The Seven-Year-Old Hero of Riverdale
Plus: two new walking tours, the threat to the Cube House, and more...
The conductor looked ahead in horror. His train was barreling through the Don Valley on that summer morning in 1954, racing south into the city. On board, he had a load of new Canadians, twelve cars full of them, more than a thousand freshly arrived immigrants. After their ship had docked at Quebec City, they'd boarded their train to Toronto, travelling all through the night. Now, they were only minutes away from Union Station and the end of the long journey, arriving in their new city to begin their new lives. But their voyage was about to come to an unexpectedly dramatic halt.
The train had just passed beneath the Bloor Viaduct when the conductor spotted a chilling sight on the tracks ahead: three small children walking across a railway bridge that spanned the river. It was only a short distance from one side to the other, but the steel bridge was enclosed by high sides, nearly as tall the children themselves. So, as train bore down on them, there was nowhere for the kids to go.
The conductor blew his whistle and hit the emergency break. Sparks flew from the wheels with the piercing shriek of metal grinding on metal. But it was far too late. The train couldn't stop in time. It was going to hit those children; the impact was only moments away.
That's when Jimmy Pettipas leapt into action.
Jimmy was only seven years old. He lived in Treffan Court with his family, on the edge of Corktown and Regent Park. He didn't have an easy life there. His father had recently lost everything in a failed business venture, including their house. So now, the family of eleven all lived in a cramped apartment with paint peeling off the walls. It was so damp, they blamed it for Jimmy's poor health; he'd recently spent three months at Sick Kids with a case of rheumatic fever.
Still, Jimmy — the only boy, with eight sisters — was helping to raise his younger siblings. "Jimmy was always thinking of me," his mother later remembered, "of little ways to help me." He'd wake up early and make breakfast, knew how to warm a bottle and feed the baby. "He was so capable and full of energy."
That Saturday morning, Jimmy was looking after two of his little sisters: Lynn, who was six, and Ruth, who was five. There wasn't much space for the kids to play around their place. There were only four rooms in the apartment and the new owners of their building had recently turned their backyard into a parking lot. So, they made the long walk up to Riverdale Park instead.
But that's where temptation lurked. There was a carnival nearby, with free rides for kids before noon. The Pettipas children were under strict orders not to go to the carnival. But they were so young. They just couldn't resist.
The problem was that the carnival was on the far side of the river. And the easiest way to get there was to cross the rail bridge. So that's what they did. They slipped through a hole in a fence, along the path worn through the grass by everyone who'd done the same thing before them, and then followed the rails to the bridge.
When they reached it, at least one of the kids balked, worried about crossing it. A boy in the valley was close enough to overhear one of them say, "Don’t be a fraidy cat; let's go." And so they did. That was a tragic mistake.
The kids were only partway across the bridge when they heard it: the roar of a train hurtling down the tracks toward them, whistle blowing. It all happened so quickly. They only had a few seconds to react before it would reach them, nowhere near long enough to safely cross to the other side. They were trapped.
The details vary from one newspaper report to the next, but it seems that Jimmy shouted at his sisters to take cover and then shoved them to the side. But there wasn't much room, just two or three feet between the tracks and the high steel sides of the bridge — with wide gaps between the rails. Lynn, the six-year-old, was able to hold on herself, trying to keep as far from the tracks as possible as the train thundered toward them. But little Ruth was falling, slipping headfirst through one of the gaps, in danger of dropping fifteen feet into the river below.
Jimmy wasn't going to let that happen. "Roy Rogers was his hero," his mother told the papers. "He wanted to grow up and be a cowboy like Roy Rogers and do heroic things. He didn't know he was going to be a hero so early in life."
Jimmy grabbed his little sister by the legs, holding on with all his might, straining to save her from that fall. But she was nearly too heavy for him. He needed help. So, to get leverage, he hooked his foot around the nearest anchor he could find. The rail.
That's when the train reached them.
It barely had any time to slow down before it hit the bridge. The locomotive flew across it, sparks flying. It brushed Lynn, clipped Ruth hard, and raced right over Jimmy's foot, slicing through flesh and sinew and bone.
