# 38 ~ The Yonge Street Subway Line, Then and Now



 

On March 30, 1954, Canada's first subway line officially opened to the public. The original Toronto subway line ran for 7.4 kilometres (4.6 miles) from Union Station to Eglinton Station.

 

Proposals for a public transportation train route in Toronto came as early as 1911, but it wasn't until January 1, 1946, that Torontonians gave their approval for a new subway.  On that date, a public referendum was held during that year's municipal election, and the referendum results were overwhelmingly in favour of a new subway.

 

An allotment of $28.9 million was set aside for construction, with an additional $3.5 million for rolling stock. The single subway line would run from Union Station as for north as Eglinton Avenue, which was the northern hinterland of Toronto, sixty-five years ago. Construction began on September 8, 1949 (two years late due to post-war shortages) with a ceremony emceed by Monty Hall. Ontario’s Lieutenant-Governor Ray Lawson climbed inside a pile driver and pulled the first lever to pound the first beam into place. All the local radio stations carried the entire event live. The official party then moved to the Royal York Hotel while the real workers got started on their labour.

 

THEN : September 8, 1949, Ontario's Lieutenant-Governor Ray Lawson pulls the first lever to break ground in the construction of Toronto's Yonge Street subway.

 

 Subway tunnels were constructed using a technique called "cut and cover".  The subway tunnels were cut into the street from above, a stretch of subway was built, and then the whole thing was covered over again.  This technique was chosen because it was far less expensive than a tunnel bore, but it played havoc on downtown traffic.  A large trench was dug into Yonge Street, utilities were relocated, and steel cross beams were welded into place.  These steel beams were used to support heavy timbers that provided a deck so that traffic could return to the street while work proceeded underneath.  A total of 1.3 million cubic metres of material was removed and dumped into Ashbridges Bay, where it created new public space and allowed Toronto city planners to indulge in their favourite hobby ... landfill.  During construction, about 12,700 metric tons of steel and 1.4 million bags of concrete were used to build Toronto's first subway line.
 

 

THEN : "Cut and cover" construction along Front Street, near Union Station, in 1949.  If this looks familiar, it's because the Toronto Transit Commission is currently working on adding a new platform for Union Station, and very nearly the same section of Front Street has been torn up for a while now.
 

THEN : February 27, 1950, excavating for the Yonge Street subway line, near Shuter Street.

THEN : March 20, 1950, pouring concrete to lay tracks under Yonge Street.

 

On March 30, 1954, Ontario Premier Leslie Frost and Toronto Mayor Allan A. Lamport officially opened the Toronto's first subway line. Trains operated at an average speed of 32 kilometres per hour, which meant that they could travel from Union Station to Eglinton Station in under twenty minutes. The subway was an instant success. The original plan was to operate two-car trains during off peak hours, but this was abandoned in favour of four-car trains, with six-car trains being standard during most periods. During peak rush hour, eight-car trains were used.

 

THEN : March 30, 1954, saw Toronto's Mayor Lamport (centre) and Ontario Premier Leslie Frost (second from right) chatting with other dignitaries at Davisville subway station.  It was a proud day for commuters in Toronto, in an age when everyone who was anyone wore hats.

THEN : Vintage subway poster showing the original Toronto subway route, from Union station to Eglinton station.

 

There have of course been several extensions to the original line that ran up Yonge Street from Union Station to Eglinton. The first was an extension in 1963, with a line curving north from Union station, below University Avenue and Queen's Park circle up to Bloor Street, where the subway line turns west. This 1963 extension originally terminated at St. George Subway Station.

 

 

THEN : St. George subway station decked out for its grand opening, February 28, 1963.

 

THEN : On February 28, 1963, the first train through St. George subway station is pictured here.  It's on its way south, to Union Station, then round the loop north again, to the end of the line at Eglinton subway station.

 

 

In 1966, the Bloor-Danforth line opened between Keele Street station and Woodbine Avenue station. In 1968, this line was extended again to run from Islington Avenue station to Warden Avenue station. It wasn't until 1980 that two single stops were added. These would be the western most stop – Kipling – and the eastern most stop – Kennedy.

