In the last post “Goodbye Doug Taylor” I promised to find a permanent home for Doug’s 900+ posts and what a home I have found! There were actually a number of volunteers who were willing to come to my rescue and I want to thank them all. But I believe Doug would be happy with the final choice. blogTO has agreed to house his site going forward … not only accommodate his material but to re-post, over time, parts of it on its own site with attribution to TaylorOnHistory.com. Doug, who relished teaching anyone who would listen about the history of Toronto, would be tickled pink that the output of ..read more

Followers of Historic Toronto If you have noticed a decrease in output on this site, there is a reason and that reason is very sad.  Doug Taylor passed away on Monday July 27th in his 82nd year after a courageous battle with cancer.  His obituary in the yesterday’s Toronto Star can be found here: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thestar/obituary.aspx?n=john-douglas-taylor&pid=196609571 As his friend and executor, I promised to find a permanent home for his ~1000 posts, where all his research and anecdotes could be retrieved and recycled by future researchers.  I a ..read more

                      Paradise Theatre c. 1946. Ontario Archives Borrowing titles from the 17th-century poet John Milton, “Paradise Lost,” is a more frequent occurrence than “Paradise Regained.” However, in Toronto this week (December 1-7, 2019) Paradise was indeed regained when the Paradise Theatre on Bloor Street West reopened after 13 years of sitting empty and neglected. The photo on the left depicts the theatre’s auditorium in the 1940s. Thanks to the effort of  Moray Tawse, this grand old theatre from the era of the Golden Age of movies houses, has been carefully restored. Mr. Taw ..read more

Roy Thomson Hall in July 2018, looking east on King Street West toward Simcoe Street.                                  Roy Thomson Hall in Winter,” view looking south on Simcoe Street toward King Street West in 2008. Painting is acrylic on Masonite, 16”x20” My earliest memories of the site where the Roy Thomson Hall is located dates from the 1960s. During that decade King Street West, near  the intersection of Simcoe Street, was beginning its transformation from a sadly neglected district into the trendy avenue that it is today. The amazing change began in 1962, when Ed Mirvish purchased the ..read more

The Adelaide Street Court House where justice was served from 1852 until 1900. Photo taken March 2019. Toronto’s third court house no longer serves justice. Instead, it serves food, as it is now the site of a Terroni Restaurant. Visitors today no longer examine postings of pending court cases, but instead peruse menus that offer southern Italian cuisine and thin-crust pizza. Located at 57 Adelaide Street East, the building is a short distance west of Church Street, not far from Toronto’s famous St. Lawrence Market. When the court house was built, it was in the commercial and residential heart ..read more