Still, he didn't let go. "He hung right on," Lynn remembered, "even when the train ran over him. He could have got out of the way but he stayed to save Ruth."
As the train finally pulled to a stop beyond the bridge, Jimmy called out for help. It was coming. The conductor flagged down a passing driver and they rushed to the children's aid. By the time they reached the bridge, Jimmy must have been in incredibly bad shape. At least a hundred tons of charging metal had just run over his foot; the newspapers found it remarkable he hadn't passed out from the pain. But even then, the boy's most urgent concern was Ruth. "Get my sister first," he told them.
The kids were loaded into the car and rushed off to Toronto East General, picking up a police motorcycle as an escort along the way. Meanwhile, an officer who happened to be playing baseball nearby sprinted over and dove into the river, worried there might have been a fourth child on the bridge. He would end up in the hospital himself after slicing open his foot on some broken glass. Harbour police soon arrived to drag the river, searching for a body as the train's passengers watched, until they were sure the Pettitpas children had been the only ones there.
At the hospital, the kids were in shock. Lynn was lucky, somehow only bruised. Ruth had broken her collarbone. It was Jimmy who was in the worst shape. He would soon be told his foot was gone; he'd lost it saving his sister. And yet, even when they gave him the terrible news, he seemed undaunted.
In the wake of the accident, Jimmy Pettipas would be hailed as a hero. The kids should never have been on that bridge, of course, but no one blamed the seven-year-old for that. The police would hold a charity baseball game for him, raising hundreds of dollars. Marilyn Bell's swimming coach, Gus Ryder, gave him a lifetime pass to the Lakeshore swim club, free lessons, and a cheque. He would even get to meet Conn Smythe, owner of the Maple Leafs.
But as he lay there in bed the day after the accident, that was still all in the distant future. He was still recovering, still dazed by what had happened; his eyes still filled with tears at the thought of it. His heroics had been frontpage news, so a group of reporters had descended on his hospital room looking for a quote. It must have been overwhelming for the young boy. But even there, in his hospital bed, surrounded by the city's media, his thoughts were still with his siblings. "I've got the best little sisters in the world," he said. "Will you tell them, please, that I'm O.K. and they're not to worry about me?"
It was his nurse who put it best. Jimmy Pettipas certainly was "a brave little fellow."
I’ve Got Two New Walking Tours Coming Up Next Weekend!
We’ve got a few more weeks of glorious autumn left, which means a few more weeks of good walking tour weather! And with that in mind, I’ve got two brand new tours coming up on Saturday, October 26 — one about ghost stories and one about the wild history of our city's animals. Here are all the details:
TORONTO GONE WILD: A WALKING TOUR
This one is in partnership with Museum of Toronto! Toronto's human residents aren't the only ones with stories to tell. Our city's animals have their own histories, filled with strange and unexpected tales — from the story of Toronto's founding dog and how he almost got eaten to the rampaging horses that once terrorized commuters. On this tour, we'll uncover the fascinating history of Toronto's fuzziest and furriest residents, a walk filled with phantom rodents, mail order alligators and killer goats.
When: Saturday, October 26 at 2pm.
Where: Meet in Berczy Park by the dog fountain. The tour will last about 1.5 to 2 hours and end at Union Station.
GET TICKETS AND MORE INFORMATION HERE
THE HISTORY OF TORONTO GHOST STORIES
Toronto has a long history of ghost stories. They’re connected to many of our most beloved old buildings and reflect some of the most dramatic events in our city’s past. They’ve also evolved over time, from the Victorian settlers who claimed there were no spirits haunting Canada to the séances that drew big crowds less than a century later. So, for this Halloween season, I’m creating a brand new walking tour filled with supernatural stories that will let us trace the evolving history of our city’s most haunting tales.
When: Saturday, October 26 at 5:30pm.
Where: Meet in the Grange Park — by the mansion on the north side at the back of the AGO. The tour will last about 1.5 to 2 hours and end near Yonge & Dundas.
Price: Pay what you like.
