Category Archives: Streets

Decoding City Directories to find out more about your home, your street, your city

Ever wondered who lived where your home is long, long ago? Well, I can give you some idea because I have directories from the early twentieth century and the nineteenth century. But there are no street addresses in the earlier directories. Look at this example from 1866 for Leslieville. I think you’d agree that thereContinue reading “Decoding City Directories to find out more about your home, your street, your city”

Riverdale Gardens & the Edwardian Dream Home

We think of the Edwardian period as the time when King Edward VII, Victoria’s son reigned. That is the period from 1901 to 1910. For Riverdale Gardens, this is the period when Albert Wagstaff and others opened brick yards along Greenwood near the railway tracks. William Prust, Riverdale Garden’s founder, retired from his positions inContinue reading “Riverdale Gardens & the Edwardian Dream Home”

345 Carlaw Avenue: Then and Now

345 Carlaw Avenue sits on a site by a lost creek, probably fished by the Mississauga and other First Nations for millennia. In the nineteenth century it was farmland and then market gardens, and then brick yard. Then in the early 20th Century Carlaw Avenue became the industrial heartland of Toronto’s East End and theContinue reading “345 Carlaw Avenue: Then and Now”

Rolph-Clark-Stone Ltd., 201 Carlaw

  May my invention become known throughout the entire world by benefiting mankind in manifold ways through exquisite (printed) goods. May this only ever serve purposes of refinement, but never be abused for purposes of evil. May the Almighty Father grant this! May the hour be blessed in which I invented lithography!  Johann Alois Senefelder,Continue reading “Rolph-Clark-Stone Ltd., 201 Carlaw”

Weaving Our History: The Isaac Price House and the Underground Railroad

An interesting house from the outside, the Isaac Price House at 216 Greenwood is even more interesting in ways we cannot imagine as threads of history run through it, weaving into a larger tapestry that includes the Underground Railroad. Isaac Price and Annie Margaret Price (nee Simpson) Toronto Star, Jan. 4, 1930 Isaac Price (Ike toContinue reading “Weaving Our History: The Isaac Price House and the Underground Railroad”