[Heritage Columns] City Museums Face Closure

[caption id="attachment_8747" align="aligncenter" width="490" caption="Click image to go to Spacing magazine article"][/caption]

 

FromHeritage Toronto

 

Thank you Gail Lord for providing this text:
This week, the City of Toronto's Executive Committee approved a report from the City Manager to close "museums with the least attendance, and revenues compared to costs." Another proposal asks the City Manager to report on further extensive cuts to culture programs.

These proposals indicate a misunderstanding of what museums are. In any city, museums are about identity, linking the past to the present. In Toronto, the world's most multicultural city, museums are even more crucial to social cohesion.

Toronto's historic museums - Montgomery's Inn, Spadina House, McKenzie House, Colborne Lodge, Market Gallery, Gibson House, Zion Schoolhouse, Scarborough Historic Museum and Fort York - are the repository of our collective heritage. Destroy them and you destroy the DNA of who we are and how we got here. Each of these sites, whether they be in downtown Toronto, Scarborough, North York or Etobicoke, reflect not only our past, but are also neighbourhood hubs for sharing and learning about our modern diverse communities.

Clearly there is room for improving the attendance and the financial performance of these museums. However, closures are not the answer. The museum closings will be before City Council on Monday September 26th. I urge you to write to the Mayor and members of City Council to raise your voice in opposition to this proposal. Click here for contact information for the Mayor and Councillors.

Also, there is a Facebook group you can join to support our City's museums

 

 

 

 

Porch Re-Creation, 5 Cross Street lauded by Heritage Toronto

the benefit of thoughtful choice

This porch recreation in the Weston area, is a great example of what  can be done to bring back some character to a avenue, instead of simply building something functional just to suit a purpose. The before and after pictures clearly issue a  call for more of this type of renovation in the older suburbs of Toronto, of which The Junction and Weston were in earlier periods of time, although at different times.

This particular  project was commissioned  by the homeowners and carried out under the direction of a architect, and built by a contractor, which is just one of the ways to achieve  the same result. Homeowners can choose to research the design of  ornamentation details suited for there themselves. This can often be done by simply walking around the community and snapping a few shots and maybe some added research at the local public library, most of which have a great selection of local history items readily available.  They can then work with a contractor to develop a project inline with the historical character with the contractor, or the industrious and craft minded can work to create the new poach themselves.

West Toronto is full of small wood shops that would be inexpensive sources for the bespoke woodwork pieces required. Also the community has a large base of craft builders, many open to sectional jobs, where the homeowner does some of the work.

Before

Heritage Toronto text

The owners of this Victorian home in Weston embarked on a project to create a replica porch for the front of their house consistent with the 1889 construction period of the building. After careful research, including looking at other houses from the period, the porch was constructed from Ontario white pine with detailed ornamentation such as brackets, turnings and other elements custom manufactured. The structure was finished with a heritage colour paint.

Commissioned by: Martin Weigelin & Leslie Mah
Architect: Anthony Belcher Architect
Crafts Person/Contractor: Sandilands WoodworkingAfter

West Toronto Junction Fire Station Interpreters awarded

Interpreters Duncan Brown, Greg Schultz of the West Toronto Junction Fire Station are being lauded October 13th at the historic Carlu by HERITAGE TORONTO.

Exhibition Place: Ghostly Secrets Revealed Wednesday, October 29th at 7:00 p.m

from Heritage Toronto site

Exhibition Place: Ghostly Secrets Revealed

On Wednesday October 29th at 7:00 p.m., please join Steve Collie for a very special ghost tour of the Exhibition Grounds, with all proceeds benefiting the United Way.

Exhibition Place is known for its bright lights and entertaining shows, but lurking below the surface are a few well-kept secrets that, until this walking tour, were primarily known only to staff who work the late shift. That the grounds should harbour otherworldly visitors is not much of a surprise: the Horticulture Building was once used as a temporary morgue; the current site of the CNE midway was a bloody battlefield during the War of 1812; and the grounds were once home to two military forts. Not to mention the CNE's own long history, going back to 1879 - plenty of time and plenty of reasons for an accumulation of "things that go bump in the night."

Date: Wednesday, October 29th
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Leader: Steve Collie
Start Point: General Services Building, 2 Manitoba Drive at Strachan Ave. (north of the Princes' Gate entrance to the Exhibition Grounds)
Finish Point: Scadding Cabin
Length: Approximately 2-3 hrs.
Difficulty: Long walk on level ground; some stairs
Cost: $5.00 charge per person with all money raised going to United Way

3 West Toronto Finalists for the Heritage Toronto Awards

Heritage Toronto has announced the short-listed finalists for the 34th Annual Heritage Toronto Awards, 3 of which are in West Toronto. In addition, one the of the other nominees is in West Toronto.

The awards celebrate outstanding contributions by individuals and community organizations.

At the Hertitage Toronto Site are a lot of great images and background [opens in new window] on the buildings.  The addresses and a image of each is from the Heritage Toronto site.

Regal Road School Portico, 95 Regal Road

map it via google maps link
[opens in new window]

another finalist

Wesley Building, 299 Queen Street West old CHUM/City building



and last, but not least, a nominee:




Kingsway-Lambton United Church, 85 The Kingsway