Heritage Toronto's Architectural Photography Tour

This evening, Teena and I enjoyed an Architectural Photography Tour for its members put on by Heritage Toronto.

See the city through fresh eyes as we focus our discussion on how composition and light can help you get the best building shots for your personal portfolio or Instagram page. Please bring a camera (DSLR or phone) that you are comfortable using.

So what does Heritage Toronto do?

We celebrate and commemorate our city’s rich heritage and the diverse stories of its people, places, and events – both to make sense of our present and to inform the future. Our Vision To be the recognized voice of Toronto’s heritage stories.

We met at the new fountain at Berzcy Park. It's a fabulous fountain opened in 2018 and was nominated in the 2018 Heritage Awards. 

Vik Pahwa to the left (sorry I caught you, Vik, with your face covered) would give us ideas on what to look for in a scene, plus angles and suggestions on how to shoot architecture. At each location, Katelyn would give us background history of the area. Both were excellent and approachable.

The Flatiron Building is one of the most famous buildings in Toronto. It was built by George Gooderham in 1891, a decade before the one in New York. I didn't know that when George passed away in 1905, he was listed as the wealthiest person in Ontario and the taxes collected on his estate took Ontario out of a deficit.

An older section of Front Street.

Berzcey Park is named after William Berzcey who was a co-founder with John Graves Simcoe of Toronto. This work of art honours him.

St. James Cathedral, was opened on June 19, 1853. It's hard to get a good picture of it. Lots of detail to shoot on the building. I'll return another time.

10 Toronto St is the home of Toronto's seventh post office which opened in 1853 and is a national historic site. It's best known as being the head office of E.P. Taylor's Argus Corp and the downfall of Conrad Black.

I always wondered why the back of the building had curved walls. Back then, horse and carriages were used to transport the mail and the building's rear walls were rounded to allow them easy access to the rear of the building for loading and unloading.

We went to Commerce Court. I loved the carvings in the back wall.

Much of the courtyard will disappear due to a new tower being built. It's a shame as I enjoyed many lunches here in the sunshine when I worked at King and Bay. There's a beautiful fountain in the middle of the square with elephants approaching for a drink.

Photography of architectural shapes can be interesting.

The 14 story Concourse Building is now almost lost with the new EY tower plunked on top.

Resting cows in the park at the TD Centre.

I managed to capture the moon over this building which is having the heavy granite tiles removed.

I love trying to shoot photos of our city's old and new together. This would have been a much better shot of the "L" building and Union Station if this guy's head wasn't in it.

I really enjoyed the walk and learned quite a bit on what to look for in shooting a city. Along the way, I also learned much about our city's history which I was unaware of. I plan to return to each of these sites and others in the city to take my time and focus on each individually.

The next tour for this event is on October 6, 2019, at 1:30pm. An afternoon instead of evening walk. As I'm retired, I plan to be there to take better shots in afternoon light.

Heritage Toronto Talk - Anishinaabe First Nations in the War of 1812

Tonight was another lecture on the War of 1812. This is the second that I have attended that was put on by Heritage Toronto.

Tonight's talk was on the Anishinaabe First Nations in the War of 1812 and was put on in conjunction with the Native Canadian Centre. The centre is on Spadina just above Bloor and housed in what I believe was an fabulous old school.

The talk was put on by Alan Corbiere who if you click onto the link will find is is well-versed on this subject. From my understanding, Anishinnaabe is name which combines three nations, the Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi.

Mr Corbiere spoke to a full room of 75 of us who had registered in advance for this free talk. Last night Heritage Toronto sent out an email asking that if anyone could not attend to let them know as there was a waiting list.

The talk was a little over an hour and fifteen minutes and very interesting. Afterwards there was 15 minutes for questions and there were so many that time ran out. Once again I learned a lot and have a few things I would like to look up.

In the War of 1812, very few tribes and chiefs are mentioned in British and American records. Corbiere has done extensive research to determine what tribes would be involved, the numbers that fought (close guesstaments) and the chiefs that led them. Here are some of the chiefs and Corbiere had a full story on each.

He also spoke of communication between the tribes in that era. Corbiere said how as a child growing up on Manitoulin Island (he came down from there to give this lecture) he thought his people likely knew nothing about the war as it was so far away. Then he discovered that all the native tribes, even the most northerly one, knew of the Battle of Fallen Timbers fought in 1794 in Ohio, where when the retreated native forces sought safety from the Americans in a British fort, found the gates slammed shut and barred. The forces were then decimated. Distance was no barrier for communication (this event was remembered for years and made many native peoples not knowing if they could trust the British when asked to fight with them against the Americans 18 years later).

Then he explained about Wampon Belts and how the belts told a story of treaties and events. Here are pictures of two belts and a drawing made by Francis Gore of a belt he wanted made. The top belt speaks of a treaty made in 1807 with William Claus.

Finally here are two pictures. The first are medals presented to chiefs for their contribution, the medal on the right is for the Siege of Detroit. The next shot is their descendants wearing the medals along with others they have won. The gentleman on the left is sporting his World War One medals and the medal of his ancestor.

Mr. Corbiere received a huge ovation at the end. It was very well deserved!

War of 1812: Bicentennial Talks - "Pain and Suffering in the War of 1812"

Tonight at the beautiful St Lawrence Hall, Heritage Toronto did their second of three talks on the War of 1812, titled "Pain and Suffering in the War of 1812: The Evidence from the Snake Hill Site".

In 1987 while excavating a property on the edge of Lake Erie to build a house, bones were discovered. The owner went to the police, who said the bones were too old to be of interest to them.

