Toronto Sketches 11. Mike Filey
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May 16, 2010
Horsing Around with the Past
While there are numerous pieces of public art, as well as hundreds of monuments and statues to be found in all areas of our city, there are only a couple that feature horses. One of the most obvious is the Steve Stavros Memorial located in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. It may depict the Macedonian king Alexander the Great astride his favourite mount, Bucephalus. I say “may,” since I have yet to find specific details about the monument. Therefore, I admit right up front that my description is an assumption and is based on the fact that the eclectic Mr. Stavros, who died in 2006, was a proud Canadian of Macedonia descent and a confirmed lover of race horses. I wonder if I’m correct.
The only other major sculpture that I can think of that features a horse is the King Edward VII statue located just north of the Ontario Legislative Building in the Queen’s Park. I call it “the” Queen’s Park, since it was named in honour of the reigning monarch of the day, Queen Victoria, by her then-nineteen-year-old son Edward, the Prince of Wales, during his visit to Toronto in 1860. When Victoria died in 1901, Edward ascended the British throne as King Edward VII.
Relatively new to our city, the three-ton monument was originally created in 1919 by the English sculptor Sir Thomas Brock, who was also responsible for the massive Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace in London. Brock’s tribute to the queen’s son (who reigned for a mere nine years compared to his mother’s nearly sixty-four years) was originally placed in Delhi, India, but when that country became a sovereign state in 1950 many of the items from the British colonial days were hidden away.
Unveiled in 1969, this statue of King Edward VII is located in Queen’s Park, north of the Ontario Legislative Building.
Courtesy of the Honourable Henry N.R. Jackman.
Here are some more horses, although this time they’re in the form of mechanical horses under the hoods of these vehicles seen northbound on University Avenue at Richmond Street, circa 1947.
In 1964, the abandoned King Edward VII statue came to the attention of Canada’s High Commissioner to India, Roland Michener, who three years later was to become the nation’s governor general. He contacted Toronto businessman and philanthropist Henry Jackman and, with funds raised by public donations, it wasn’t long before the king and his horse (albeit in pieces) were on their way to Toronto.
Once reassembled, the city’s newest landmark was ready for unveiling at an event that took place in 1969. Oh, and just as Roy Rogers had “Trigger,” and Gene Autry had “Champion,” King Edward had “Kildare,” a name that could be the answer to a fascinating game of Toronto trivia.
May 23, 2010
A Royal Trip Around T.O.
The year 1939 was special for our country and for virtually every one of its 11,267,000 citizens. In the spring of that year, King George VI and his consort, Queen Elizabeth, came for a visit. Arriving aboard the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Australia at Quebec City on May 17, the royal couple spent the next month touring the nation from coast to coast, departing Halifax on June 15.
Torontonians were particularly eager to welcome their king and queen. Huge crowds turned out see Their Majesties during their public appearances at Exhibition Park, Riverdale Park, and at the Woodbine Race Track, where they watched the eightieth running of the King’s Plate. Thousands more viewed the royal couple and waved from vantage points along the miles of city streets traversed by their maroon McLaughlin Buick touring car during their day-long visit on May 22.
In honour of the royal visit, Toronto’s new municipal aerodrome located across the Western Channel at the foot and Bathurst Street and just west of the Hanlan’s Point ferry dock and picnic grounds was officially given the title Port George VI Island Airport. However, not long after the couple returned to England, the name was simplified to Toronto Island Airport. After another name change in 1994 it became Toronto City Centre Airport. A further change was recommended in 2009, and it officially became the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. Haven’t checked its name lately, but it’s quite likely that it’s still “Billy’s Field.”
There’s another name in the west end of town that perpetuates memories of that long-ago visit, despite what some of our young citizens may think. Today’s modern multi-lane Queen Elizabeth Highway does not recognize the present Queen of Canada (nor do the initials ER along the way stand for Eleanor Roosevelt). The highway does, in fact, honour her mother, the same lady who accompanied the king on that royal visit back in 1939. Of course, provincial officials had to get the queen’s approval to so designate the new highway, which, it is reported, she gave with great pleasure.
While today we refer to the entire eighty-six-mile stretch from Highway 427 (on Toronto’s western outskirts) to Fort Erie as the QEW, the original Queen Elizabeth Way was only that portion between St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. This stretch (and only this stretch) was so dedicated by Queen Elizabeth on June 7, 1939.
Originally known as the Middle Road, so named because it was located between the Lakeshore Road and the Dundas Highway (#5), the routing of this pioneer thoroughfare would become the right-of-way for the Toronto–Hamilton section of the new Queen Elizabeth Highway. This 1923 photo is from the Ontario Archives.
During their visit to Canada in 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth spent some time in Toronto. On May 22 they visited Woodbine Park (Queen Street East) to watch the eightieth running of the King’s Plate. Two weeks later, the queen dedicated the St. Catharines–Niagara Falls section of new Queen Elizabeth Way.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the lake, the new Toronto–Burlington/Hamilton Highway (they hadn’t yet decided on its final name) was still being referred to as the New Middle Road Highway.
This highway was merely an upgraded version of the existing Middle Road that had started life as an extension of Toronto’s Queen Street and was given the name the Middle Road because it was located midway between the ancient Lake Shore Road and the Dundas Highway.
It wasn’t until August 23, 1940, that provincial officials declared the stretch of highway that ran between Toronto and Niagara Falls open. The entire stretch would be known as the Queen Elizabeth Highway. Another year would pass before extensions to the Rainbow Bridge and to Fort Erie opened to traffic.
June 6, 2010
Namesake Is Forever Yonge
Aw nuts! I forgot his birthday again. And now it’s too late to send him a card. Actually it’s much too late, since he passed away in 1812. And while I haven’t yet mentioned this person’s name, it’s one that virtually every Torontonian, heck every Ontarian, or quite possibly every Canadian, will recognize instantly. He’s the man for whom Toronto’s main street is named.
Interestingly, Sir George Yonge (his actual birth date was June 17, 1731) never even visited our community. So perhaps one has reason to wonder how his name came to be attached to one of the nation’s best-known streets, the very same street that was recognized for a time by the Guinness people as the world’s longest (changes to the provincial highway system made in 1998 by the Mike Harris government put an end to that claim to fame).
The real reason for Yonge Street being so named has more to do with the province’s first lieutenant governor, John Graves Simcoe, than anything else. And here’s why. Soon after Simcoe’s arrival from England in 1792 to begin his tenure, he started to change many of the existing place names because, as he often stated, their sounds were “foreign