March 16, 2003
Sightseeing Chariots
In this modern day and age, and in the hustle and bustle of everyday activities, most Torontonians haven’t the time to consider their morning or evening streetcar as a sightseeing chariot from which to gaze upon “the wonders that are Toronto.”
Well, that may be exaggerating things a bit, but that’s how the tourist brochures were describing the new-fangled electric vehicles in the 1890s. And there was no more popular route than the one known as the Belt Line. It encircled the downtown part of the city, in both directions, using track on King, Sherbourne, Bloor, and Spadina. What follows is a verbatim description of a spring excursion along the Belt Line in May 1897. Where appropriate I have added, in square brackets, a few of my own comments.
The mildest form of excursion in which the citizens of Toronto indulge is a “ride on the Belt Line.” After the hour of the evening meal on these warm nights by what seems common impulse they sally forth and intercept at some point of its wide circuit this most popular of street railway routes. The keenest competition exists for front place upon the open cars, out of the glare of the electric light and in full current of the breeze, in the sultriest weather created by the rapid movement. All sorts of conditions of humanity are patrons: nor does the rich man disdain to spend and repent the humble fare [adults five cents, children three cents] for the sake of the interest, amusement, variety of scene and refreshment the trip affords. The stranger within our gates, of whom we shall have many this season, can use no better and no cheaper means of viewing the city, and within an hour seeing, catching sight alone, perchance, of our chief public buildings, our churches and finest residential and business streets.
The Belt Line covers a distance of seven miles. Boarding a car at the corner of King and Yonge streets and proceeding eastwards, the passenger may first glance up Toronto street, at the head of which the post office [demolished] stands flanked by buildings devoted to the legal brotherhood. At Church street St. James’s Cathedral looks from its lofty, grey, serene old height upon the small traffic of men. At its feet are cool gardens and the wayfarer may stray within. North of it is the unadorned facade of the Public Library [northeast corner Adelaide, demolished] where wisdom is more esteemed than a brown stone front. At Jarvis street an old landmark is passed in St. Lawrence [Hall and] Market, and south of it may be seen the small dome of the City Hall [1844–1899] soon to be superseded by the magnificent buildings on Queen street, not in vision from the route.
The “run” north on Sherbourne street is accounted the prettiest portion of the Belt Line. All Saints Church [southeast corner] is passed and at Gerrard street the spacious well-kept Horticultural [Allen] Gardens cover one block. At the [southeast] corner of Carlton street the Sherbourne Street Methodist Church is situated and higher up on the west side is [the Roman Catholic] Our Lady of Lourdes. Handsome residences line the way, and at the junction, with Bloor street a substantial bridge leads over the ravine into Rosedale, the city’s most picturesque suburb.
Bloor is a residential street also, but homes are interspersed with sacred edifices, colleges and schools. On the south side St. Paul’s [Anglican] Church, ivied and quaint, may be seen as well as Westminster Presbyterian [now St. Andrew’s United], the Bloor Street [Central] Methodist [demolished], the Bloor Street Baptist [near North Street, now Bay, demolished] and, well west on the line, the grey stone walls of the Huron Street [Bloor Street] Presbyterian Church. Moulton Ladies’ College [demolished] is on the north side of the street and near it are the residence and lawns of one of the Senators [William McMaster]. West of Yonge street the passenger gets a fine view of Queen’s Park, wherein are the University of Toronto, whose Norman towers may be seen rising beyond the noble trees, the auxiliary buildings of the University, Wycliffe College and Victoria University as well. The opulent face of McMaster University [now the Royal Conservatory of Music] fronts directly upon Bloor street and west and north of it may be seen the simple substantial walls of one of our millionaires’ homes, George Gooderham [now the York Club].
Turn-of-the-century penny postcard views along the Belt Line. Above: Spadina Avenue looking north to College Street, Knox College and Belt Line car in the distance. Below: Spadina Avenue near Harbord Street with Belt Line streetcar.
At Spadina avenue, one of the broadest of our thoroughfares, the Belt Line turns south. It makes the circuit of Knox College [now a University of Toronto building] and its grounds before reaching College street, at one corner [northeast] of which is the Broadway Tabernacle of the Methodist faith [demolished]. While the upper portion of Spadina avenue is mainly residential, south of College street it is almost wholly devoted to the business world. As the car turns east into King street a glimpse may be had of Loretto Abbey [southwest Spadina and Wellington], a well-known Catholic seminary, which overlooks the park and fine trees of Clarence Square.
The return run along King street affords a view of Government House, a plain brick structure at the [southwest] corner of Simcoe street, surrounded with well-laid-out gardens, of the old site of Upper Canada College [northwest King and Simcoe], of what was long known as “Macdonnell’s Church” [Reverend Daniel James Macdonnell was minister of the church now known as St. Andrew’s Presbyterian at the southeast corner of King and Simcoe from its dedication in early 1876 until his death in 1896], of newspaper offices, banks and a miscellany of business buildings. At what was the starting point this passenger may disembark, and if he be a visitor will surely have found good reason for our city’s occasional arrogance of the title of Queen.
March 23, 2003
Ma Bell’s Birth
What weighs over five pounds, has 2,096 pages, features a cast of many thousands, and has a plot that’s impossible to follow? Give up? The latest Bell telephone directory appearing on front porches all over town.
There’s quite a contrast between the newest edition and the very first telephone book that was issued in Toronto more than a century ago. Actually, use of the word book to describe that first directory is really a misnomer; it was more like a small booklet. The firm that published it was the fledgling Telephone Despatch Company, a local enterprise that provided a pioneer telephone service in the young city using Alexander Graham Bell’s recently patented invention. The founders of this new company, which had been incorporated in 1878 with a total investment of $3,000, were optician Charles Potter, Dr. A.M. Rosebrough and brother Melville, and Hugh Neilson. The last gentleman, who lived at 321 Carlton Street, served as the manager of the nascent organization. The company operated on a 24-hour basis and had a total of three employees.
Its first “List of Subscribers” was issued on May 1, 1879, and was printed by Bingham and Taylor, Leader Lane (the small street that still exists on the east side of the King Edward Hotel). This document was, in fact, a three-inch-by-five-inch, four-page cardboard folder containing the names of its 56 customers, a number that included the four founders. Some of the other Toronto businesses that tried out the new service were commission merchants Chapman and Sons, 91 Front Street East; druggist H.J. Rose, whose store was at the Yonge and Queen intersection; Robert Walker’s dry goods store at 35 King Street East (site of today’s King Edward Hotel); the offices of the Globe and Telegram newspapers; the St. Charles Restaurant on lower Yonge Street; and a couple of railway offices (specifically, the Grand Trunk and the Union Pacific). The very first commercial contract was signed between the Toronto Telephone Despatch Company and Messrs. McGaw and Winnett, proprietors of the province’s busiest hotel, the Queen’s, a rambling structure that stood where the Royal York Hotel is located today.
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