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Talking About Hurricane Hazel’s On The Storm’s 70th Anniversary
It was 70 years ago this month that Hurricane Hazel devastated our city, leaving dozens dead in its wake. To mark the anniversary, I spoke with Newstalk 1010 about the storm and the horrors it unleashed on that terrible October night in 1954. LISTEN
QUICK LINKS
The best of everything else that’s new in Toronto’s past…
CUBE THREAT NEWS — The famous Cube House might be in its final days. The developer who owns the land applied for a permit to demolish it this week, saying the company is partnering with an artist to commemorate the iconic site somehow. Mahdis Habibinia wrote about it for The Toronto Star, calling the house “one of Toronto’s most curious architectural experiments.” Read more.
HEARTBREAKING FOOTAGE NEWS — Photographer Christopher Kotsopoulos has shared some aerial footage of the devastation at Ontario Place as Ford’s government barrels forward with plans to turn much of the public park into a privately-owned megaspa. Read more.
NEW PARK NEWS — In happier news, Bathurst Quay Common has opened! The new park sits on the waterfront in the shadow of the old Canada Malting silos. It’s right next to Ireland Park — with its haunting statues and memorial wall for the Irish refugees who died on their way to our city as they tried to escape the horrors of the Great Hunger in 1847. So, the new park will hopefully draw more people to explore that history. And next year, the Corleck Building will open on the park as well, as a new arts and cultural centre operated by the Canada Ireland Foundation. Phoebe Knight covered it for blogTO. Read more.
NEW PARK PLAN NEWS — Market Lane Park (outside the St. Lawrence Market) is one of the most symbolically important historical spaces in the city. It has sat at the centre of life in Toronto for more than 200 years. It’s where our first public well was dug, where criminals were punished in the pillory, and where farmers sold their goods in the town’s early days as a settlement (and then stayed overnight to get drunk in the nearby taverns, earning the area a reputation as “The Devil’s Half Acre.”) The park has been left to degrade in recent years, but plans are now afoot to redesign it — with construction beginning early next year. Read more.
LANE NAMING NEWS — Graffiti Alley is one of Toronto’s most famous tourist attractions, with a history as a street art hub that goes back decades. But it turns out the alley isn’t officially called Graffiti Alley at all. Local heritage advocate Adam Wynne hopes to change that fact. Read more.
SAFE SAFE NEWS — On Twitter, Hogtown 101 shares a fascinating tidbit about the safe-building company who claimed all their safes survived the Great Fire of 1904 and where you can find one today:
(Click to view on Twitter.)
DOMESTIC NEWS — Robyn Sturtevant shares the story of “Women, Immigration, and Domestic Work in Early 20th Century Toronto,” including the fact that “almost half of Canadian working women in the 1890s worked as domestic servants.” Read more.
SUBTERRANEAN NEWS — Jack Landau writes about an interesting and easy-to-miss detail in David Crombie Park (which runs along the Esplanade): a “Parisian-style pavilion” that hides an abandoned secret tunnel. Read more.
HOOPS NEWS — One I missed including earlier… A few weeks ago, the Raptors announced that Vince Carter will become the first player to have his number retired by the club. Read more.
TORONTO HISTORY EVENTS
HAUNTED HERITAGE: HONOURING OUR HISTORY’S GHOSTS
October 22 — 6pm — Spadina Road Library
October 24 — 6pm — Runnymede Library
November 4 — 5:30pm — Pape/Danforth Library
“A thought-provoking and enlightening presentation on paranormal research done within historic and heritage properties. Learn about how ghost presences within historic sites can be respectfully utilized to call attention to Ontario's vanishing heritage and those who have gone before us. Presented by Peter Roe, paranormal investigator, author and associate director of the The Searcher Group, "Canada's Ghostbusters".
Free!
Learn more at the links above.
A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM
October 22 & 27 — 7pm — Toronto’s First Post Office — Town of York Historical Society
“The Witching Hour Awaits at Toronto's First Post Office Museum! Join Toronto's First Post Office & special guest, Richard Fiennes-Clinton, as we experience the museum after hours with a presentation on the traditions surrounding the Victorian culture of death and dying & the spread of spiritualism in Toronto! After the presentation, write a 19th century Halloween poem with a quill and ink.”