 

THEN : Toronto Mayor Phil Givens and Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson ride the rocket on the first run of the Bloor / Danforth subway.

 

 

Between 1973 and 1974, the Yonge Street subway line was extended north, from Eglinton Avenue to Finch Avenue. Then, in 1978, the subway was extended northwest from St George Station as far as Wilson Avenue. The final, most northwest station, Downsview Station was opened in 1996.

 

The six stations of the Scarborough Rapid Transit System opened in 1985, and the most recent subway line, along Sheppard Avenue, opened in 1992.

 

 

In total, the Toronto subway system now has 69 subway stations, and a constant promise of more to come. In 2010, the average daily ridership of the Toronto subway (excluding, of course, any surface routes) was 948,100, carried through the subway on 706 subway and RT cars.

NOW : One of the new subway trains pulls into Eglinton subway station, heading southbound.

 

 

 

One final fact is a curiosity of history. Exactly three years before the original Yonge Street subway opened on March 30, 1954, the last wooden streetcar in Toronto made its final run. The date was March 30, 1951, and streetcar # 1326, which had been built in 1910, was now obsolete, since the Toronto Transit Commission had obtained fifty new, modern streetcars. Packed with officials and local transit enthusiasts, the old wooden streetcar made its way through downtown Toronto, and was serenaded by a barbershop quartet.

 

 

NOW : Toronto Railway Company streetcar # 1326 at the Halton County Radial Railway Museum, near Rockwood, Ontario.

 



# 37 ~ George Brown and The Globe Newspaper, Then and Now

 

 

 

On March 25, 1880, George Brown was working away in his office at King and Victoria streets, when he was interrupted by a deranged and alcoholic former employee, George Bennett.  Bennett, a press operator, had actually been by fired by one of the newspaper's foremen, but decided to take his grievances out on George Brown, who owned the newspaper.  Bennett became violent, and produced a pistol.  The two men scuffled, and Brown managed to push down on the hand in which Bennett held his gun.  The gun went off, and George Brown was shot in the leg.  George Brown was taken to his home at the northwest corner of Baldwin and Beverley streets, and the bullet was removed from his leg.  For some time, it seemed as though Brown would recover, but infection set in, as it often did, and George Brown died in his home a few weeks later, on May 9, 1880.

 

NOW : George Brown's house still stands, at the corner of Beverley and Baldwin streets.

 

 

George Brown was certainly in the upper echelon of important Victorian Canadians. Like many prominent Canadians of his generation, he was born in Scotland, on November 29, 1818. He came to Canada in 1843 by way of New York. That same year, he established a newspaper called the Banner, but it was The Globe, which he began the following year, in 1844, that would establish Brown's career as a journalist. The Globe quickly established George Brown's reputation as a Reformer, and in 1848, he was appointed to lead an enquiry into improper behaviour at the Provincial Penitentiary in Kingston. As a result of Brown's report, the penitentiary's warden, Henry Smith, was eventually dismissed. It was at this time, through his report, that Brown also earned the ire of John A. Macdonald. Although Brown and Macdonald would become two of the leading Fathers of Canadian Confederation, the two men would never enjoy a friendship.

Macdonald became an early conservative folk hero, while Brown spurred on the creation of what would become today's Liberal Party of Canada. Brown was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in 1851, an would spend the next several years organizing and leading the “Clear Grit”, or Liberal, Party. Small government, the separation of religion and politics, and representation by population were all political platforms that were supported by George Brown.

 

THEN : This monument to George Brown was put up on the front lawn of Ontario's Legislative Assembly in the years following Brown's death.

 

We like to think of racial equality as a fine and altruistic Canadian virtue, but it is an issue that's been with us ever since the defeat of Montcalm at the Plains of Abraham wiped the French Crown from North America. These days, just skimming through the headlines of The Globe and Mail – the newspaper that grew out of The Globe – will demonstrate that the demons of the language issue are still alive and well in Canada. Back in the 1840s and 1850s, the English speaking population of what was then Canada West (now, Ontario) was growing, and the French speaking population of what is now Quebec was being left behind. However, both provinces had an equal number of representatives. Brown believed that the larger English speaking population should have more representation, because they were in the majority. Brown was often critical of the sway that the French Roman Catholic population held over English speaking Protestants in Canada West. In one particularly antagonistic quote, he lamented that English speakers had a “base vassalage to French-Canadian Priestcraft”. Try that one out today on Pauline Marois and see where it gets you.
 

