The Mother of the Ward
Plus: bus stations, amusement parks, my new course and more...
It all started when she was thirteen years old. That's when Grace Bagnato got married. Her new husband was much older than she was — twenty-five — and that wasn't their only challenge. Joseph was from Italy and while he'd become a leader of the Italian-Canadian community in Toronto, he still only spoke Italian. And while both of Bagnato's parents were also from Italy, she'd been born in the United States and grew up only speaking English. So, as the newlyweds began their life together, they didn't even speak the same language.
Determined to communicate with her husband, Grace Bagnato discovered she had a knack for languages — a talent that wouldn't just help her in her marriage, but would also help lay the foundations for the multicultural Toronto of today.
Bagnato first arrived in the city in the early 1900s, when Toronto was still overwhelmingly British. At the time, 85% of the people living here were of British descent. As late as the 1920s, a local journalist by the name of Jesse Edgar Middleton wrote that "Undoubtedly there is no other city of comparable size where the population is as homogeneous as in Toronto… Not often does one hear any other language on the streets."
But that was beginning to change — most famously in a neighbourhood that stood right at the heart of the city.
The Bagnatos lived in the Ward. The area's multicultural roots stretched all the way back to the middle of the 1800s. That's when the blocks north-west of Queen & Bay became home to new arrivals who included freedom seekers who'd fled slavery along the Underground Railroad and Irish refugees from the Great Hunger. Since then, it had become home to waves of new Canadians. Italian. Jewish. Eastern European. Chinese. And as predatory landlords took advantage, the neighbourhood developed a reputation as one of the city's most notorious "slums." It was overcrowded and filled with dilapidated housing that often lacked basic necessities like heating and sanitation. As John Lorinc put it in The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood, “It was the moment when Toronto… a staunchly Anglo outpost preoccupied with defending its Christian values, came face to face with concentrated ethnic diversity and grinding poverty, all in one place.” It was the city's most densely populated neighbourhood — and, despite the poverty, vibrantly multicultural, too.
And so, finding herself surrounded by people from all over the world, Grace Bagnato didn't stop with Italian. She kept learning the languages she needed to speak with her neighbours: Russian, German, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Polish… It wasn't long before her home became one of the Ward's central social hubs. And she began playing a vital practical role, too.
The Ward stood in the shadow of Old City Hall — which was still the new City Hall back then. But even though they lived right next door, many of the people living in the neighbourhood faced challenges dealing with the municipal government. They often couldn't speak English, while the people running the city could often only speak English. "The representatives of the electors in the City Council," Middleton explained, "are all English-speaking, and nearly all of British birth." This was a city where it was hard to get any job in the civil service without being a member of the ultra-British Orange Order; that cronyism was much more important to those in power than ensuring clerks and officials could speak with the multicultural residents of the "slum" next door.
And so, Bagnato began helping the people of the Ward when they needed assistance with government documents, or speaking with clerks at the relief office, or even just understanding the culture of their new home. Her house was essentially transformed into an unofficial immigration office — helping new Canadians get started in their new city. “Some evenings," she told The Toronto Daily Star, "there are a dozen people, all wanting counsel on something or other, waiting for me when I get home." Her phone rang off the hook at all hours. She invited struggling newcomers over for dinner or to spend the night. She was eventually hired as an official court interpreter, playing an indispensable role in cases at City Hall and Osgoode Hall, not just translating but working hard to ensure the people of the Ward were given fair treatment no matter what language they spoke or where they'd been born.
As one of her granddaughters, Angela Puzzolanti, told the CBC: “She was like the mother of the world."
But it wasn't always easy. As a woman with an Italian name, Italian heritage and an Italian husband living in a fiercely British city, Bagnato was also a target for hate — most notably when she began making headlines as a frontrunner in one of the strangest contests in Toronto history.
It was known as the Great Stork Derby. It began in 1926, with the death of a man named Charles Vance Millar. He was a wealthy lawyer and financier, but more than anything else he seems to have been a lover of practical jokes. His Last Will & Testament proved to be his biggest prank of them all. I wrote about it in The Toronto Book of Love:
To seven Protestant ministers who supported Prohibition, Millar left shares to the O’Keefe brewery. He also gave some of those stocks to every Orange Lodge in Toronto — leaving the Catholic-hating Orangemen with an investment in the Catholic O’Keefe’s. To a couple of Ontario’s most ardent opponents of horse racing, he left memberships in the Ontario Jockey Club. And to three local lawyers who absolutely despised each other, Millar left joint ownership of a vacation home in Jamaica.
