Tag Archives: Leslieville

January 29 in Leslieville

MISS WESTON IS CHAMPION Won All Three Ladies’ Events at Motordrome Rink Races. A wonderfully fast and graceful lady skater has been developed at the Motordrome Rink. She is Miss Ruby Weston. last night Miss Weston won the quarter-mile from 12 skaters, the half from 15, and the mile from 19. In the mile sheContinue reading “January 29 in Leslieville”

Today in Leslieville

Laing Street was not an obvious site to capture fame or attention. The street was named after William Laing. Leslieville’s “water” rats lived on Laing and nearby Lake Street (now Knox Avenue). These fishermen, icemen and others depended on Ashbridge’s Bay for a tenuous living. Their way of life came to an end when the THC filled in the bay and marsh. Some, like the Southams, were displaced from Fisherman’s Island by the Harbour Commission’s improvements. Though the Southam family claimed to be the descendants of the Boultons of the Family Compact, they were not affluent. Leslieville was a bastion of the Orange Orde. There was a living candidate available as a monument to Leslieville’s only famous man — and only famous Orangeman. The myth of Maple Cottage and its tree began to appear in the press. In 1937, in a public ceremony a plaque was placed on the tree at twilight. Mrs. Robbins, wife of Mayor William D. Robbins, a strong Orangeman, unveiled the plaque. Mayor Robbins led the July 12th Orangeman’s Parade that year. Mrs. Robbins had been a pupil of Alexander Muir at Gladstone Avenue School.

January 24 in Leslieville

Sometime before 1866 Leslieville grocer, James Morin (c. 1835-1882), went into the brick business. In 1869 he bought a brick machine and began advertising that his Leslieville bricks were machine-made pressed bricks: BRICK! BRICKS!  THE LESLIEVILLE BRICK COMPANY ARE MAKING EXTENSIVE PREPARATIONS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MACHINE MADE PRESSED BRICKS, And are now open toContinue reading “January 24 in Leslieville”

January 23 in Leslieville

January 21 in Leslieville featuring Riverdale Collegiate Institute

In 1909 the City of Toronto annexed Midway, the area south of the Danforth between Greenwood Ave. & the Beach. In the boom that followed developers rapidly subdivided Midway. It became a working class suburb, a Little Britain.  The City built schools: the Roden School (1907), Duke of Connaught School (1909), Bruce Junior School (1923),Continue reading “January 21 in Leslieville featuring Riverdale Collegiate Institute”

January 19 in Leslieville

By Joanne Doucette For more about the history of St. Joseph’s Parish and Leslieville read my book, Leslieville, Pigs, Flowers and Bricks, available at the Toronto Public Library and free on line to read and/or download at: https://archive.org/details/PigsFlowersAndBricksFeb32017

Mired in Mud, Toronto Boy Cheats Death in Quicksand, Ashbridge’s Bay

Looking for the Ghost of Leslie Creek

a creek … also started near the sandpit and ran through the gardens of Cooper’s, Bests and Hunters, crossed the road by the Leslie Postoffice. Here it joined a small creek that drained the nursery, and both crossed Leslie street under a bridge that has since been filled up by intersecting sewers.  The Globe, JanuaryContinue reading “Looking for the Ghost of Leslie Creek”