In contrast to his views on Francophones and Roman Catholics, George Brown was known as a great leader in the abolitionist movement. His editorials in The Globe were heavily critical of American slavery. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law came into being in the United States, and it meant that slaves who had escaped to those parts of America where slavery was not in practice could be returned to their owners. George Brown reacted by helping to set up the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada. Meetings were held at the newly opened St. Lawrence Hall, and many famous abolitionists from America, Canada and the United Kingdom came to give addresses at the hall. George Brown's efforts to rid the North American continent of slavery earned him the votes of many black Canadians.

 

THEN : St. Lawrence Hall, 1859.  In 1850, abolitionists from across the globe met at St. Lawrence Hall, and Toronto would serve as a haven for escaped American slaves for decades.  The dividing lines for our intolerance in Toronto were more subtle - Roman Catholics, especially Irish Roman Catholics were often mistreated in Toronto.  In this photograph, one can see the sign for "St Patrick's Hall" on what is the east side of the building.  While the decent, Protestant population of Toronto could use the main rooms of St. Lawrence Hall, the Roman Catholics had to use a smaller room, St. Patrick's Hall, within the building.  Roman Catholics were even forbidden to enter in the main doors.

 

 

 

THE MURDER OF GEORGE BROWN

Dusk would set on George Brown's career as a journalist and politician on the afternoon of March 25^th, 1880. But what would spur on George Bennett's attempt to assassinate Brown? When Bennett had taken up employment at The Globe, five years earlier, he'd been a decent enough employee. In the interim, though, he'd descended into alcoholism and was accused of beating the woman he lived with (there is no clear indication as to whether or not they'd actually ever been married). George Bennett was eventually sacked from the engineering department of The Globe for being drunk on the job, and he spent the afternoon before shooting George Brown lurking around the newspaper's offices in a similarly inebriated state.

 

THEN : The Globe office was located at the northeast corner of King and Victoria streets.

 

During the course of that afternoon, Bennett had altercations with several newspaper employees. He sought out the paper's chief engineer, who had appeared as a witness in court when Bennett's domestic partner had filed charges of abandonment. Later, Bennett was in the press room, but was soon evicted. He spent the next while running throughout the building, carrying a pistol in his pocket and a number of letters that he had penned, telling of his own perceived martyrdom and threatening plots for vengeance. It was a classic case of today's disgruntled employee tragedies transposed 133 years back in time.

 

THEN : George Bennett.

 

Bennett appeared in George Brown's office at about 4 o'clock. Closing the door behind him, Bennett was now alone with Brown. It seems that George Brown had little or no idea who George Bennett actually was; Brown was irritable at having been disturbed, an it was only as Bennett became more and more unhinged that Brown realized something was wrong. It was then that Bennett pulled out his pistol, and shot Brown in the leg.

 

THEN : The shot that took weeks to end George Brown's life.  Who said Canadian political history is boring?

 

George Brown was whisked off for medical attention and George Bennett was arrested. The next morning, The Globe ran the following news story :

Yesterday afternoon one of the most seditious and dastardly attempts at murder ever made in this city took place in the private office of the Hon. George Brown in the Globe Building. Fortunately, owning mainly to Mr. Brown’s presence of mind and superior physical strength, the attempt was unsuccessful, the only results being a severe flesh wound to the thigh and the nervous prostration which is the inevitable result of such an encounter. Had the miscreant who made the murderous assault been a little more prompt in taking his aim, or had the pistol been of a different construction, the attempt could hardly have resulted so favourably, for he persisted in his efforts to effect his bloody purpose until he was overpowered and the weapon was wrenched from his grasp.

