Crossing Bathurst Street with A Different Booklist   By Annemarie Brissenden The Postman, a 2015 play about Albert Jackson, Canada’s first Black postman, opens with an invocation. “Toronto the Good. Toronto, the White. Toronto the Christian, Irish, Scottish, English. This is happening right here in this neighbourhood: Harbord, Major, Palmerston, Brunswick, Euclid, Borden,” says Jackson. […]

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Walter Allward designed Vimy Ridge, local war memorials By Alfred Holden In honour of Remembrance Day, this month we reprint former Citybuildings columnist Alfred Holden’s November 2003 piece on the sculptor who designed many of the nation’s most affecting and prominent war memorials. Though he was an artist, Walter Allward believed no picture, story, or […]

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College Street organization hosts Mandel’s Dreamery installation By Clarrie Feinstein When you walk along College Street, you are struck by it immediately. Both out of place, yet oddly at home, it brings the contrast of now and then into sharp relief. And it reminds you of a time when Yiddish was the language of Kensington and the market […]

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Local residents recognized at Heritage Toronto Awards Former Chief of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation and community historian Carolyn King received Heritage Toronto’s Special Achievement Award in recognition of her decades-long efforts to preserve the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation’s community and to celebrate First Nation heritage at this year’s award […]

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TDSB reverses Essex Junior and Senior Public School decision after community uproar This July 2005 article chronicling the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) decision to reverse its plan to lease an empty building at Essex Junior and Senior Public School reflects the challenges faced by municipal school boards that attempt to fund repair and maintenance […]

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Supporters aim to protect neighbourhood’s unique character By Geremy Bordonaro Even in a city known for its distinctive neighbourhoods, it remains unique. In this bustling centre, small shops, from grocery and thrift stores to restaurants, line the streets alongside hip boutiques that cater to the savviest of customers. Nary a car drives down the street, […]

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PHOTO COURTESY HVRA: Wendy Smith accepts the 2015 Peggy Kurtin Memorial Award on behalf of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association (HVRA). Presented annually by the Toronto Historical Association, the award recognized the HVRA’s oral history project, as well as its website.   READ MORE: Harbord’s history a mystery (January 2016) By Annemarie Brissenden Alive with […]

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Book launches, dance festivals, and fashion mark month By Dilara Kurtaran It’s been a little over two decades since Canada officially recognized February as Black History Month, and this year, the wide range of events aimed at honouring the legacy of Black Canadians includes book launches, lectures, and fashion installations. Local independent A Different Booklist […]

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