Den­nis Hana­gan – The Bulletin

The Town of York His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety wants to hit the road later this year and give his­tory lessons to peo­ple who live in down­town Toronto con­dos.

“We want to put together, I guess for lack of a bet­ter word, a road show,” says soci­ety pres­i­dent and Gar­den Dis­trict res­i­dent Jen­nifer McIlroy.

The soci­ety plans to spend the sum­mer cre­at­ing a Pow­er­Point pre­sen­ta­tion about the his­tory of Down­town Toronto and then in the fall take it to con­dos where soci­ety mem­bers would tell res­i­dents about the lives and times of the peo­ple who once lived on the land where their soar­ing tow­ers now stand.

The soci­ety did a dry run with a small-scale project about a year ago at 25 The Esplanade. “We put together a pre­sen­ta­tion and we said ‘look, right here where this build­ing is, this is what hap­pened,’” says McIlroy.

The his­tory would focus on the area bounded by Ade­laide, Par­lia­ment, Front and Yonge, known as the “10-block area.” Per­mis­sion would be sought from condo boards to make the presentation.

With con­dos spring­ing up all around the Down­town core and with new peo­ple mov­ing in, the soci­ety wants to make sure the city’s his­tory is not lost.

“There’s a pro­lif­er­a­tion of condo devel­op­ment going on right now. We’re in dan­ger of los­ing some of the old lore of the area. Peo­ple can move into these great con­dos with­out know­ing the three-dimensional breath­ing they’re doing,” says McIlroy.

McIl­roy explains what she means by three-dimensional breath­ing. “When you walk down the street and you move into your condo you have to know the (1837) Rebel­lion took place here, and Toronto’s first post office is right here.”

She con­tin­ues: “So when I say three-dimensional I mean it’s not just what’s in your face and what you’re feel­ing today. You’re also breath­ing in the his­tory and the souls of the peo­ple that came before.”

“There’s so much tran­sience right now, so to estab­lish what went on here is also to estab­lish a lit­tle bit of home and iden­tity,” McIl­roy concludes.

The soci­ety makes its home at Toronto’s First Post Office at 260 Ade­laide St. E. It was built in 1833 and remains a fully-operational post office with a museum of early York and an 1830s-style room to write let­ters with quills and ink and close them with a wax seal for mailing.

—————————————————————————————————–
Con­tact the Jef­frey Team for more infor­ma­tion – 416−388−1960

Lau­rin & Natalie Jef­frey are Toronto Real­tors with Cen­tury 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these arti­cles, they just repro­duce them here for peo­ple
who are inter­ested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
—————————————————————————————————–

www duriestreet com/torontohistory

Related posts:

1. Dan­forth res­i­dents have mixed feel­ings about condo project with deadly his­tory Across the street from the empty lot, now boarded up…
2. City of mass con­struc­tion: Toronto’s unstop­pable con­dos show no signs of slow­ing down Mr. Lamb’s enthu­si­asm is echoed by those who analyze…
3. Toronto needs to pre­serve its his­tory For far too long Toronto has been quick to pave…
4. New con­dos in Beaches try to respect insti­tu­tions Devel­op­ers have been suc­cess­ful with Beach House Lofts, Acad­emy Lane…
5. Toronto condo starts show no sign of cool­ing Fig­ures released Wednes­day showed the num­ber of con­dos start­ing construction…