 

 

Immediately after the shooting, newspaper bulletins told off Brown's recovery. For Brown, it was “business as usual” and he had business associates gather round his bedside. But, as infection set in, the optimism for Brown's recovery dwindled, and he died at about 2 o'clock in the morning of May 9, 1880. George Bennett was now a murderer. Bennett stood trial on June 22^nd and it only took a jury two hours to deliver a verdict of “guilty”. Bennett was sentenced to hang.

 

 

George Bennett lamented the fact that he'd committed his crime while intoxicated, stating that he'd never meant to murder anyone. He nonetheless accepted his fate, and was executed just before 8 o'clock in the morning of July 23^rd.

A few days after he died, George Brown was laid to rest in the Necropolis Cemetery. In contrast, George Bennett's corpse was unceremoniously dumped in a mass grave outside the Toronto Jail (more commonly known as the “Don Jail”). A 2009 documentary, called “The Hangman's Graveyard”, tells of the archaeological dig that uncovered several remains outside the “Don Jail”. The remains of George Bennett were among those recovered.

THEN : George Brown.

NOW : The grave of George Brown in Toronto's Necropolis Cemetery.

THEN : The Toronto Jail, more commonly known as the "Don Jail".



THEN : A portion of the human remains discovered in an unmarked grave outside the Toronto Jail.  Their discovery became the subject of a documentary entitled "The Hangman's Graveyard".

 

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UPCOMING EVENT

Join me on the weekend of April 20th an April 21st as we commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of York, which took place on April 27th, 1813.  On Saturday, April 20th, we will walk the battlefield and discuss the events of the American invasion, and also visit the site where the fallen were buried.  On Sunday, April 21st, we will visit Toronto's old town district, and discuss what it was like for those living in town under an American invasion.  Imagine what it was like watching American soldiers running through town, gun or torch in hand, wondeing if your home would be next!

Call me at (416) 487 9017 or email me at richard@muddyyorktours.com for more information.  For information on this and other special events that we are planning for over the summer, you can also find us on facebook, under "Muddy York Walking Tour Group".

Muddy York Walking Tours on facebook

THEN : The Battle of York, 27 April 1813.

 

 

 

 

 

# 36 ~ Russell Hill, Then and Now

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History has been making the news since various heritage groups began reminding Canadians of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.  April 27th, 2013, is of particular interest to Torontonians, as it marks two centuries since Americans brought the war to the townspeople of York.  Throughout 2013 (and maybe, into 2014) my "Toronto Then and Now" blog will look at the various buildings of the Town of York scattered througout Toronto.  Most of them have disappeared, though a few still remain.  Some had obvious connections to the War of 1812, but some did not. 

 

For those of you who are interested in more contemporary history, don't worry, I'll post that, too.  But from time to time there will be posts to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.  After all, I don't post on a regular basis, and it's a long wait for the 300th anniversary!

 

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Russell Hill, the home of Augustus Warren Baldwin, was built in 1818, near the north end of Glen Edyth Drive.

 

Augustus Warren Baldwin was born on August 1, 1776, in Ireland. He was the sixth of sixteen children born to Robert Baldwin, Sr., and his wife Barbara. History has often left him eclipsed by his brother, William Warren Baldwin, and his nephew, the great Canadian reformer, Robert Baldwin.

 

Augustus Baldwin entered the Royal Navy in January of 1792, while he was still a teenager. He served at sea for about a quarter of a century. In 1807, the British feared that Napoleon might coerce the Danish fleet into closing the Baltic Sea, thus forcing out British ships.. The result was the Battle of Copenhagen, in 1807. Baldwin was there, participating in the bombardment unleashed upon Copenhagen. The Danish fleet fell into British hands. In 1808, Baldwin aided in the capture of a Russian ship, and was decorated and given his own command as a result. He commanded a brig in the English channel for some time, but eventually retired from the Navy, and joined his family in York in 1817.

 

 

THEN : The bombardment of Copenhagen in September of 1807.

 

He purchased two hundred acres of land from Elizabeth Russell, buying property that lay just east of his brother William Warren Baldwin's estate, Spadina. Augustus Baldwin named his estate Russell Hill, both after the farm of the same name that he'd been born at, in Ireland, and as a tribute to Elizabeth Russell. From here, he could look down over the escarpment towards the Town of York, which lay nearly five kilometres off in the distance. The two-storey house at Russell Hill was built in the Regency style, and had a verandah lining the exterior. Baldwin married Augusta Mary Jackson in October of 1827, and together, the couple began a family at Russell Hill. They had a son and two daughters but sadly all three children would die in their teenage years.

