About a month ago they unearthed what might be the oldest ship in Toronto, possibly dating back to the 1830s. Now I don’t know about you, but despite my, shall we say, strong aversion to the ocean deep, the concept of steamship (and pre-steamship) seafaring life has an undeniable romantic appeal to me. It must come from some […]
Read more "Flowers in the harbour"Our head honcho Stephen J. Harper was in The Netherlands a couple weeks ago to honour the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of the Netherlands during World War II. The Netherlands gave Canada tens of thousands of tulip bulbs out of gratitude, and the Dutch royal family has contributed thousands more yearly ever since. While war, […]
Read more "Little Norway"A while back I wrote a post about the (other other) Toronto Maple Leafs, a semi-pro baseball team that called Toronto home from 1886 to 1967. One of the most interesting things about them was the stadium they played in for the last fortyish years of their existence. Another interesting thing about them is a little […]
Read more "Yorkie: Ruth the day"If you’ve read this post here at the Hogtown Crier, you know that once the land for the city of Toronto was “purchased,” it was surveyed by one John Graves Simcoe in 1793. Soon after, he went about dividing the area north of the city limits into park lots, which were narrow, 100 acre lots […]
Read more "Home on the Grange"For you regular followers, sorry there was a missed week here at the HC – you know how things go. Part of what delays me when I do delay is finding something that is really interesting to talk about. So if you’re curious about anything to do with the history of Toronto, drop me a […]
Read more "Yorkie: The river floweth"Did you know that at the time I’m writing this, there is a bank bandit at large in Toronto? He’s the “Well Dressed Bandit,” a man who robbed a handful of banks last year, and there’s currently a 10,000 reward for any info on the guy. In a previous news article I can’t find, someone […]
Read more "Of bandits and bias"I remember driving along the QEW as a child and seeing this awesome driving range close to the Skydome and hoping I could hit it up one day (pun intended). Hmm. Let me rephrase. I remember being driven along the QEW as a child and seeing this awesome driving range close to the Skydome and […]
Read more "The sky’s original bankster"People have been living around the Great Lakes for some 12,000 years. Reimagining ancient history in the Americas is a recently burgeoning area of study, but understanding ancient North American societies still involves some guesswork. There’s also so so much to talk about and there are so many factors overlapping each other that zeroing in […]
Read more "The Toronto Purchase"Part of the beauty and the identity crisis of Toronto is that it’s Canada’s largest metropolis, but it’s not really a global city. Sure, it’s all kinds of multicultural and the population clocks in at 2.6 million, good for 4th or 5th on the North American charts (us and Chicago keep swapping places), but it really isn’t […]
Read more "A subway fit for a Queen"If you take the ferry over to Ward’s island and follow the path along the south side of the quaint island community, you’ll soon come through some thick trees and come up against the east side of Ward’s itself. There’s not much there; a thin, crumbling concrete strip jutting out from the shore, and the […]
Read more "Yorkie: Peninsulater!"
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