Haha. Opps. My five year old got a hold of my phone.

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Black and white photo of the interior of a streetcar barn. Three Peter Witt streetcars with cowcatchers on the front are lined up side by side. Signs above their front windows read Carleton, Bathurst, and Carleton respectively. Fonds 88, Item 123.

Attention transit fans: Fonds 88 has now been digitized. These images were shot by Charles Rufus Harte, a contractor hired by the newly-formed TTC to document their facilities and equipment between 1921 and 1923.
https://ow.ly/SX5p50XMuKj

A map showing the surveying teams journey from the western boundary of British territory in 1791 near the Humber River, starting July 7 to the eastern limit near Kingston on July 27 and back west again on September 13 to mark out 11 townships.

A map showing the first landowners in Brockton. Benjamin Hallowell, James Brock, Alexander Burns, Alexander McDonnell, David Shank, and Elizabeth Johnston.

A map showing Dundas Street, Queen Street and an early alignment of the Davenport Trail from Yonge Street to the Humber River

A map showing Black Households in West Toronto, 1861.

In 2025, I started a blog exploring the history Brockton Village, my neighbourhood.

Wrote 17 posts and made 13 maps! A collection of the maps I'm most proud of and more here ▶️ brockton-history.ca/maps/

A map showing the surveying teams journey from the western boundary of British territory in 1791 near the Humber River, starting July 7 to the eastern limit near Kingston on July 27 and back west again on September 13 to mark out 11 townships.

A map showing the first landowners in Brockton. Benjamin Hallowell, James Brock, Alexander Burns, Alexander McDonnell, David Shank, and Elizabeth Johnston.

A map showing Dundas Street, Queen Street and an early alignment of the Davenport Trail from Yonge Street to the Humber River

A map showing Black Households in West Toronto, 1861.

In 2025, I started a blog exploring the history Brockton Village, my neighbourhood.

Wrote 17 posts and made 13 maps! A collection of the maps I'm most proud of and more here ▶️ brockton-history.ca/maps/

Gingerbread houses in Toronto

*write up

A photo of A.J. Reid

Black-and-white newspaper column dated August 17, 1911. The article reports that Rev. A. J. Reid, rector of Christ Church, Campbellford, and Rural Dean of Northumberland, has accepted the rectorship of St. Mark’s, West Toronto. It summarizes his background and education in England, his marriage, his years of ministry in Campbellford, and his civic involvement, including leadership at the Mechanics’ Institute, the Board of Education, and a successful campaign—supported by an Andrew Carnegie grant—to establish a free public library. The piece notes widespread regret in Campbellford at his departure.

A great right up. Curious I looked up A.J. The Canadian Churchman had a decent spread in 1911. He was in Carleton Village at St. Mark's - West Toronto until 1918, when he moved up to Earlscourt.
www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm....

The Mysterious Life and Afterlife of Private Fitz Lee

For more than a century, this Black soldier from Virginia was remembered by nearly no one. Then this year, someone at the Pentagon found a use for him. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/u...

Is this 0art of what is being funded?

My biggest takeaway from today's Statistics Canada population release.

"Open your eyes, and gaze with surprise
On the wonders, the wonders to come!"

The plans were for the Front Street addition, a seven storey building added to the 1873 structure.

Some beautiful recently digitized plans for old Union Station (1892) cc @torailwaymuseum.bsky.social @library-archives.canada.ca

recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/rec...

Grain by Train

A page Incidents in the life of John G. Howard, Esq detailing a dramatic, first-person narrative about a dangerous ice-skating accident. The narrator describes how his brother-in-law, skating ahead on a frozen bay, broke through the ice about 300 yards away. The narrator used a stave from a flour barrel to sound the ice and managed to reach him, tying the sleeves of his two coats together to pull the paralyzed man onto sound ice after he had been in the water for at least twenty minutes. They raced home, with the narrator in his shirt sleeves, carrying the wet coats and skates, enduring taunts from onlookers. The narrator concludes by noting his deceased brother-in-law never showed gratitude for the risk taken.

A couple of years before he painted this, Howard had to pull his brother-in-law out of the frozen lake when they went skating from Frederick.

From his recollection, get the feeling he didn't like his brother-in-law all that much.

www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm....

Today is Acadian Remembrance Day. Between 1755 and 1763, approximately 10,000 Acadians were deported from modern-day Nova Scotia by the British authorities. Thousands died of disease or starvation in the squalid conditions on board ship.

A map of the propesed Waterfront East Transit from Union Station to Ookwemin Minising.

TBOT has some ideas on how Toronto can improve its waterfront:

✅ Secure funding for Waterfront East Transit
✅ Transit-priority on Bathurst and Dufferin
✅ Connect key areas of activity
✅ Expand the PATH Network
✅ Bentway expansion
✅ Support water based transit

www.cp24.com/local/toront...

