“We played on our see-saw” wrote 10-year-old Grace in 1908 By Mike Mastromatteo In researching the modest semi-detached home at 711 Spadina Ave., just south of Bloor Street, the reporter came across a sentimental artefact, that in many ways, speaks to the heart of this series called  If These Walls Could Talk. In the early […]

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$3 a month to stable your horse…in 1907 By Mike Mastromatteo The house at 217 Lippincott St. isn’t the oldest home in the Annex, but it might be a contender for the most varied in terms of the wide range of tradespeople, professionals, clothing manufacturers, journalists—and the occasional rabbi—who have resided there over the years. […]

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115 years of rich history in these walls By Mike Mastromatteo There are doubtless hundreds of stories and anecdotes that arise from stately Brunswick Avenue in the central Annex, but this month we are concentrating on just one place: 411 Brunswick. This 115-year-old, much-renovated rooming house, has been home to dozens of owners and renters […]

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Old artifacts keep the past alive at Vermont Avenue home By Mike Mastromatteo The house at 74 Vermont Ave. in the west Annex looks somewhat newer than its immediate neighbours. Despite its fresh and tidy frontage however, the house is one of the oldest structures on the block. It was built in the late 1880s […]

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Bird bath designer, musician, gardener, and decorator all lived here By Mike Mastromatteo It’s a sad visage greeting the traveller passing by the abandoned, crumbling house on the east side of Bathurst Street, just north of Dupont Street. The house at 1177 Bathurst St. is a grand foursquare redbrick home with a rounded arch entryway […]

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Former inhabitants include a grocer, a milliner, and a deaconess By Mike Mastromatteo On Follis Avenue, running west from Bathurst Street to Christie Street, there is a row of mostly semi-detached, two-storey dwellings.  The house at 27 Follis is the focus of this month’s “walls” story. Among the many families and boarders who have called […]

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631 and 633 Davenport Rd. hosted a hardware store, cancer care club By Mike Mastromatteo Adjoining homes on the southeast corner of Davenport and Howland—an area once known as Bracondale—have a curious history coloured by the many lives and experiences that graced the homes over the last 140 years. (But the “walls” column parameters are […]

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Many prominent families lived at 14 Madison Ave. By Michael Mastromatteo Nearly 100 years after they were first constructed, three old mansions at 14-18 Madison Ave.  gained a new lease on life. In 1983, after surviving the “rooming house malaise” of the 1960s, the houses evolved into the Madison Pub, a popular fixture in the […]

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Politics and comedy add to home’s aura By Michael Mastromatteo   This is the second in a series of columns speculating on the lived history of various houses in the Annex.  Imagine that the “walls” of these homes secretly absorb some of the actions and experiences of those living within. If we accept that the […]

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The riot at Christie Pits on Aug. 16, 1933 The September 2025 edition of the Gleaner featured a photo of a counter-protester holding a placard that read “Christie Pits Nazi-Free since ‘33.” This person was protesting against the anti-immigration rally held near the park on September 13. Not every reader will understand the significance of […]

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St. George Street home has many stories to tell By Michael Mastromatteo   This is the first in a series of columns speculating on the lived history of various houses in the Annex. Imagine that the “walls” of these homes secretly absorb some of the actions and experience of those living within. If we accept […]

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The lane name commemorates a mare named Crestfallen, a “miracle in a stable” purchased in 1913 by Dr. John G. Fitzgerald, who played a pivotal role in solving a public health crisis and developing vaccines. 

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