Last weekend had a history theme. On Saturday, I went out to Doors Open, the annual event where our old and unusual buildings and sites are filled with eager history lovers. (There’s a lot more of us that you would expect, apparently it’s hip to be square). I think Doors Open is pretty awesome, a super way to get to know what is slowly becoming my city. There are lots of different kinds of buildings included – you can see everything from dump trucks driving on giant mountains of sugar (at Redpath) to the secret and tingle inducing Lower Bay Station.
This year we concentrated on Jarvis, which was once a grand thoroughfare of mansions, then was widened for car traffic, and became lot less ritzy (the tour guides say “flophouses”, my parents say “whorehouses”). It’s now in the process of being prettied up again, with the mansions morphing into B&Bs and restaurants, much to the delight of the Post.
The tour Bret Snider* gave at the Gooderham house was interesting. He went to the trouble of wearing a uniform and bringing props. He explained his family history (he’s a Gooderham) and their fabulous wealth via interests in weapons (the enfield rifle); ladies underwear (corsets); insurance, and booze. He gave an engaging talk and showed off the house, which really is spectacular. But it was funny to hear his take on the class changes along Jarvis Street. Now, he says, that investors have bought up the properties, the street is returning to its glory days. He said something like “when you turn on the lights, the vermin scurry away”. He actually said “vermin”. Nice.
After that tour we did a bit more sightseeing and I got to visit my Dad’s old house on Sackville St. in Regent Park, which probably won’t be standing for much longer. I guess they would be the verminous side of my family?
Then on Sunday I got to go to an OCAP/Missing Plaque walking tour of Toronto’s Skid Row in the same neighbourhood**.
This tour was great, looking at both the history of the space as well as the attitudes to the poor and working people who have always lived in the area. We talked about “the house of providence” and “the house of industry”, facilities for the destitute, the old, and the casuals. Because, hey, it’s not just the way rich people lived that needs remembering, eh?
There were lots of reminders of how antidiluvean attitudes towards poor and working people are still around, even two hundred years later, though the walk wasn’t very “political”, there were still echoes and reminders of all the ways in which the past is relevant to the present.
They sent us home with a substantial photocopied guide, which I’m really looking forward to seeing published as a guidebook.
*My mom thought he was cute. She’s so dense in her family compactness 
**Someone once posed the idea to me that the Eastern sides of cities in North America started out (i.e. during the time of heavy industry being downtown) poor or working class… the reason for this being that prevailing winds usually blow West to East. So the West side smells nicer and the rich people go there. Any idea if this is true? Most cities I’ve been in have a mix of rich and poor areas that is nothing as simple as East vs. West, but we don’t have smokestacks downtown anymore either.