Adam Bunch

A C.W. Jeffrey's depiction of the construction of Fort York. John Graves Simcoe stands in his red officer's uniform pointing something out to a couple of other men. Some are building wooden military installations to one side. In the distance, you can see the bay with a British warship anchored and a canoe on the wate.r

2. July 1793. The first British soldiers sail into a bay on the northern shore of Lake Ontario & begin chopping down trees, making way for a town that will become a city of millions.

A photo of Toronto's skyline as viewed across the bay from the islands. A boat sits on the beach in the foreground.

1. Today we celebrate Toronto’s 182th birthday. Which is pretty weird. Because Toronto isn’t 192 years old. And it wasn’t founded in March.

Here goes my annual rant…

Loved getting to work on this exhibit about the future of Toronto parks with Park People. It’s up for two months at the Urbanspace Gallery & the feedback will help inform their parks platform for the upcoming municipal election.

Next week! Free Toronto baseball history!

"The Strange Story of Our City's First Championship" kicks off my free online lunchtime lecture series with the Toronto Public Library.

"Toronto Baseball Tales" is four monthly talks, Fridays at noon over Zoom.

Learn more: tinyurl.com/TObaseballta...

Sorry you'll have to miss it! I'm sure I'll do it again someday, and will have lots of other ones this Spring.

A Twisted Toronto History Tour (for Friday the 13th). Join author Adam Bunch on a tour filled with curses, omens, phantoms and other strange tales. Friday, March 13 at 7pm. Meet outside Old City Hall. (We'll end at Union Station.) Pay what you like.

A weird walking tour for Friday The Thirteenth! Filled with strange and twisted true tales from the history of Toronto.

Pay what you like — just meet outside Old City Hall at 7pm on March 13!

"What I do as a person, as an architect, it's not so that it looks good on paper or in a magazine. It's not a statement of one's ego. It has to express democracy, equality, inclusion of all people, and social justice. If not, then architecture is a hollow sham."

- Raymond Moriyama

Iconic. Polarizing. Unforgettable.

Robarts Library has been called many things over the past 50 years. The Unquiet Library podcast explores the voices, tensions, and histories that shaped it.

The first episodes are now streaming. 🎧

open.spotify.com/show/0AjhamY...

Glad people are talking about this.

In preservation battles, someone always compares the current, aging building *with no repairs* against a flashy promise.

Ordinary people can't read drawings, or compare the qualities of different buildings. They don't get that the new thing is almost always worse.

The institutional buildings of 1960s Canada were extraordinarily well-built. Throwing them away would be madness.

The 1969 Science Centre is an incredible piece of architecture. It needs some work.

The new building complex is a kludge that will be inferior by any measure.

Darcy Ballantyne: I spent last summer trying to find myself in the classified ads The piece ran in the Star every week from the 1960s to 1980s.

Darcy Ballantyne discovered her father was Austin Clark. Here her powerful adoption story. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Did the author Ernest Hemingway attend a baseball game while he lived in Toronto? The Hemingway Society has just posted a blog with my thoughts on that (go @torontobluejays.bsky.social!): www.hemingwaysociety.org/hemingway-an...

Good chance to let the city know what we think about street bins, transit shelters, & benches.

For Mark Carney, the leader of a democratic country, to back a war his counterpart Trump started without the approval of the United States government, should raise serious questions for Canadians about the value our own Prime Minister places on our democratic process.

Explicit support for an illegal war started by a country that is directly threatening us. This is beyond appeasement, it's total complicity.

How a convention in Chatham helped spark the American Civil War | TVO Today John Brown held a meeting to discuss liberating slaves via a guerrilla war — just before his infamous raid on Harpers Ferry.

NEW! For TVO @therundowntvo.bsky.social I look at a convention convened by American abolitionist John Brown in Chatham in 1858 that served as a prelude to his raid on Harpers Ferry the following year - one of the events on the road to the Civil War #BHM #cdnhistory

www.tvo.org/article/how-...

