casaguy
Senior Member
The Crystal Blu sales centre is just a couple doors south of Bloor, so I'm sure it's about to be closed down with the rest of the tenants.
|
|
|
- Status
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
It would make sense to move the Blu sales office over to the 1BE sales office.
yyzer
Senior Member
looks like we may be seeing demolition at 1 Bloor E very soon....
History in search of a new home
TheStar.com - living - History in search of a new home
Priceless archive of documents, photos and artifacts in file cabinets, banker's boxes, suitcase
January 12, 2008
Bill Taylor
Feature Writer
Space – the final frontier. And that's not just for Star Trek fans.
A Toronto historical society with a priceless archive of documents, photos and artifacts but little money has only two weeks before it loses its home to make way for an 80-storey condo development.
"We need space, we need it fast and we need it free," says Jane Beecroft, co-founder of the Community History Project. "They're turning off our utilities on January 26 and then the bulldozers move in."
Beecroft dreams of finding at least 235 square metres "with electricity and a washroom."
Formed in 1983, the CHP has operated since 1996 out of three cramped rooms, donated space on Yonge St., just south of Bloor St. One used to house free public exhibits but now is full of packed-up boxes. The group has a storeroom behind the building but will lose that too when work starts on the One Bloor East highrise.
The History Project's pet scheme is the restoration of the "nationally significant" toll keeper's cottage at Davenport Rd. and Bathurst St., which dates back to 1827. Beecroft expects it to open to visitors on Canada Day, filled with period furniture and artifacts currently in storage.
But that will leave everything else, including boxes of material as yet unclassified.
"We're a small group with a very large research area," she says. "We cover from Sherbourne Street to Dufferin Street, from Wellesley Street to well above St. Clair Avenue. We have about 65 members and get by mainly on their generosity and little fundraising events. We get $1,215 annually from the Ontario Ministry of Culture. We can't do proper, methodical research any more. We just move from crisis to crisis."
With scarcely room to turn around, Beecroft, 75, shows off some of the project's treasures, including data on the Gooderham and Worts distillery and the John St. roundhouse, at the centre of a controversy about Leon's furniture store moving in: "Insane," she says. "Shameful."
The material is in filing cabinets, banker's boxes, wooden cabinets, even an old suitcase. A freezer holds 600 glass negatives shot by Toronto-born Arctic explorer Joseph Burr Tyrrell in the late 1800s.
"We have a drape from the house Timothy Eaton built on Lowther Ave. ... William Gooderham's rocking chair... probably the best collection anywhere of old Ontario road maps."
There's a piece of embroidery, dated 1847, in memory of a couple's two babies who died in 1844 and '46. And the Project is compiling "a list of all the Mississauga Indians who were ever in the Toronto region," says Beecroft. "Here's a model of the Davenport-Bathurst intersection in 1850 ... a child's chair, dated around 1815, hand-carved with a jackknife... a picture of some of the Gooderham family taken by William Notman, the noted Canadian photographer... We have 65 boxes of Gooderham information... 43 filing cabinets; one file for every building in our area..."
If they can't find new accommodation, members will have to take care of the archive themselves. Beecroft says there's no question of disposing of any of it. "Everything was donated to us in trust."
A sign on the walls says, "Never under any circumstances throw anything away."
History in search of a new home
TheStar.com - living - History in search of a new home
Priceless archive of documents, photos and artifacts in file cabinets, banker's boxes, suitcase
January 12, 2008
Bill Taylor
Feature Writer
Space – the final frontier. And that's not just for Star Trek fans.
A Toronto historical society with a priceless archive of documents, photos and artifacts but little money has only two weeks before it loses its home to make way for an 80-storey condo development.
"We need space, we need it fast and we need it free," says Jane Beecroft, co-founder of the Community History Project. "They're turning off our utilities on January 26 and then the bulldozers move in."
Beecroft dreams of finding at least 235 square metres "with electricity and a washroom."
Formed in 1983, the CHP has operated since 1996 out of three cramped rooms, donated space on Yonge St., just south of Bloor St. One used to house free public exhibits but now is full of packed-up boxes. The group has a storeroom behind the building but will lose that too when work starts on the One Bloor East highrise.
