Join us as we continue our visual tour of the history of the East End’s main drag from the Don to Victoria Park through Riverside, Leslieville, the Ashbridges neighbourhood, the Beach Triangle and the Beach. A nod of appreciation to the Riverdale Historical Society who has done amazing work to keep local history of Riverdale alive. To find out more about them and to join, go to: https://riverdalehistoricalsociety.com/

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that what we now call Toronto is on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands.

By Joanne Doucette. Joanne is a local historian, a past Chair of the Toronto Public Library, founding member of the Leslieville Historical Society, and co-founder of the DisAbled Women’s Network. She is retired and lives in the Coxwell-Gerrard neighbourhood. She is administrator for the Metis Minute Facebook Page and moderates the following Facebook groups: Midway, Toronto Beaches Historical Photos, and the Coxwell-Gerrard Facebook page.

This walk starts at Broadview Avenue and goes east along the north side to Grant Street in the Riverside neighbourhood.

View of Queen Street East, view east across Broadview Avenue – April 2, 1982

The north side of Queen Street East, looking northeast from Broadview and Queen, March 2, 2021. Photo by Joanne Doucette.

Queen Street East, north side, from Goad’s Atlas, 1924 Note that *Scadding Street*, the north-south street at the right of the plan, was renamed *Broadview Avenue.* North of Queen the same street was formerly called *Don Mills Road.* Both were part of the Indigenous trail that followed the high ground on the east side of the Don Valley.

Looking north on Broadview at Queen, June 26, 1918.

1924 Goad’s Atlas, Queen Street north side from Broadview Avenue to Grant Street

The slideshow below explains how to understand Goad’s Atlas. It is not a map really, but a plan prepared to show the risk of fire for specific buildings. Why? For the insurance industry to help determine rates. To see Goad’s Atlas from different years online go to:

http://goadstoronto.blogspot.com/

http://skritch.blogspot.com/2012/04/goads-atlas-of-toronto-online.html

For more maps of Toronto go to:

http://oldtorontomaps.blogspot.com/p/about-this-project.html

714 Queen street East, The United Cigar Store on the corner which will in the distant future become the late lamented Dangerous Dan’s Diner. Newspaper vendors, often men blinded in World War One, sold newspapers from curbside kiosks like this.

714 Queen Street East, looking north-east – 1972

My last burger at Dangerous Dan’s, February 14, 2017

714 Queen Street East, sign for a similar United Cigar Store – a Toronto store [1929 to 1930]

The store at 718 Queen Street Broadview was that of Joachim Frederick Galster’s (1858-1927) sons Frederick John William Galster and Charles Peterson Galster — all jewellers and watchmakers.

718 Queen Street East, Galster obituary, Toronto Star, October 3, 1927

714 Queen Street East, Broadview Ave. and Queen St. – track – June 12, 1918 detail showing a Drug Store and a dentist’s office above.

The first Tamblyn drugstore at the corner of Queen Street East and Lee Avenue, 1904. He had a Tamblyn’s Drug Store’s branch at 720 1/2 Queen Street East.

Gordon Tamblyn, Toronto Star, September 4, 1930

724 Queen Street East, a dentist’s office in 1920. Painless extraction, 1910, TPL: A postcard making fun of both dentists and patients

724 and a half Queen Street East, Edward Doyle, cigars 1913 tobacconist window, FlickR Public Domain

726-728 Queen St E was a confectionary store or candy shop owned by one Cbas. Boukldes, very probably a Macedonian immigrant. This is particular candy shop in the photo is the Wm. Pogue confectionary shop in Weston – January 20, 1931

726-228 Queen Street East, home of the Classic Athletic Club. Photo March 2, 2021 by Joanne Doucette

Queen and Broadview had been the hub of athletic activities for a long time before the Classic Athletic Club was formed. To the north was the Royal Canadian Curling Club, also home to the Royal Canadian Bicycle Club.

Royal Canadian Curling Club, 131 Broadview Avenue – September 30, 1929

To the south there had been the Toronto Baseball Grounds which was renamed Sunlight Park, as well as the Riverdale Roller Rink.

726-728 Queen Street East, Classic Athletic Club

Gambling raid, roulette table, Dec. 8, 1929

Charged with keeping gambling house Classic Athletic Club, Toronto Star, Dec. 31, 1924

Gambling on sabbath, Classic Athletic Club, Toronto Star, July 5, 1937

730 Queen Street East, photograph March 2, 2021 by Joanne Doucette

730 Queen Street East, a strange asymmetrical block, was built around 1900, with oversized keystones, three-story central block. The west wing has been truncated and is only two bay while the east wing has three bays. The central and east units have the original metal cornices.