Stylized “Simpson’s” logo from the 1980s

Outlines of Simpson’s letters that were affixed to the building at street level

The old Simpson’s labelscars reveal themselves now that the Hudson’s Bay store plaques have a been taken down at the historic Queen Street flagship.

Doug Ford wants TTC officers to crack down on drug users. Why some say that’s a bad idea The provincial government is exploring a move that would grant greater authority to the city’s specialized transit peace officers

Do you know why this is dangerous? Because this law states that you can be jailed for six months, fined $10K, or both if you are merely *suspected* of having or using drugs. People will absolutely be profiled — and not just homeless people. www.thestar.com/news/gta/dou...

Magical Imperfection: The Life and Architecture of Raymond Moriyama | TVO Docs YouTube video by TVO Docs

Has Doug ever once acknowledged Raymond Moriyama, the world renowned 🇨🇦 architect of the original Science Centre? TVO made an excellent doc on him. Highly recommend watching, though it makes all this even more heartbreaking. He sadly passed away in 2023 (at 94!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoIh...

Important to call lies out when there are lies. These are lies from a liar.

It is #BlackHistoryMonth. Peggy (fl. 1766–1827) was one of the hundreds of Black people enslaved in Upper Canada. She and her children were held in bondage on Peter Russell’s estate & farm. Surviving documents attest to her resistance to subjugation.
www.biographi.ca/en/bio/peggy... #BHM

60 years ago, the Bloor-Danforth Line opened. Here’s a look back at the confusion and chaos The opening of the TTC's Bloor-Danforth line was consumed by familiar debates over car culture, streetcars vs. subways, and whether the suburbs should fund transit

NEW! Today marks the 60th anniversary of the ceremonial opening of the Bloor-Danforth subway (now Line 2). For Toronto Today @torontotoday.ca I look at its origins and how its first few days went.

Guest-starring a Shelbyville idea... #TOHistory

www.torontotoday.ca/local/histor...

Two women in winter coats and hats walking along the sidewalk among a crowd of people who are taking part in a strike. Fonds 1266, Item 23261.

A large crowd of men and women in winter coats and hats, gathered on a sidewalk outside the Fashion Building as they take part in a strike. Fonds 1266, Item 23262.

A large crowd of men and women in winter coats and hats, gathered on a sidewalk outside the Labor Lyceum building as they take part in a strike. Fonds 1266, Item 23260.

A large crowd of men and women in winter coats and hats, gathered on a sidewalk as they take part in a strike. Visible storefronts include Caplan's restaurant and a barber shop. Fonds 1266, Item 23263.

At 10am on February 25, 1931, members of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) walked off the job. Highlighting poor working conditions, long hours, and low wages, hundreds of women continued their strike for two and a half months.

Kinda amazing that Trump shits on Canada and Mexico every day, and there's the Mexican-American captain of Canada's Toronto Maple Leafs, Auston Matthews, standing behind him as he defiles an Olympic Gold Medal

He hates your mother and your fans Auston Matthews but - you do you: be a collaborator

Absolutely wild that Ted Rall did this cartoon in March 2003. archive.rall.com/main.php?g2_...

February 23: Only You Can Keep Toronto Clean. Only You. It's not a lot to ask.

The Curio Emporeum offers some mid-1980s tips on how to keep Toronto clean when it comes to taking care of your garbage. Plus a look at the city's street-cleaning efforts around that time. #TOHistory

jbscurioemporium.substack.com/p/february-2...

Tonight, Feb 23 at 7:30, join us online to hear about Ken McKinlay's Top 10 Tips For Being a Better Researcher. Free.
torontofamilyhistory.org/event/top-te...

'Topaz,' dappled grey mare, Clayton's Meat Market, Toronto - February 23, 1911.

📸: Reginald S. Timmis
Baldwin Collection of Canadiana, Toronto Public Library.
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#OnThisDay #1910s #torontohistory #horses #jeremyhopkin

My virtual talk tomorrow, Feb. 24, at 3pm.