$17.31 for members; $22.63 for non-members.
LURKING IN THE SHADOWS AT FORT YORK
October 24, 25, 26 — 7:30pm — Fort York National Historic Site
“Hear chilling and eerie tales on a lantern tour of Fort York and its historic surroundings. Learn about a haunted lighthouse and the bloody Battle of York. Explore the military burial ground. Tour the creepy shadows and 200-year-old buildings of Fort York at night and learn of the fort’s history and its many paranormal mysteries. Hot drink & refreshment included.”
$20
AFTER DARK TOURS: THE UNEXPLAINED AT COLBORNE LODGE
October 23, 24, 25, 29, 30, 31 — Various times — Colborne Lodge
“Join us for a chilling tour at Colborne Lodge in High Park. Visit the gravesite of John and Jemima Howard. Explore ideas about death and the afterlife from the 1800s and hear true tales of paranormal activities. Experience some of the museum’s dark stories if you dare!”
$18
RECLAIMING THE DON: SECOND EDITION BOOK LAUNCH
October 23 — 6pm — Museum of Toronto
“Join us in celebrating the 2nd Edition launch of Jennifer Bonnell’s award-winning book: Reclaiming the Don: An Environmental History of Toronto’s Don River Valley, published by the University of Toronto Press. Globe & Mail architecture and urbanism critic Alex Bozikovic will join the author to reflect on changes to the river and its relationship with the city over the past ten years.”
Free with registration!
DEARLY DEPARTED: AFTER DARK AT SPADINA MUSEUM
October 24, 25, 26, 30, 31 — 6pm & 8pm — Spadina Museum
“Join us this October for Dearly Departed: Spadina After Dark. This will be an evening focusing on the lives and deaths of the families that called Spadina home, as well as the impact the War and deadly diseases had on Toronto's population. Learn about cultural and social mourning traditions, spiritualism, and related ghost tales. This will be an immersive, educational, and frightful experience.”
$20
AFTER DARK SPIRIT TOURS AT TODMORDEN MILLS
October 25 & 26 — 7pm — Todmorden Mills
“Uncover the heart and soul of honoring and remembering those who have passed on. Delve into Todmorden's rich history through this captivating outdoor-immersive theatrical experience. Experience poignant performances that invite you to explore grief, honor, and remembrance across diverse cultures. Cap off the evening with Spirit-Tour-inspired mocktails and light refreshments. Flashlights provided!”
$20
MONTGOMERY’S INN LANTERN TOURS
October 25 & 26 — 6pm & 8pm — Montgomery’s Inn
“This Halloween, Montgomery’s Inn invites visitors after dark to uncover eerie tales about the past inhabitants of the Inn and the Old Town of Islington. Visitors will explore the historic house and the Islington burial ground, learn about Victorian death practices, and find new and frightening ways to connect with Toronto’s past.”
$15
JEANNE BEKER: STORIES FROM A LIFE WELL WORN
October 29 — 7pm — North York Central Library
“Fashion and style icon Jeanne Beker discusses her new memoir and walks us through a wardrobe of memory, one article of clothing at a time. Jeanne Beker's name is synonymous with style and grace in fashion, recognized by many as the beloved host of Fashion Television. Now, in Heart on My Sleeve, Jeanne reveals who she is in an all-new way. This is not just a memoir but a wardrobe of memory. Jeanne walks us through her recollections of specific pieces of clothing and jewelry, precious items that have made an indelible impact on her. She invites readers to think more deeply about how what we wear - whether it's a thrift-store find or high-end couture - acts as a touchstone to our most treasured recollections, reminding us of who we once were or of loved ones we hold dear.”
Free with registration!