So the owner called a local newspaper. The reporter came in, said he was a collector of old bones and took a couple that had been found and turned them over to the coroner, who told the reporter the same. According to the "Cemetery Act", an investigation had to be made so Dr. Ron Williamson, Chief Archaeologist & Managing Partner, Archaeological Services Inc., was called in.

Dr. Williamson was the one who gave the talk tonight and was an excellent speaker!

When he arrived at the site, he removed the topsoil and found "grave shafts". When a body is buried and the earth is filled back in, it leaves a discolouring of the earth. When archaeologists see this, they know that area is a burial plot.

On unearthing the first body, metal service buttons told Dr. Williamson that this was an American grave site likely from the War of 1812. There was a freelance reporter around who, when he heard, went for the big story and called the Pentagon and, yes, got their attention. The next day the mayor of Fort Erie had one of the top generals and two other high ranking officers in his office.

When Dr. Williamson arrived he was told, "you have the full resources of the US army at your disposal"

And he did.

The dig involved his company, the U.S. and Canadian armies, the Smithsonian and the Royal Ontario Museum, plus some Canadian universities.

In all, 31 bodies were uncovered plus 53 fractured bones. Each body was thorough investigated where it laid to determine the injury that caused death and then all bones and buttons were marked and removed for further forensic investigation. A top U.S. army pathologist assisted with this.

One body was found with three hands. Turns out that an amputated hand from someone else had be buried along with the body. Although it was known that amputations was an everyday method used in battlefield injuries, it was the first time an amputated body part from that war had been found. Many more arms and legs were found after.

We saw many pictures of the bodies as they were found. Dr. Williamson reminds us that this 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 is a commemoration of the war and not a celebration. These people died painful, horrible deaths.

The pictures certainly brought the reality of the conflict and the horror of war to the 100 or so people in the room. One had his thigh bone shattered, likely bleeding to death quickly and another it is guessed was hit in his side by a cannonball destroying his right pelvis and lower ribs. Thankfully that would be an instant death.

In the end, 28 of the 31 bodies were proved to be American soldiers. Each body was placed in a flag draped coffin and brought back to the U.S. for burial at Bath National Cemetery, which is a veterans' cemetery in New York States.

Why?

The U.S. has always wanted their war dead buried back at home. Dr. Williamson revealed a quote from a dying U..S soldier in the conflict ... "I found Thomas Poe lying on a blanket. He reached his hand to me and told me that he was mortally wounded, that he had just a few moments to live and told me he wanted to be buried on the American side of the river" (July 26, 1814 during the siege of Fort Erie)

And why not send all the bodies? The three left behind may be British and it would be a final insult to them to have them buried in the country they were fighting against and took their life.

It was a fabulously interesting night. Below are a few of the slides we were shown.

Heritage Toronto Walk- The Royal Alexandra Theatre and it's Neighborhood

Today Teena and I went on a Heritage Toronto walk featuring the Royal Alexandra Theatre and its surrounding neighborhood. The timing was great as today is the 105th anniversary of the grand opening of the theatre.

There was a large group of people which met up at Simcoe park on Front Street for the walk. Our guide today was Janet and the tour was excellent.

I work in the area and never knew there was an entire area called "Campsite Founding".  It commemorates Lord Graves Simcoe, the founder of Toronto, and his wife Elizabeth, who lived close by in a canvas tent when they first arrived in Toronto (then York ... Simcoe did not like the name Toronto).   I have to do some research to find out why the mountains are there.

After stopping by the CBC building, which years ago was right on the waterfront and was a rail station, we headed over to Metro Hall. I was surprised it was built only in 1992, figuring it was built maybe 10 years earlier.

Next we walked west along Mercer Street. A few 100+ year-old places have been torn down here in the past year. More have signs on them for more redevelopment. This house is to end up being a "facade" in a new building, as is the great building across the road. Toronto seems to have lost its way in keeping old buildings and just redoing the insides. Now they seem content to just incorporate the outside wall into new designs. It really is a shame.

Just look at this great arched doorway. Built in the 1800s, it was the home of a horse drawn carriage cab company before the invention of cars.

If you live in Toronto, do you recognize this place? It was once part of Jeff Healey's Roadhouse, plus it had a concert venue in it. We saw Trooper and Evil Dead, the Musical there. At one time, it was home to our Receiver General and was a home for orphaned and poor children from Britain.

With all the stores and restaurants in the area, it is so hard to envision that this area was hugely industrial. This Shoppers Drugmart used to be the home of the National Drug and Chemical Company and was built in 1941. Shoppers did a great job in keeping the building's integrity. Across the road is a building I walk by everyday and think is a visually great building, the Canadian General Electric Building. The first three floors were built in 1927 and the upper floors added in 1934.

Then we headed on over to "restaurant row" a block of restaurants housed in buildings built back in the 1860s. Efforts are being made to preserve this block but I am not hopeful knowing Toronto's need to build more and more ... and more condos. Just look at some of the detail!

I am skipping over some things here and heading over to the star of the show, the Royal Alexandra Theater. First of all, I did not know that in the British Commonwealth, you cannot just simply add the name "Royal" to the name of a theatre or really anything. This requires special permission from the Queen's or King's office. The Royal Alexandra Theatre is one of the very few in the Commonwealth to have this very special designation.

Opened on August 26, 1907, it was one of the first "fire proofed" theatres in North America. It also was the first "air conditioned" theatres in Canada. They had grates in the floor under which they poured ice and had fans blowing the cool air upwards.

Heritage Toronto has excellent walks. I know as I have been on a few and was impressed enough to become a member. If you have a chance, take one. It's so much fun to explore the history of your own city. Here are a couple of more pictures showing the just a little detail of the outside of the theater.