The above photo is a photo of horse shit. But it’s not just any old horse shit. This horse shit is sitting on Woodbury Common, a beautiful patch of heathland in the English countryside. That land has a long history of being covered in manure. And that stinky past is connected to the founder of our city — John Graves Simcoe — and to the man who once challenged him to a duel over that dung.| torontohistory.substack.com
It was just a year after the end of the war that Ivan Reitman was born on the same side of town where Miriam Rosenthal grew up. His parents, too, were part of the city’s Jewish community and suffered terribly during the war. His father was a resistance fighter. His mother survived Auschwitz.Things didn’t get much easier once the war ended. Just a few years later, while Reitman was still a toddler, Czechoslovakia’s parliamentary democracy was overthrown by a Communist coup, ushering in d...| The Toronto Time Traveller
A train pulled into Union Station. It had been travelling overnight from New York City, bringing the British prime minister to Toronto as part of his North American tour. His stop in the Big Apple had been big news. Reporters flocked to cover the event, including a young journalist from the Toronto Star by the name of Ernest Hemingway. Soon, he’d be one of the most celebrated authors in the world, but at the time he was making do with a modest salary from the newspaper. He was coming back t...| torontohistory.substack.com
At first, Gifford Hobday didn't even realize what was happening. It was a little after noon on what seemed to be an ordinary summer Friday in 1940. Hobday was at work as a bank teller at a CIBC in Riverdale — a handsome old building on Broadview south of Gerrard (now home to an architecture firm). He was helping a customer, checking a deposit at his desk inside the cage, so wrapped up in his task that he didn't notice when someone shoved his patron out of the way. And when he half-heard a v...| The Toronto Time Traveller
A huge crowd was gathered at the corner of Queen & Bay, thousands of people braving the autumn chill on an October night in 1918. Their attention was trained on a slender figure standing on the steps of Old City Hall. He was lit up by three spotlights, a small man in a white undershirt, his hair slicked back, his body wrapped in leather restraints. He was an escape artist known as the Mysterious Mr. Raffles — and he was about to be hoisted two hundred feet into the air above downtown Toront...| torontohistory.substack.com
The Festival of Bizarre Toronto History starts on Monday! We’ll spend seven days diving into some of the strangest stories our city has to offer — a week filled with walking tours, Zoom panels and lectures. You’ll find the full schedule below!| The Toronto Time Traveller
It was a little after sunrise when they set out, paddling away from shore on a summer morning in 1919. It was the beginning of an extraordinary journey. Preston Bryant and J. Clarke were attempting to do something no one had done in all the years since the city of Toronto had been founded. It was a death-defying feat not even their own friends thought they could pull off. The two Torontonians were going to cross Lake Ontario by canoe.| torontohistory.substack.com
The doorbell rang. It was a little after ten o'clock on a summer night in 1879, a bit late for visitors. But Robert Jaffray was still up. He'd come home that evening from working at the grocery store he owned on Yonge Street — said to be the finest in the city — and then popped back out to pick up a telegram. He returned just in time to answer the door himself. On the other side of it, he found a man he didn't know standing on his front step.| torontohistory.substack.com
This is Taddle Creek Pond. You’ll find it at the heart of Wychwood Park, a leafy enclave near Bathurst & Davenport. It was created by damming Taddle Creek back when the neighbourhood was first founded as an artists’ colony back in the late 1800s. Today, there are goldfish swimming through these waters. And some say they’re a reminder of a heartbreaking tale — that they’re descended from fish released here by the founder’s grandson more than a century ago, before the boy headed of...| torontohistory.substack.com
The Festival Of Bizarre Toronto History is coming back for 2025! Just like we’ve done for the last two springs, we’ll spend a week digging into the weirdest tales our city has to offer — seven days filled with online lectures, panels, interviews, and walking tours.| torontohistory.substack.com
This time, they came at dawn. Just a few months after the Battle of York, as a black September night gave way to the light of day, the American fleet was spotted again, far out in the water south of Toronto. In April, they had come to capture one ship. Now, they wanted the entire British fleet.York was in the middle of an arms race. The Great Lakes were one of the most vital battlegrounds in the War of 1812. Controlling the water meant you could move your troops and supplies wherever you want...| The Toronto Time Traveller
A tense hush fell over the House of Commons. It was a winter afternoon in 1911 and parliament was in session in Ottawa. Debate was underway on a controversial plan to revolutionize Canada's relationship with the United States. The Liberal government had negotiated a new trade deal, promising to reduce and remove tariffs as part of a big step toward free trade with the Americans. Reciprocity. It was a momentous change, a move away from Canada's long-standing preference for trade with Britain i...| torontohistory.substack.com
It was the last winter of the Second World War. The first week of February 1945. Far away in Europe, the Nazi war machine was crumbling; the Soviets were closing in on Berlin; the Americans would soon be crossing the Rhine. The war would be over in just a few months. The Big Three — Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin — were already at Yalta, meeting to decide what the world would look like when the fighting was finally done.| torontohistory.substack.com
It was 1832. William Lyon Mackenzie was fed up. He'd spent the last decade fighting for democratic reform in Upper Canada. He'd founded a pro-democracy newspaper. Written passionate editorials. Led protests. Organized committees. He'd even run for office and been elected to the provincial assembly, where he gained a reputation as one of the most radical champions of the Reform cause. This was before he became the first Mayor of Toronto — and long before before his failed revolution — but ...| The Toronto Time Traveller
Plus: Old City Hall as the Museum of Toronto, Henry Moore, the Hearn, and more...| torontohistory.substack.com
Welcome to The Toronto Time Traveller! This week marks three years since I first launched The Toronto History Weekly and I thought I’d mark that anniversary by giving the newsletter a fresh name. When I first launched it at the beginning of 2022, I wanted a name that quickly and efficiently described what it was: a weekly round-up of local history news and events. In time, as the newsletter has grown and found its footing — while also giving me a place to share bigger and more ambitious s...| The Toronto Time Traveller
Donald Munro wasn't sure what to do. Christmas was fast approaching, but this was 1932 — the height of the Great Depression. He, like so many Torontonians, was out of work. He didn't have enough money to buy presents for his children. This year, he knew he was going to have to make them something himself. But what?| torontohistory.substack.com
As we head into the new year, I thought I’d share some my favourite newsletter stories from the last twelve months, including hockey heroes, cursed operas, monsters, ghosts and more…| The Toronto History Weekly
My father was born on his parents’ kitchen table on a cold winter’s day in 1938. It was the end of the Great Depression and the Second World War loomed; the front page of The Globe that day was filled with warnings: rising tensions with the Nazis, Mussolini and Japan. He would grow up in the wake of those two catastrophes in a family that didn’t have much. As a boy, he would often get into trouble with his older brothers and he initially dropped out of high school. But in the end, he wo...| The Toronto History Weekly
That August afternoon had been warm and muggy and as the sun set in the evening, the road was still wet from a big storm that had passed through. As darkness settled on the city, the gas lamps of the streetlights began to cast their faint glow. And it was then, at night, that the real chaos began — a sudden disruption to the usual rhythms of the street. It came with the thunder of hooves and the crack of a whip. Horses were barreling down the road, flying at top speed, carts bouncing along ...| The Toronto History Weekly
Plus Toronto's baseball history, a truly strange riot and more, in this edition of Toronto's history newsletter.| torontohistory.substack.com