Browse Items (29 total)
- Collection: YourYongeStreet Stories
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Strangers' Burial Ground
On the northwest corner of Yonge & Bloor, beneath the CIBC, lies the York General Burial Ground, Toronto’s first non-denominational burial ground. Also known as the Stranger’s Burial Ground, or Potter’s Field, this is where people who did not…
Toll Gate at Yonge & Bloor
A toll gate at the north-east corner of Bloor and Yonge Streets, generally known as the "First" was erected in the early 1830s. The small keeper's house was moved to Davenport Road in 1850 when a covered way was added along withtwo further rooms.…
Tags: read, roads, stories, story, toll gates, travel, yonge street
John Dillinger in Toronto?
The infamous bank robber John Dillinger was shot and killed by police just outside of the Biograph Theater in Chicago in 1934. I'm not sure what movie he saw, but it certainly was his last. The Biograph Theater saved the chair that he sat in that…
Christmas carols at Simpson's
You don't need to live in Toronto to have a Yonge Street story... in fact I had a Yonge Street story long before I ever saw Toronto.
Back in the 1960s the staff and shoppers at the Simpson's store at Yonge and Queen sang Christmas Carols every…
Back in the 1960s the staff and shoppers at the Simpson's store at Yonge and Queen sang Christmas Carols every…
Tags: Christmas, Christmas carols, read, shopping, simpsons, story, yonge street
Pierce-Arrow Showroom
Remember Pierce-Arrow? Not many of us do. It was an American company that manufactured luxury cars from 1901 - 1938. From 1930 to 1937, Toronto's Pierce-Arrow showroom was located at 1140 Yonge Street, at the corner of Yonge and Marlborough. The…
Tags: automobiles, cars, Pierce-Arrow, read, story, yonge street
SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT YONGE STREET
Like all my grandparents eight sons, the eldest - my Uncle Hugh - had an unquenchable thirst for adventure and wealth - wealth, meaning security, in those days. In his early twenties, he and a younger brother, Harry, took off for the gold fields,…
The beginning of Yonge Street
The following is an excerpt from Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto, Coach House Press, 2010
Yonge starts appropriately right at Lake Ontario. It’s an inauspicious beginning to such a mythical street – at least it is right now…
Yonge starts appropriately right at Lake Ontario. It’s an inauspicious beginning to such a mythical street – at least it is right now…
Early Toronto gay bars
It was here that Toronto's early gay bars were located, including the St. Charles Tavern at 488 Yonge (a former firehall that today sports a recently refurbished Victorian clock tower) and the Parkside Tavern at 530 Yonge (now a twenty-four-hour…
The Watchmen
The following is an excerpt from Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto, Coach House Press, 2010
Though Toronto derives its name from an aboriginal word, examples of First Nations public art around the city are rare. One giant exception…
Though Toronto derives its name from an aboriginal word, examples of First Nations public art around the city are rare. One giant exception…
Tags: aboriginal, bay and college, first nations, public art, read, sculpture, story, toronto, totem poles, yonge street
The Brain of Toronto
The following is an excerpt from Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto, Coach House Press, 2010
North of Bloor, Yonge tends not to elicit such high emotional and cultural impact, as it passes through some of Toronto's more genteel…
North of Bloor, Yonge tends not to elicit such high emotional and cultural impact, as it passes through some of Toronto's more genteel…