky. Above them, Toronto’s first aviation meet is under way; some of the earliest airplanes ever built are putting on a show…”
The Notorious Lizzie Lessard
“On a September morning in the year 1900, a police wagon approached Old City Hall. Back then, the building was still Toronto's new City Hall, having opened only a year earlier. The impressive stone edifice wasn't just home to our municipal government, there were courtrooms inside, too. Every weekday morning, a wagonful of accused prisoners was driven over from jail to face trial. It usually went off without a hitch. But on this particular morning, one of those prisoners had another idea…”
The Concrete & Hope of Raymond Moriyama
“And so, Moriyama's buildings aren't just buildings. They're reminders of Canada's disturbing past, the challenges of our present, and an optimistic roadmap toward a better future. They're all descendants of that treehouse he built when he was twelve. ‘It got me out of despair and hate,’ he said. ‘And I thought, “Well maybe I could do something quite positive. Maybe, as an architect, I might be able to contribute.” And that gave me a flicker of hope for the future… I clung to my hope… You fight back and try to improve it: your country, your community…’"
Toronto's Most Terrifying Guy Fawkes Night
“On this night 159 years ago, an armed mob gathered at Queen's Park. It was still an ordinary public park back then, not yet home to the provincial legislature, but already a focal point for political unrest. And on that dark November night in 1864, more than five hundred Torontonians had gathered, prepared for violence. They carried guns, swords, pistols and pikes — and they were willing to use them. It was Guy Fawkes Night in Toronto and our city's Irish Catholics were ready to fight…”
And A Few More…
WILLIAM FAULKNER DRUNK IN THE COCKPIT OF A BIPLANE
TORONTO’S FOUNDING DOG & HOW HE ALMOST GOT EATEN
THE GRUESOME FATE OF THE FIRST TORONTONIAN KILLED BY A CAR
THE GOLDEN AGE OF SPITE FENCES
THE TORONTO STREETCAR TICKETS FOUND IN THE TITANIC’S WRECKAGE
HOW THREE TORONTONIANS TRAPPED IN A MINE CHANGED NEWS FOREVER