730 Queen Street East, Nov. 1907-Nov. 1918, The University of Toronto Monthly

730 Queen St E. Though I could not locate a photo of this particular butcher shop. It was likely very similar to this one. Frank James at butcher shop, 1921 The location is a butcher’s on Bloor St. West near Brunswick, called either Flanagan’s or the Brunswick Meat Store. It may have been the second of two butcher shops with the same owner.

732 Queen Street East, Nelson W. Speers, grocer. A red brick three bay shop with its original cornice (dentils, consoles).
734 Queen Street East, George D. Mathewson, hardware, three bay Victorian shop with three dormers, red brick with white brick accents.
734 and a half Queen Street East, Sotir Lazaroff, shoe shiner, a small building built in a laneway that used to run north off Queen Street

734 1/2 Queen Street East is the restaurant with the bright orange awning. Photo by Joanne Doucette, March 2, 2021

A Toronto shoe shine store, 1950. Sotir Lazaroff, shoe shiner was located at 734 1/2 Queen Street East.

Shoe shiners were among the lowest income earners, depending, like waiters and kitchen staff, on tips. The Macedonian community had begun to arrive after 1903 when the Ottoman Turkish Empire violently put down an attempt by Macedonians to form their own country. They were amongst the poorest of the poor in Toronto, but not for long. Like other groups of refugees they worked hard, stuck together as a community, formed their own social agencies, bought their own businesses and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps — something shoeshine “boys” like the Larazoffs would have known well

Bootstrap on a pair of modern boots. Tarquin~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons

Macedonian men often did the dirtiest, most dangerous work. Carrying dynamite to blow up Riverdale Park, Broadview Avenue – [ca. 1907]

Macedonian immigrants pooled their resources so that they could save as much as possible from their very low wages to send to support their families in the homeland. Often that meant sharing crowded quarters, even sleeping in shifts. The men seem to be holding up photos of their families. This particular rooming house was on the north side of King Street East – February 26, 1912

2,000 Macedonians live in Toronto, Toronto Star, September 17, 1910

For more about Macedonian immigration to Toronto go to the Canadian Macedonian Historical Society’s excellent website: http://macedonianhistory.ca/news/immigration.html

Proud Canadians — Macedonian parade, General View at Cenotaph, City Hall September 1, 1929

734 and a half Queen Street East, Sotir Lazaroff, shoe shiner, photo of Stephen Lazaroff son of Sotir Lazaroff. Private Stephen Lazaroff joined the Lorne Scotts Regiment when he was only 17 and shipped overseas. He survived the disastrous Dieppe raid, but was killed in action on December 14, 1944 in Italy where he is buried.

736-742 Queen Street East, photograph March 2, 2021 by Joanne Doucette

736 to 742 is a three story late Victorian, red-brick with stained glass windows, terracotta lions and diapering and other fancy brickwork. It has four bases alternating, with the first and third bay having bay windows on the second and third stories and the second and fourth having large arched windows. The cornice at the top is missing but was probably metal. The ground floor has four shops: 736, 738, 740 and 742. It was built in 1890. The resemblance to the Broadview Hotel is unmistakable and the reason may simple. The owner and builder was Allan Hoover Dingman (1848-1936), brother to Archibald Wayne Dingman (1850-1936), who built Dingman’s Hall, now the Broadview Hotel. Like the Broadview Hotel, the Dingman Block is an example of Romanesque Revival architecture. George Wallace Gouinlock (1861-1932) may have been the architect for this commercial block since he re-designed the Broadview Hotel in 1907. Dingman’s Halls appears to have been a simple wooden building until Gouinlock redid it.

For more about Romanesque Revival architecture go to: http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/romanesque.htm

738 Queen Street East, Robert Bridges, gentleman’s furnishing goods. Brooks Brothers 1927 ad — Brooks Brothers supplied small retailers such as Robert Bridges’ store.

The term “gentlemen’s furnishing goods” implied high quality merchandise for men and boys. Gentlemen’s furnishing goods included hats and caps, shoes and gaiters, drawers, shirts, collars, handkerchiefs, neckties, suspenders, stockings, gloves, umbrellas, etc.

740 Queen Street East, The Singer Drawing Book for Young Artists, 1916, TPL

740 Queen Street East, Fire Grant Street Globe and Mail, May 15, 1941

View of Queen Street East, looking west at Broadview Avenue – August 25, 1983

Please check this website for the next part of this digital tour as we “walk” from the Don River to Victoria Park in a series that links together to form a chain.

My history of Leslieville is available for reading free of charge at:

https://archive.org/details/PigsFlowersAndBricksFeb32017

To contact us go email: leslievillehistory@gmail.com

To visit our Facebook page go to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/821994634490152

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QUEEN STREET EAST: 714-742 QUEEN STREET EAST BROADVIEW AVE TO GRANT STREET, RIVERSIDE

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