Toronto Sketches 12. Mike Filey

Conference Committee (PCC) Streamliners were displayed at the 1938 CNE. The TTC went on to add a total of 743 PCCs (the majority new, along with some second-hand vehicles purchased from American transit companies) to its streetcar fleet. (Incidentally, two remain and can be chartered for special events.)

      In 1978, number 4000, the first of the new Canadian Light Rail Vehicles (the model seen on today’s city streets) was featured at the CNE’s Centennial Exhibition. A prototype version had been featured at the fair in 1975. The larger, articulated version (ALRV) of this car was displayed at the 1982 edition of the Ex.

      As the TTC gets ready to replace both the CLRV and ALRV vehicles in its fleet with new state-of-the-art equipment, mock-ups of possible replacement vehicles supplied by Bombardier and Siemens were featured at the 2007 CNE.

      Now, as work gets underway on the construction of the first of the four new light rail lines, Metrolinx is featuring a mock-up of the LRT model scheduled for the Eglinton Crosstown line. It is located in front of the Direct Energy Centre.

      The latest in a long list of public transit vehicles that have been displayed over the years at the annual CNE is a partial mock-up of the new Metrolinx light rail vehicle scheduled for use on (among others) the Eglinton Crosstown line. The mock-up is located in front of the Direct Energy Centre. This artist’s rendition of a complete five-car train set was supplied courtesy Metrolinx.

      Stately Structures Indeed

      September 9, 2012

      Located at the top of Toronto’s University Avenue is the Ontario Legislative Building, a stately structure that is also known as the Parliament Buildings (to others it’s known as the Pink Palace, and by a few as the Ontario gas works).

      Now approaching 120 years of service, it is one of the most recognizable buildings in the province. However, as “ancient” as it may be, it is in fact only the latest in a long list of buildings of various shapes and sizes that have served the governments of the Province of Upper Canada, then the Province of Canada, and finally the Province of Ontario.

      The first provincial parliament building was located in Navy Hall in Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake). The legislative assembly was subsequently relocated to the Town of York (now Toronto) to a site considered to be more secure than Navy Hall, a building that stood within canon shot of those threatening American troops across the Niagara River. As it turned out, the supposedly secure site at York wasn’t. The structure was destroyed by fire during the American invasion of our community in April 1813. (More details about this site and the War of 1812 battles are revealed at the Ontario Heritage Foundation’s First Parliament Building exhibition hall at the southeast corner of Front and Berkeley streets.)

      Front Street looking east to Simcoe Street, circa 1953. The third Parliament Building was demolished in the early 1900s and replaced by the CPR freight sheds located in behind the Peter Witt streetcar on the Bathurst route. Note the Barclay (now demolished) and Royal York hotels in the background.

      The third Provincial Parliament Buildings on the north side of Front west of Simcoe Street. (Photo from the Ontario Archives.)

      As the years went by, successive legislative assemblies relocated into a variety of buildings. Finally, officials got their act together, and in 1832 a new building on the north side of Front Street just west of Simcoe was erected and became the third “real” parliament building.

      When the Dominion of Canada, consisting of the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada (Canada East and Canada West) came into being in 1867, the former Canada West, now renamed the Province of Ontario, became the sole occupant of the Front Street building.

      The rundown old building endured for several more decades and was finally replaced by the fourth Ontario Legislative Building. Designed by English architect Richard Waite (the selection of the “foreigner’s” design is a story all by itself) and built at a cost of $1.25 million, it opened for business at the top of University Avenue on April 4, 1893.

      World’s First Movie Star

      September 16, 2012

      During this year’s Toronto International Film Festival there were (and perhaps still are) dozens of celebrities from the wonderful world of motion pictures visiting many of the numerous restaurants and theatres our fair city has to offer. Now, as the film fest winds down for another year and rave reviews proliferate, it’s high time to take notice of the person who is universally accepted as being the very first of these motion picture celebrities. In fact, most experts regard this person as the first to be given the title “movie star.” And what’s more, this star was born right here in Toronto.

      While this person would eventually become known to the world by the name Mary Pickford, to the few Torontonians of the 1890s who knew the youngster, she was just the little girl who lived in the small two-storey house at 175 University Avenue, an inconspicuous place on the edge of the infamous Ward part of town. To them, she was simply Gladys Smith.

      Just how little Gladys went from playing on the dusty streets of Toronto to playing on playhouse stages across America and eventually onto silent movie theatre screens around the world as Mary Pickford, a stage name she herself chose from her family tree, are fascinating stories. However, suffice it to say that neither of these things would have happened, nor would we now be celebrating this famous Canadian, had it not been for her father’s misfortune.

      University Avenue looking north to College Street as the street looked about the time Gladys was born in a small house just out of view to the right.