But those bequests were nothing compared to the strangest and most controversial clause: Millar declared that the rest of his fortune would be left to the woman in Toronto who gave birth to the greatest number of children over the course of the next ten years.
And so, the Great Stork Derby began. Millar's fortune was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — millions in today's money — and continued to grow even after he died thanks to successful investments. And when the Great Depression hit just a few years into the contest, Torontonians were more eager than ever to get their hands on it. Families raced to have as many children as they possibly could.
Bagnato had always wanted a big family; she had more than a dozen kids before the contest had even started. And she kept having them. Within a few years, she was being named on the front page of the Star as one of the leaders of the Stork Derby — with seven children since Millar's death and plenty of time before the deadline to have more. But the other leading contender, Florence Brown, had seven children of her own. And she made it clear in a xenophobic rant to the press that as far as she was concerned, the contest was all about ethnicity.
"I can't let any Italian get away with that 'leadership' stuff," Brown complained to the Star. "I'm a Canadian and so is my husband. We're honest to gosh dyed in the wool native Canadians of the fifth generation… and if a few more Canadians would be themselves and produce a decent sized family the country would not be overrun by foreigners."
Her husband agreed: "What this country needs is people of her own native stock not flocks of immigrants."
The Bagnatos were much more generous in return. A few years later, as they took over the sole lead with their eighth child in seven years, Joseph told the Star he thought the prize should be shared. "I know what that family has been through," he said of the Browns, "and I don't think it would be justice if they didn't get anything. They are poor people, like us, and need the money." So did the other couples in the running. "There is over $500,000 in the fund," he continued. "Even if they divided it up amongst the first ten families that would mean $50,000 each. [More than a million in 2024.] Why that's enough money for anyone."
The press assumed the Bagnatos would spend their winnings on a trip to Italy, but Joseph shook his head. He didn't even know anyone there anymore. "No," he said, "I am a Canadian. This is my country now." Instead, Grace told them, they would spend the money on the purchase of a little farm and by adding yet another child to their family. She wanted to adopt an orphan they knew.
Bagnato was in her mid-forties by the time the contest drew to a close. But she kept having children right up to the end: ten babies in ten years. That was enough to put her among the leaders in the race. As the families crossed the finish line, she was one of the main contenders. But it would take years for the courts to sift through the entries to determine a winner. And in the end, it wouldn't be Grace Bagnato.
After decades helping other families with their government paperwork, it was an issue with documentation that disqualified her — perhaps along with some anti-Italian prejudice. Some sources suggest Joseph didn't have the proper immigration paperwork; the newspapers at the time said it was two of her children who were missing the documents needed to prove they'd been born in Toronto during the decade of the contest. So, instead of going to the Bagnatos, the prize money was split between four families who'd had nine children, with two others settling out of court for a smaller amount.
For her part, Bagnato had always insisted she wasn't in it for the money. "I have my children," she'd told the press years earlier, "not because of any reward I expect, but because I love them… We aren't thinking about the Millar award at all. We just go ahead and conduct ourselves as though such a thing didn't exist. If we win it, it will be fine. If we don't, then the disappointment won't kill us, for we aren't counting on it."
Bagnato would live another fourteen years after the contest ended, eventually passing away in her bed after making brunch for her family on a Sunday morning in 1950. The Ward didn't last much longer than she did. The government moved in to wipe it off the map; homes and businesses were expropriated and demolished to make way for a new City Hall and for Nathan Phillips Square. But the neighbourhood's legacy would carry on long after it was gone. It has helped shape the city we live in today. And Bagnato's legacy lives along with it.
In the century to come, it wasn't Florence Brown's vision for the city that won out — of a stubbornly British metropolis hostile to immigration. Instead, it was Grace Bagnato's. In the decades after she passed away, the city would become ever more diverse. Families from all the over the world would arrive in greater and greater numbers. Eventually, it would become one of the most proudly multicultural cities on earth. City Hall would even adopt a new motto for Toronto: Diversity is our strength.
Grace Bagnato had twenty-three children. By 2018, she had 118 direct descendants. And her impact reaches far further than that. All over our city, you'll find families who can trace their histories back to the multicultural neighbourhood that once stood at the heart of Toronto — and whose ancestors were able to get started in their new home thanks to a little help from the Mother of the Ward.