The paragraph says "Jakarta—nobody’s idea of a lovely city—is as good a place as any to see all this on the ground. After years of expansion it now encompasses the neighbouring cities of Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi (see map). Yet there is far too little co-ordination among these neighbouring authorities. A settlement as populous as some countries is governed as coherently as a clowder of cats"

I am the only one just learning that a group of cats is a "clowder of cats."

C1, source Le Monde https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2025/12/12/en-ile-de-france-un-telepherique-pour-reduire-les-fractures-urbaines_6657006_3234.html

C1 map, source Le Monde https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2025/12/12/en-ile-de-france-un-telepherique-pour-reduire-les-fractures-urbaines_6657006_3234.html

The Paris C1 line—the region’s first aerial tram—will open for service tomorrow in suburban Créteil. The €125 million line will extend 4.5 km and service 5 stations www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/en/le-reseau...

Toronto Waterfront Retail Gains New Momentum Harbourfront’s growing attractions and year-round programming strengthen foot traffic and support new leasing opportunities.

29K residents + 2.9M visitors! The waterfront is starting to hit its stride with the critical mass support more diverse retail. Been noticing the shift to experiential operators moving in (i.e. climbing gyms). Definitely giving the retail scene a boost
retail-insider.com/retail-insid...

The dining room with wainscotting.

The kitchen.

The living room with a wood-burning fireplace.

This century home is a gem. In excellent shape 👌 given it doesn't look like it's ever been remodeled.

www.blogto.com/real-estate-...

When kids ruled Toronto's neighbourhood streets. 🚲

A glimpse of Shanley St. and Delaware Ave, 50 years ago.

@torontoarchives.cityof.toronto.ca

Timeline of to fully build up the approved growth areas around Toronto at current rate of development:
Hamilton - 2067
Peel - 2079
York - 2089
Halton - 2104
Durham - 2140

@cangeo.bsky.social

canadiangeographic.ca/articles/map...

Down for 8 minutes and they called 40 shuttle buses. Seem like they operating very cautiously.

"The TTC said service was suspended at 7:36 a.m...Service was restored around 7:44 a.m. It was around -8C when the line shut down."

Innovative Estonian Cultural Centre Advances in The Annex | UrbanToronto Construction of the KESKUS Estonian Cultural Centre has progressed from steel assembly to concrete slab pours and the first stages of glazing installation. The three-storey cultural hub and restored h...

Huge progress on the Innovative KESKUS! Thanks @urbantoronto.bsky.social for the great write-up. Proud of the hundreds of contributors who made this dream a reality and the many many volunteers. Looking forward to 2026!
urbantoronto.ca/news/2025/12...

A Road Cut in Crisis: Dundas Street and the War of 1812 Today, the memory of the War of 1812 in Toronto us usually reduced to a few prominent landmarks like Fort York. But the war left a deeper mark on the city’s geography. The threat of American …

#TOhistory

by Eric Sehr @ekvery.bsky.social

brockton-history.ca/2025/11/27/a...

A large circular bronze slab on a paved area by the Don River. Footprint impressions cast in the bronze cover the entire art piece.

Footprint impressions cast in bronze.

View of the Toronto skyline at dusk viewed from Commissioners Street bridge in the new Biidaasige Park.

Sign for art piece titled Trajet. The artwork Trajet acknowledges footprints made by indigenous ancestors that were uncovered in blue clay on the floor of Lake Ontario in 1908. Using a sketch made before the footprints were erased by the building of a waterworks tunnel in 1908, Monnet and Baldwin Lew invited Indigenous community members to reaffirm this 11,000-year-old historical presence. Guided in ceremony by late Elder Pauline Shirt, Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Torontonians cast their prints in clay, creating a monument in real time that was later cast in bronze. Trajet is now permanently integrated into the landscape of Biidaasige Park at the bend of the new Don River mouth. Adjacent to the water, the location allows visitors to pause and look in the direction of the lakebed where the footprints were found. The names of all those who contributed to the making of Trajet including those who walked across the clay in 2019 are etched into the edge of the sculpture. Caroline Monnet and Dean Baldwin Lew Bronze, 2019 City of Toronto Public Art and Monuments Collection Trajet was commissioned by the City of Toronto.It is the first sculpture to be installed as part of the Lassonde Art Trail (LAT). On target to launch in June 2026, LAT will be a free, open-air destination for outstanding contemporary art from around the world, featuring sculpture and programming across Blidaasige Park.

📍 Biidaasige Park #Toronto

Trajet, by Caroline Monnet and Dean Baldwin Lew, highlights the 11,000-year-old footsteps of Indigenous ancestors that were found during the excavation of Toronto’s harbour in the early twentieth century.

The first sculpture of the Lassonde Art Trail latfoundation.org

Replenishing the Earth Why does so much of the world speak English? Replenishing the Earth gives a new answer to that question, uncovering a 'settler revolution' that took place from the early nineteenth century that led to...

This book does a good job of giving more context to the boom and bust cycles. Belich argues the booms drove settlement, not just followed it. Growth came from the settlement economy, and when the busts hit, the staples stepped in to fill the gap.

books.google.ca/books/about/...

#TOhistory