 

By 1822, August Baldwin was serving as a magistrate, and in 1823, he was working as a commissioner, investigating the claims of those who had suffered financial loss during the War of 1812. These claims were still being turned in nearly a decade after that war had ended. Baldwin had investments in York, loaning £1,000 to the merchant Laurent Quetton St. George, partnering with other Baldwin family members in ship construction, and putting a great deal of money in the Bank of Upper Canada. The bank would be a disappointing investment when it collapsed, financially, and ceased to exist. However, since the bank failed after Baldwin's death, it was more of a concern for his heirs than for him. Baldwin's most significant financial legacy was real estate.

 

NOW : Augustus Warren Baldwin invested in the Bank of Upper Canada.  The bank shut its doors shortly after Baldwin died, but the fact that he hadn't exactly made the best investment in the world largely only mattered to his heirs.  Buit in 1826, the Bank of Upper Canada building on the northwest corner of Adelaide and George streets is one of the few pre-1834 buildings that survive in 21st century Toronto.

 

Baldwin gained a seat on the Legislative Council in 1831. In the spring of 1836, when Baldwin's nephew Robert led a mass resignation of reformers from the Executive Council, Lieutenant-Governor Sir Francis Bond Head asked Augustus Baldwin to serve on that council, and he accepted. Augustus Baldwin was much more of a Tory than his brother or his nephew. However, Robert Baldwin's political contributions to Canada are still remembered today, while his uncle Augustus Baldwin is largely forgotten. Augustus remained on both the Executive Council and the Legislative Council of Upper Canada until 1841.

 

THEN : Robert Baldwin, painted by Thomas Waterman Wood.  Augustus Warren Baldwin would never be as famous as his nephew, Robert Baldwin, who is looked back upon as a great and early Canadian statesman.  Robert Baldwin was somewhat bizarre, in his private life - let's just say it would make for a somewhat macabre post!

 

Augustus Baldwin's final years were mostly spent in leisure, and he died at Russell Hill on January 5, 1866. His wife, Augusta, moved out of Russell Hill in 1870, and the house was demolished in 1872. A later estate, Glen Edyth, was built on the same site by the Nordheimer family, but it was demolished in 1929. Today, Admiral Road – after Baldwin's highest rank in the navy – and Russell Hill Road are commemorations of Admiral Augustus Warren Baldwin and his home at Russell Hill.

 

THEN : Russell Hill, the home of Augustus Warren Baldwin, stood from 1818 until 1872.



# 35 ~ The Masonic Temple, Then and Now

On November 17, 1917, the cornerstone of the new Masonic Temple, at the north west corner of Yonge Street and Davenport Road, was laid. Overseeing the ceremony was the Grand Master of the local lodge. The masons had a long tradition dating back to the earliest foundations of the old Town of York, with masonic meetings taking place in a warehouse at the foot of Church Street, as early as the 1790s.

THEN : The Masonic Temple in 1919, shortly after it opened.  Oh, how the streets have changed!

This new Masonic Temple was designed by the architect William Sparling, and constructed at a cost of $197,000. Construction of the six-storey building was swift, with enough of the new building apparently complete that the first lodge meeting could be held there on New Year's Day, 1918.

THEN : The local Grand Master helps put the finishing touches on the Masonic Temple's cornerstone.

The Masons held sway within their temple for decades, but over the past forty years and more, the building has developed more of a reputation for local entertainment. From the late 1960s, it served as a venue for live music. When Led Zeppelin made their first ever live appearance in Toronto, in early 1969, they played at the Masonic Temple building. The space was later rented as a rehearsal space by the Rolling Stones, who were known for their penchant for “warming up” for upcoming tours in Toronto.

In recent decades, the Masonic Temple has been known as a home for broadcasting. Taken over by CTV, the “Open Mike with Mike Bullard Show” was broadcast from the Masonic Lodge, and from 2006, the building has served as the broadcasting home for MTV Canada.