The History Project's pet scheme is the restoration of the "nationally significant" toll keeper's cottage at Davenport Rd. and Bathurst St., which dates back to 1827. Beecroft expects it to open to visitors on Canada Day, filled with period furniture and artifacts currently in storage.
But that will leave everything else, including boxes of material as yet unclassified.
"We're a small group with a very large research area," she says. "We cover from Sherbourne Street to Dufferin Street, from Wellesley Street to well above St. Clair Avenue. We have about 65 members and get by mainly on their generosity and little fundraising events. We get $1,215 annually from the Ontario Ministry of Culture. We can't do proper, methodical research any more. We just move from crisis to crisis."
With scarcely room to turn around, Beecroft, 75, shows off some of the project's treasures, including data on the Gooderham and Worts distillery and the John St. roundhouse, at the centre of a controversy about Leon's furniture store moving in: "Insane," she says. "Shameful."
The material is in filing cabinets, banker's boxes, wooden cabinets, even an old suitcase. A freezer holds 600 glass negatives shot by Toronto-born Arctic explorer Joseph Burr Tyrrell in the late 1800s.
"We have a drape from the house Timothy Eaton built on Lowther Ave. ... William Gooderham's rocking chair... probably the best collection anywhere of old Ontario road maps."
There's a piece of embroidery, dated 1847, in memory of a couple's two babies who died in 1844 and '46. And the Project is compiling "a list of all the Mississauga Indians who were ever in the Toronto region," says Beecroft. "Here's a model of the Davenport-Bathurst intersection in 1850 ... a child's chair, dated around 1815, hand-carved with a jackknife... a picture of some of the Gooderham family taken by William Notman, the noted Canadian photographer... We have 65 boxes of Gooderham information... 43 filing cabinets; one file for every building in our area..."
If they can't find new accommodation, members will have to take care of the archive themselves. Beecroft says there's no question of disposing of any of it. "Everything was donated to us in trust."
A sign on the walls says, "Never under any circumstances throw anything away."
urbandreamer
recession proof
I've got room in my apt--the condition: I get to look at the old photos
But seriously, why isn't there a "Museum of Toronto?" Ideal location: Old Town Toronto--King St East?
But seriously, why isn't there a "Museum of Toronto?" Ideal location: Old Town Toronto--King St East?
maestro
Senior Member
I wonder what the monthly rates will be for the One Bloor East surface parking lot? Approval at the earliest would be late fall and that doesn't include any appeals to the OMB.
299 bloor call control.
Senior Member
There's already the Toronto Archives and the eventual Toronto Museum on the waterfront.
unimaginative2
Senior Member
Wait...the archives are moving? What's wrong with their current building?
ProjectEnd
Superstar
I've got room in my apt--the condition: I get to look at the old photos
But seriously, why isn't there a "Museum of Toronto?" Ideal location: Old Town Toronto--King St East?
I agree. This would seem like a natural move for a city which put up a decently-sized building celebrating an Olympic bid which we didn't in the end, get.
Confusing.
3Dementia
Senior Member
It ain't rocket science to locate a Toronto Museum... it's across the street from the DD underneath a car wash. I'm assuming a "building" and an on-going "dig".
casaguy
Senior Member
^Can't recall if this building has been documented in this thread.
It's soon to become history... and soon to become the resident's entrance to 1 Bloor.
DaninToronto
Active Member
It would be amazing if Bazis put them up in a place until 1 Bloor East's completion and than give them space in the podium of the new tower.
Sir Novelty Fashion
Senior Member
If groundbreaking isn't set to get underway until September, then why are they ending leases now? Is the demolotion process really going to take six months? Why would Bazis cut themselves off from that many months of rental income?
Has 1BE even cleared the city yet in final form?
Has 1BE even cleared the city yet in final form?
urbandreamer
recession proof
Someone with a nice SLR camera: Quick, get into the Naval Club and take tons of photos! From the back alley, the roof, etc. Document it before it's gone! Yeah, I'd incorporate the beauty into a new building; but unlike most developers in T-dot, I'm not a jerk
syn
Senior Member
Unfortunate they won't incorporate it into the new building. I wonder if the city can still make them do it...
jmacmillan
Active Member
- Status