The Bagnatos weren't the only ones to face discrimination during the Great Stork Derby. Another couple in the running, the Grazianos, received threatening letters and phone calls promising to kidnap their children if they didn't pull out of the race. The first message arrived while Hilda Graziano was still in her hospital bed, having just delivered their most recent baby and still fighting for life after a dangerous loss of blood. The letter claimed the moral high ground since the couple was reported to be naming their new child after Benito Mussolini. Thankfully, Hilda couldn’t read the message. It was written in Italian, but only her husband spoke the language; she was French-Canadian herself. She’d recovered before her husband told her the terrifying news. Their kids were forced to switch schools and they told the press they would probably drop out of the race; it just wasn’t worth risking their children’s lives.
Bagnato was even there to help another one of the contending families in the most horrifying moment of the Derby. The Kennys were among the leaders in the race, but lost four of their children before it was over, including baby Patrick. He died in particularly gruesome fashion. Their home in the Ward was infested by aggressive rats; at one point, the family killed 23 of them in just three weeks. “One night,” Lillian Kenny told the Star, “while we were all in bed, several of them attacked our little baby. He was in bed with us. The rats were going to eat him up. Our dog, Nelly, fought with them and killed two of the rats. I grabbed a blanket and threw it over Patrick to save him, but it was too late.” They rushed him to Sick Kids, but when they were told he wouldn’t make it, they brought him home to die. Grace Bagnato was with them on the final day; as the infant’s health took a turn for the worse, she telephoned for help, trying one number after another in a desperate bid to find a doctor. But by the time one finally arrived, Patrick was taking his last breaths. “Just as the footsteps of the public health doctor could be heard on the steps below,” the Star reported, “the child died.”
You can learn more about the Great Stork Derby in The Toronto Book of Love, which is available from all the usual places, including your favourite local bookstore and directly from my publisher here. You can also read more about Grace Bagnato from CBC Radio One here, and the Italian-Canadian narratives showcase from the University of Guelph here.
Grace Bagnato is just one of the people we’ll be talking about in my new online course, which you can learn more about right here…
“A History of Hope & Resistance in Toronto” Starts This Week!
There seem to be frightening days ahead. And while I'm feeling thoroughly overwhelmed by it all, I thought one tiny little thing I could do at the moment is create a new online course looking back at some stories that might have something to offer us in these disturbing times. (And while I usually offer my four-week courses for $75, I want this one to be as accessible as possible, so I’ll be offering it on a pay-what-you-want basis.)
The history of our city is filled with stories of hope and resistance — people fighting oppression, overthrowing tyranny, working to help others, and making the world a better place despite those trying to stop them. So, over four weekly lectures, we'll explore everything from protest songs to armed rebellion, from secret book clubs to secret agents. We'll meet Victorian revolutionaries, grassroots organizers and life-saving doctors. We'll talk about battles over democracy, war against the Nazis, the struggle against slavery, and much much more — tales for troubled times.
When: The course begins at 8pm on Thursday, November 28 and runs weekly for four weeks.
Where: Over Zoom. All lectures will also be recorded, so if you have to miss any of them you can watch them whenever you like. The recordings will remain available for the foreseeable future.
Cost: Pay what you like!
The Toronto History Weekly needs your help! This newsletter involves a ton of work, so it’s only by growing the number of paid subscriptions that I’ll be able to continue doing it. Thank you so, so much to everyone who is already supporting it with a few dollars a month — and if you’d like to make the switch yourself, you can do it by clicking right here:
Find Me On Bluesky
I’ve put on a ton of work into my Twitter account over the years. It’s been one of my favourite places to share my work — especially my big annual threads on topics like the Canadian who created Doctor Who, the horrors of Hurricane Hazel, or the infamously deadly New Year’s Duel. I’ve absolutely loved the community we’ve built there. But I’ve reached my breaking point; I just can’t keep using the site in good conscience.