NOW : The Masonic Lodge in its incarnation as MTV Headquarters.  With MTV moving out, the fate of the building seems uncertain.

Just a few weeks ago, earlier this month, it was announced that MTV would move to Queen Street West, calling the fate of the Masonic Temple into question. It seems certain that the building will change hands, and the Masonic Lodge may even suffer that seemingly inevitable and ignominious fate – that is, conversion into a condominium tower – but it's not the first time the Masonic Temple has been at risk. When developers threatened in 1997, a designation under the Ontario Heritage Act saved the building. It seems less certain that the Masonic Lodge can be salvaged a second time.

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I found an in depth article on the history of the Masonic Temple and the Masonry rite in Toronto here.

A timely article appeared in today's National Post.  You can read it here.

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THEN : This wonderful piece of Toronto ephemera is a ticket to the Masonic Ball, held at Saint Lawrence Hall on the evening of January 19th, 1859.

# 34 ~ Toronto Remembers, Then and Now





Every November 11th, in schools, near civic memorials and Cenotaphs, and in many private observations across Toronto and throughout Canada, life comes to a stop in a moment of solemnity, to mark Remembrance Day.  Every year, the city holds a Remembrance Day ceremony at the Toronto Cenotaph, located on the front steps of Old City Hall - this year, I had the honour of laying one of the wreaths, as I have done from time to time before.  A service is held every year at Soldiers' Tower, at the University of Toronto - this year, it was conducted on Friday, as Remembrance Day fell on a Sunday, when many students might be off campus.  I've attended that one in the past, too, and you can see the related photographs on my post from November 12th, 2010 (# 11 ~ Remembrance Services at Soldiers' Tower, Then and Now).

In addition to these annual services, there have been a few landmark years in Toronto's history, where events associated with the commemoration of our veterans have coincided with November 11th.  It was on November 11th, in 1918, that the First World War ended, and of course this is why it's embedded and set aside as a day of observation.  Hopeful rumours of the end of the war had circulated for some time, though, and on November 7th, 1918, the Toronto Daily Star prepared to publish the headline "WAR HAS ENDED!".  The editor had the story wrong, and the war continued for another few days.  Although the newspaper's editorial staff discovered the mistake before going to print, it was too late to prevent a few jubilant staff members of the paper from starting premature celebrations.  A member of the paper's editorial staff ran out of the Star's offices, then located at King and Bay streets, and into the street, blowing a trumpet.  Another reporter from the newspaper convinced the great American band leader, John Philip Sousa - who was in town appearing at Massey Hall - to lead an impromptu parade to the newspaper's headquarters.  A few hours later, word got out that it was all a mistake, and the grim visage of conflict continued until November 11th.

But a few days later, on November 11th, the First World War was really and truly over.  Nearly 620,000 Canadians fought in the First World War, and almost 67,000 of them died.  Of this number, about 70,000 from in and around the Toronto area served, and about 10,000 of those were killed during the conflict.  Toronto had put forward a considerable sacrifice during the conflict, and the city was ecstatic that the war was finally over.  As more legitimate rumours of the end of the conflict started to run through the city, and as they become more and more undeniable, crowds began to pour out in to the streets to celebrate what was originally known as "Armistice Day" - November 11th, 1918 - the end of the Great War and the foundations for today's Remembrance Day.

These photographs, below, have preserved how the streets of Toronto looked on that November 11th of 1918, nearly a century ago now, when residents first got the news and began to pour out on to the city streets to celebrate.

THEN : Rumours of the end of the First World War break out among riders on the Queen Street streetcar.

THEN : Jubilant Crowds on Yonge Street.

THEN : An impromptu peace parade at Queen Street West and Terauley (now Bay) Street.

THEN : Peace celebrations take over Yonge Street.

THEN : King Street West.

THEN : A family reads the newspaper headlines together, and learns of the German capitulation and the end of the war.

THEN : Queen and Yonge streets.

THEN : A crowd gathers outside the Toronto Star building at King and Bay streets.  Not a week earlier, they had incorrectly reported that the war was over, but fortunately, this time, it was.