GHOSTLY WALK THROUGH OLD TOWN
Until October 30, various dates and times — Meet at Campbell House Museum — Town of York Historical Society
“Brave the darkness as we explore the ghostly haunts of the Old Town of York and the early City. Hear tales of dread and mystery from those who walked Toronto's streets before us and visit some of the oldest (most haunted!) buildings that date back to the City's 1793 colonial inception.”
$11.98 for members; $17.31 for non-members.
TORONTO GONE WILD
Until November 2 — Wednesday to Sunday from 12pm to 4pm — Museum of Toronto
“Toronto Gone Wild explores the city as a multi-layered habitat — starring the animals, plants, and insects that call Toronto home. Venture through different Torontonian terrains from city streets to burrows, hives, and nests, all seamlessly woven together in our downtown exhibition space. You’ll emerge with a renewed appreciation for the interconnectedness of life in the city.”
Free!
NEWSGIRLS: GUTSY PIONEERS IN CANADA’S NEWSROOMS
November 5 — 2pm — Yorkville Library
“Former Toronto Star reporter, Donna Jean Mackinnon documents the lives of 10 leading female reporters who established their careers between 1930 and 1960--the Golden Age of Newspapers. MacKinnon's fascinating, often amusing presentation includes a slew of vintage photos and intimate anecdotes.Trailblazers in their fields, these adventurous 'newshens,' as they were once called, covered every beat from art openings, fashion, crime, politics, and the major social issues of the day.”
Free!
THE HISTORY OF GRENADIER POND
November 6 — 7:30pm — Swansea Town Hall & Online — Swansea Historical Society
“Ken Stark, a long time Swansea resident who lives close to the Grenadier Pond and has participated in numerous activities on and around it, will make a presentation covering its geological formation and the evolution of human activity ever since. Once primarily a source of food, the Pond now provides visitors an opportunity to participate in a variety of activities including many recreational pursuits. As the jewel of High Park, Grenadier Pond supports a variety of flora and fauna some of which is unique to the region. As with any body of water there is an element of risk to its users. A summary of the unfortunate accidents and tragedies of the last 100+years will be discussed. Also to be shared are a few interesting stories from the past involving Grenadier Pond as a central character.”
YONGE STREET’S INCREDIBLE MUSIC & POP CULTURE HISTORY
November 14 — 7pm — Toronto’s First Post Office – Town of York Historical Society
“That Gordon Lightfoot once sang for $25 a day at a Yonge street dinner theatre? That a chance meeting in Toronto determined the direction of The Beatles' greatest album? That the most decisive event in Rock N Roll history occurred at Yonge and Dundas? Yonge street's connection to music, theatre and pop culture is second to none and has been described as a music/theatre mecca equal to, or even better than, Times Square or Hollywood Blvd. From Jazz, Motown and Hip Hop to Rock N Roll, Metal and Alternative, if you are a music fan, a local history buff or if you just like hearing great stories then this is an introduction to the city's musical past that will show you a side of ‘The Strip’ that you never knew existed. Mark Vendramini is a Toronto native that spent nearly every free moment of his teens and twenties on the Yonge Street Strip. He is a self-taught Yonge street pop culture historian and the founder of the 7000 member strong Memories Of the Yonge St Strip Facebook page. His Yonge street tours have been featured on BlogTO, CBC Radio and Boom 97.3 Radio.”
$17.31 for members; $22.63 for non-members.
RISE AGAIN! THE SONGS OF STAN ROGERS AT ROSEDALE CENTRE
November 15 — 7:30pm — The Rosedale Centre
“Stan Rogers is widely recognized as one of the very finest singer-songwriters that Canada has ever produced, and while it has been over forty years since he was tragically taken from us, his music lives on and is being heard around the world. Just over twenty years ago, Stan’s record producer, Paul Mills and his widow Ariel Rogers, were approached by Hugh’s Room about putting together a Stan tribute concert at the club. They put together a group of eight artists who performed a collection of Stan’s wonderful songs. The show was a huge hit with the Hugh’s Room audience to the point where they were asked to make it an annual event. The Stan tribute show became a tradition and has been presented by Hugh’s Room ever since.”
$45 in advance; $52 at the door
What happened to Jimmy Pettipas after this accident?