So if you’re someone who has enjoyed my posts on Twitter in the past, you can now follow me on Bluesky. That’s where I’ll be focusing my energy and sharing my work going forward — along the millions of other who’ve recently decided to make the switch:
One of the nice things about the new platform is that it allows people to create “starter packs” of accounts to follow on particular subject, which is a big help in getting started. So, I’ve created a Toronto History Starter Pack filled with people who post about the city’s past:
CHECK OUT MY TORONTO HISTORY STARTER PACK
QUICK LINKS
The best of everything else that’s new in Toronto’s past…
AWARD NEWS — The recipients of this year’s Governor General’s History Awards have been revealed, and they include a pair of teachers from Don Mills Collegiate who created a fascinating project called “Tasting History.” Read more.
You can also read about 2023’s winners (including me!) in the newsletter post I wrote about it last year. Read more.
ELEGANT BUS DEPOT NEWS – The City has unveiled plans for the old bus station at Bay & Dundas. Built in the 1930s, the elegant-but-long-neglected building will become part of a new development including hundreds of new rental units, a paramedic station, a public plaza and more. Read more.
RIVETING NEWS — At TVO, Jamie Bradburn shares the story of Veronica Foster. Better known as Ronnie The Bren Gun Girl, the Torontonian war worker became the centrepiece of a propaganda campaign during WWII and helped inspire the creation of her fictional American counterpart, Rosie The Riveter. Read more.
AMUSEMENT PARK NEWS — Bob Georgiou takes a deep dive into the history of the Scarboro Beach Amusement Park and the land upon which it once sat. Read more.
STAGE NEWS — Joshua Chong at The Toronto Star writes that The Factory Theatre has quietly been looking to sell and redevelop its home on Bathurst Street, which includes a pair of heritage buildings: one built 1869, the other in 1910. Read more.
COOL SCHOOLS NEWS — A new-at-least-to-me online exhibit explores “an important legacy of Modernism in Toronto: the roughly 300 school buildings constructed in Metropolitan Toronto in the three decades after the Second World War.” It’s called “New School: Modern architecture and public education in Toronto, 1943-1975” and is curated by architecture critic Alex Bozikovic. Check it out.
TORONTO HISTORY EVENTS
BLATANT INJUSTICE: THE INTERNMENT OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN CANADA DURING WWII
November 25 — 6:30pm — Barbara Frum Library
November 27 — 6:30pm — Don Mills Library
November 30 — 2pm — Northern District Library
“Author Ian Darragh talks about the new edition of his book chronicling the harrowing experiences of Jewish refugees to Canada, who were treated as enemies and imprisoned in internment camps during World War II. Yet the internees did not let the authorities crush their spirit. Blatant Injustice is a story of resilience and determination.”
Free with registration!
Learn more at the links above.
IMAGINED FUTURES FOR TORONTO’S LOWER DON RIVER: A HISTORY OF BIG IDEAS FOR A SMALL RIVER
November 26 — 7pm — Ralph Thornton Centre — Riverdale Historical Society
Jennifer Bonnell, Associate Professor in the Dept. of History, York University, and author of Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto’s Don River Valley will be presenting.
EAST YORK LOST RIVERS, ASHBRIDGE’S BAY AND TORONTO’S NEW PORT LANDS
November 26 — 7pm — S. Walter Stewart Library — East York Historical Society
“Old East Toronto was built on a height of land that drains to Toronto’s post-industrial Port Lands — once the extensive lakeside marshland known by the settlers’ name Ashbridge’s Bay. This talk will imaginatively recreate East York’s landscape and watercourses that have been altered by Toronto’s growth, it will highlight the subsequent changes to Ashbridge’s Bay, and it will focus on the recent history of the Port Lands as they have been ‘naturalized’ and ‘flood protected’ in the name of a climate-resilient and sustainable future.”
Free!
FORT YORK LIBRARY 10th ANNIVERSARY HISTORICAL TALK
November 27 — 7pm — Fort York Library
“Please join us for a historical talk with experts from the Fort York National Historic Site and Friends of Fort York and Garrison Common.”
Free with registration!
FLYING KITES IN YORKSHIRE: THE WWII DIARIES OF RCAF SQUADRON LEADER A. ROSS DAWSON MBE
November 27 — 7pm — Northern District Library — North Toronto Historical Society”
“From 1943 to 1945, Ross Dawson kept an extraordinary, 460-page, hand-written diary about his time overseas with the RCAF. His son (and NTHS treasurer) Bill Dawson will provide a brief biography of his father, describe his time with the RCAF and read a number of excerpts from the diary. Ross Dawson was an excellent story-teller. The talk will be illustrated with Ross's wartime photos.”
