“Hi, I’m the Golden Lion (capital letters out of respect, please), the life-size venerable gold-painted sculpture that’s the mascot of the North York Historical Society (NYHS). “Columnist Susan Goldenberg loaned me this column space to announce that after many years of wandering, I’m now in permanent residence on the North York Central Library’s fifth floor …
We know what early Canada was like thanks in large measure to C. W. (Charles William) Jefferys, one of Canada’s finest historical artists and a North York homeowner for 29 years. He bought a house at 4111 Yonge St., just north of York Mills and built circa 1833, in 1922 because it provided a wonderful …
The Don River winding through North York originally had an Indigenous Mississaugas of the Credit name, Wonscotonach (“burning bright point”). It was inspired by the torchlight used to light up the darkness for nighttime spearing of salmon that then filled the river. One of the first things John Graves Simcoe did when the British government …
For nearly 140 years, just one family — the Stongs — occupied much of the land that is now the site of the main campus of York University and neighbouring Black Creek Pioneer Village. Stong College, affiliated with York University’s Faculty of Health, points to this past, saying it’s “enriched by the Stong family pioneer …
BY SUSAN GOLDENBERG | NORTH YORK MIRROR March 12 was a historic date in North York’s history. It was 70 years ago, on March 12, 1953, that a sod-turning ceremony was held on farmland in east North York for Don Mills, North America’s first privately funded, master-planned, mixed-use, self-sufficient “new town.” It was assembled from …
BY SUSAN GOLDENBERG | SCARBOROUGH MIRROR FEBUARAY 25, 2023 The Toronto French School at the northwest corner of Lawrence and Bayview avenues in North York originally was “Armadale,” the 22-room abode of one of the most contentious figures in Canada’s history. Sir Clifford Sifton lived there during his waning years with his wife Elizabeth Armanella …
BY SUSAN GOLDENBERG | SCARBOROUGH MIRROR JAN 19, 2023 In late summer 1926, North York farmer William O’Sullivan was routinely digging in a gravel pit on his property when his spade clanged against something big and hard. A boulder, he probably thought. Was he in for a surprise! It wasn’t a giant rock. It was …
BY SUSAN GOLDENBERG | SCARBOROUGH MIRROR It’s little known that Sir Sandford Fleming (1827-1915), whose invention of time zones set a universal standard, flopped in his attempt to be a North York housing developer. Fleming also created Canada’s first stick-on postage stamps and was chief construction engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1856, Fleming, …
Wayne Ford – Teen was convicted for his mom’s 1963 murder March 18, 1963, was the last day Minnie, then 55, was seen alive, writes Susan Goldenberg BY SUSAN GOLDENBERG | NORTH YORK MIRROR On Oct. 16, 1966, two men strolling the beach of Lake Couchiching, in cottage country 140 kilometres north of Toronto, made …
BY SUSAN GOLDENBERG | NORTH YORK MIRROR NOV 29, 2022 In the 19th century travelling circuses headed to Ontario’s north from the City of Toronto via a Yonge Street bridge over the West Don River, linking Toronto’s northern end with rural North York. Short, the wood bridge ended south of present York Mills Road. In the …