THEN : A streetcar on Spadina Crescent is packed with revellers.

That great outpouring, a mixture of relief and grief and gratitude, would continue for a number of years after the end of the First World War, and would be solidified and enshrined in the various monuments around Toronto.  November 11th, 1919, would see the opening of Hart House, at the University of Toronto. Themes demonstrating the influence of the First World War, so recent in memory when Hart House was opened, can be found throughout the building.

 On either side of the Great Hall at Hart House are heraldic representations of universities either within the former British Empire - now the Commonwealth of Nations - or, on the other side of the hall, those universities that existed within allied nations.  America, Russia, Japan, France and many other nations are represented amongst those who were our allies, and nations like Canada, England, Scotland and Australia are represented within those "closer to home".  The centrepiece of the collection of what is today a testimony to the bonds among the Commonwealth are the Royal Arms of King George V, grandfather of the present Queen, who served as our Head of State during the war.

NOW : The Royal Arms of His Late Majesty, King George V, Canada's sovereign through the Great War. These arms are found in the Great Hall of Hart House, which opened in 1919, one year after the end of the First World War.

NOW : Some of the Canadian universities represented in the Great Hall at Hart House.  Top row from left to right, the University of Toronto, McGill University, Queen's University.  Bottom row from left to right, Dalhousie, King's College, and Manitoba.

Within the chapel of Hart House there is a curious collection of stained glass, salvaged from the destroyed churches of Belgium and France and brought back to Canada.  They were newly placed within the windows of the chapel, as a commemoration of the bravery of local soldiers, and a reminder of the ravages of war.

NOW : The chapel at Hart House.

NOW : Chapel windows, Hart House.

NOW : This photograph, and the three that follow, show some of the salvaged stained glass in the chapel windows at Hart House, salvaged from destroyed windows in Belgium and France.

Immediately adjacent to Hart House stands the previously alluded to Soldiers' Tower, the cornerstone for which was laid in 1919, with the tower completed and opened in 1924.  Again, for a more detailed history of the tower, visit # 11 ~ Remembrance Services at Soldiers' Tower, Then and Now.

Today, there are plaques and monuments to veterans of any number of conflicts from the past two-hundred years, scattered around Toronto. In churches and cemeteries across the city, we find tombstones and plaques that commemorate individuals that fought and died.  In banks, stores, schools and other places of business, we find those who were brought together by their education or profession as well as by their loyalty and patriotism and devotion to duty.  There are statues throughout the city, but perhaps the one most central to the commemoration of Remembrance Day in Toronto is the Cenotaph that stands in front of Old City Hall.

The cornerstone for Toronto's Cenotaph was laid in the summer of 1924, by Field Marshal, the Earl Haig, and the Cenotaph itself was dedicated on November 11 of the following year, 1925.  Inspired after the style of the Cenotaph in London, England, and carved out of granite from the Canadian Shield, Toronto's Cenotaph holds the name of nine battles of the first world war in which those from Toronto played a part - Ypres, Somme, Mount Sorrel, Vimy, Paaschendaele, Amiens, Arras, Cambrai and Zeebrugge.  A generation later, when commemoration was needed for those who fought and fell in the Second World War, additions were made to the Cenotaph and it was again unveiled in December of 1947.  Toronto's Cenotaph was updated, again, to commemorate the Korean War.

I conclude now with an illustrated history of Toronto's Old City Hall Cenotaph down through the years.  For an inventory of Toronto's war memorials, as kept by the City of Toronto on the website, visit here.

THEN : A makeshift resting place for wreaths outside City Hall in 1922, before the current Cenotaph was built.



THEN : The Cenotaph in its inaugural year, 1925.





THEN : The Cenotaph in its inaugural year, 1925.



THEN : A service in the front of the Cenotaph, on the steps of City Hall, in 1929.

THEN : Dwight Eisenhower (left) and Toronto Mayor Robert Saunders (right) lay a wreath at the Cenotaph.

NOW : The Cenotaph today, after the 2012 Remembrance Day ceremony.

NOW : Dedication Plaque, Cenotaph, 2012.