Free, I believe!
LIBRARY & ARCHIVES UNSHELVED: HENRY MOORE IN TORONTO
December 4 — 1–8pm (Drop In) — Art Gallery of Ontario
“This drop-in series, hosted by AGO librarians and archivists, gives visitors a first-hand glimpse of treasures from the Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives collection. In this installment, AGO Archivist Al Stanton-Hagan will share archival materials related to Henry Moore and his work. The display will include documentation of early acquisitions in the 1950s, protests and controversies, and highlights from 50 years of the Henry Moore Sculpture Centre at the AGO. A selection of archival photographs, documents, and news clippings will be on view alongside Henry Moore drawings from the AGO’s collection.”
Free!
WHEELING THROUGH TORONTO: A HISTORY OF THE BICYCLE AND ITS RIDERS
December 5 — West Toronto & Junction Historical Society
December 10 — 6pm — Toronto Reference Library
“Cities around the world, including Toronto, are embracing the bicycle as a response to the climate crisis. This is not the first time the bicycle has come to our rescue, proving itself a loyal friend during times of crisis, including the world wars and the COVID pandemic. In ‘Wheeling through Toronto, A History of the Bicycle and Its Riders’, author Albert Koehl takes the audience on a 130-year ride through the rich history of the bicycle in Toronto. By understanding how we got here, we can begin mapping a way forward, one in which the potential of cycling is maximized.”
Free, I believe!
STORIES & HISTORY OF MASSEY HALL
December 11 — 7pm — Beaches Sandbox — The Beach & East Toronto Historical Society
Author David McPherson speaks about his book exploring the history of one of the city’s most beloved concert venues.
Free!
WHY DON’T CANADIANS ENJOY THEIR HISTORY — WITH CHARLOTTE GRAY
December 12 — 7pm — Online — Town of York Historical Society
“Join award winning author and historian, Charlotte Gray as she discusses how, in recent years, Canadians have spent less and less creative energy, intellectual effort and government funding on exploring the past. The result is a pervasive case of historical amnesia: fewer school and university students study Canadian history, and fewer authors write about it. The only exception is Indigenous history, which for too long was ignored. Charlotte will illustrate her talk with the story of Sir Arthur Doughty, Canada’s first national archivist – a historian who dedicated his life to preserving our history, yet kept his own secrets and is almost forgotten today. Perhaps, asks Charlotte, the biggest historical curiosity in Canada is our lack of curiosity about the past.”
$22.63 for non-members; $17.31 for members
LIBERATION ON THE DANCE FLOOR
Until December 15 — Fridays 4–8pm, Weekends 11–3pm — The ArQuives
“Liberation on the Dance Floor: Reflective Nostalgia is an exhibition showcasing the work of Toronto’s Gay Community Dance Committee (GCDC), a volunteer-run, coalition-building community organization that raised funds for various LGBTQ2+ community groups in Toronto and surrounding regions. Between 1981-1992, the GCDC held over fifty dances—most of which included hundreds of volunteers and thousands of dancers—and raised over $250,000 for participating community groups… This immersive exhibition invites attendees to think through the role of the collective dance in Toronto in the 1980s and the ongoing transformative potential of the queer dance floor.”
Free!
BLACK DIASPORAS TKARONTO-TORONTO
Until February 22 — Wed to Sat, 12–6pm— Musseum of Toronto
“Black Diasporas Tkaronto-Toronto presents films and archives told and created by over 100 Black Canadians. More than 500 personal narratives document the rich histories that have shaped the spaces and places of contemporary Toronto. Visitors are encouraged to take time for intimate listening and viewing in areas throughout the show. They will discover personal stories from across multiple generations, highlighting the depth of Black history in this city and across Canada, and representing over 20 countries that represent this city’s Black diaspora. Visitors are also encouraged to share their origins if they wish, highlight moments of Toronto’s history that aren’t noted here, and identify events, organizations or even food that exists in Toronto because of Black histories.”
Free! (Donation suggested.)
Great story! Grace Street in Toronto was named after Grace Bagnato! So many Italians lived on this street including my father. I wonder how many knew it was named after an Italian! Actually, Grace was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and then immigrated to Canada. Her parents were Italian.
Fantastic. I have read 'The Ward' but it's great to know there are so many other interesting stories still lurking in Toronto's history.