Tuesday Treasures

 Tom hosts Tuesday's Treasures.

August 2026 - Toronto ON

The historic and long-abandoned Oak Leaf Steam Baths located at 216 Bathurst Street.

Opened in 1941: The building operated as a traditional wood-burning steam bathhouse (or "schvitz") for over seven decades.  It was legendary for having some of the most intense, hottest steam rooms in Toronto.

 Bathers would use traditional oak leaf branches (veniks) to hit the skin, a classic Eastern European practice meant to boost circulation and open pores.

Stepping inside was described by visitors as an untouched relic of the mid-20th century. To release the steam inside the rooms, patrons had to pull a mechanical chain on the wall, similar to the pull-cords found in old Toronto streetcars.

 It served eastern European immigrants, Jewish men, and later acted as a discreet social space for gay men.

By the late 1940s, it had quietly become a vital, discreet meeting space for gay, bisexual, and closeted men at a time when homosexuality was criminalized and heavily policed. By the 1980s, it was considered one of Toronto's oldest gay-identified operations, famously managing to evade the notorious 1981 Toronto bathhouse police raids.

Click here for murals of the police raids.

The bathhouse was shut down around 2015 due to a bitter legal feud between its co-owners. One owner had worked there since immigrating from Kyiv in 1990, manually stoking the wood fires that heated the facility. Amid mounting debts, hundreds of thousands in unpaid property taxes, and a court-ordered receivership, the historic facility closed its doors for good.

Click here to read about the Canadian Museum of Human Rights, which includes this story to highlight the personal impact of the legalization of same-sex marriage in Canada (which occurred nationally in 2005 under the Civil Marriage Act).

Tuesday Treasures

September 2020 - Toronto ON

Queen St. West and Bathurst

Built as a Masonic lodge between 1876 and 1878, the Occident Hall, as it was then called, was one of the first buildings designed by architect E. J. Lennox, the man behind such iconic structures as Old City Hall and Casa Loma.

Occident and St. George’s Chapters held their meeting in the building. The spacious Blue Room on the top floor, which measured 50’ by 30’ was rented for various functions. This grand hall possessed a massive domed ceiling. Most Masonic Halls in this era contained large halls that they could rent to derive income for the upkeep of the building.

The windows on the second floor are Roman arches, but the yellow-brick trim above them is Gothic. This is an unusual design arrangement.

Click here if you want to learn more about its history.

Tuesday Treasures

 Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

Travel Tuesday

Our World Tuesday

Image-in-ing
My Corner of the World

Postcards

Toronto ON

Click here for a history of Toronto lane naming and a list of other lanes with neighbourhood descriptions. That post is a work in progress, and gets updated frequently.

Note Luttrell Loop Lane post has an additional photo added from our visit to the Halton County Radial Railway Museum this week.

When you cross Spadina at Queen St. Graffiti Alley becomes Lot Street Lane.

Further along on Queen St. West (around Portland??) 

Originally known as Lot Street, it was the baseline established by the Royal Engineers, when they laid out the town of York (now Toronto) in 1793.

It was renamed in the 1840s in honour of Queen Victoria.

Lot Street marked the southernmost perimeter of a series of 100- acre park lots, which extended north to what is now Bloor Street. By setting aside these tracts of land for the gentry, the surveyors signalled the expectation that Upper Canada would perpetuate the British class system. Among those granted Park lots were Chief Justice John Beverley Robinson, lawyer and dry goods merchant D’Arcy Boulton Jr., business entrepreneur George Allen, and Doctor William Warren Baldwin, all of whom were prominent in the new community. Established in large part to provide for an influx of United Empire Loyalists fleeing the War of Independence south of the border, by the 1830s the prestige attached to the ownership of land had been overtaken by the desire to subdivide lots for speculative building due to urban expansion. 

UPDATE NOVEMBER 2021

I found this at the corner of Queen St. W and Bathurst.

Park Lot 18 Borden Street to Bathurst Street

Granted to the Edward Baker Littlehales, 17 September 1800, and patented on 10 August 1801.

Park Lot 17 was granted to Alexander Grant. It ran from Queen Street to Bloor and consisted of 100 acres. Park Lot 18 separated it from the line that became Bathurst Street and had been granted to Littlehales. George Taylor Denison purchased Park Lot 17 and the east half of Lot 18 in 1815. Denison built his house, south of the south bank of Russell Creek at what would become the south side of Dundas Street. There were also two outbuildings on the property, one to the west of the house and the other north of it but on the other side of the creek. The house itself was Loyalist Georgian in style, covered with roughcast stucco painted white. There were several large fireplaces. George Taylor Denison lived in the house until his death in 1853. His son, Robert Britain Denison (1821-1900) donated the site of and built St. Stephen in the Fields Church. In 1854, J. Stoughton Dennis surveyed the lower portion of the estate into town lots, which were offered for sale. In 1889, R.B. Denison sold the house and what remained of the property, and the house was demolished the next year.

Thursday Doors

Linking up at Norm's Thursday Doors.

September 2019 - Toronto ON

Yorkville

Marine Parade Drive

Bathurst

Monday Mural

I'm linking up at Monday Mural

June 2019 - Toronto ON

New murals at Stackt, Front and Bathhurst.

ELICSER - always happy to see his work! Click on his name in labels below to see more of his work.

BKEZ  (Bareket) Click on her name in labels below to see more of her work.

Young Jarus

This references a news story from 1981.

On Feb. 4, 1981, the Toronto gay community, like many communities, was somewhat fractured, with many disparate voices and factions offering opinions on how to advance their issues.

.

But the next night marked a pivotal moment in galvanizing the community — when police officers armed with crowbars and sledgehammers raided four city bathhouses and arrested more than 250 gay men.

Click here to see Toronto's Pride Village murals.

#RoofSquares

Becky at The Life of B June's theme is Roofs. Tag your post #RoofSquares and link to Becky’s post each day and remember your image must be square.

I'm not sure I will post every day but will try.


CN Tower Part 2

The CN Tower held the record for the world's tallest free-standing structure for 32 years from 1975–2007 and was the world's tallest tower until 2009 being overtaken by Burj Khalifa and Canton Tower, respectively. It is now the ninth tallest tower in the world and remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere. In 1995, the CN Tower was declared one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It also belongs to the World Federation of Great Towers.

The Scotiabank Theatre Toronto was originally named the Paramount Theatre. Its name was changed to the Scotiabank Theatre Toronto in a deal that created the customer loyalty programs of Cineplex and Scotiabank. The theatre’s modern architecture is perhaps jarring to the eye when first viewed, but it is an impressive structure that dominates the scene like no other building in the area. At night, its neon lights, similar to the grand marquees of theatres of old, such as the Imperial and Loew’s Downtown, shine into the night and illuminate the busy street below.

Looking over the rail yards which once cut off the city from the harbourfront.

The yellow bridge or Puente de Luz, "bridge of light", links the western portion of Concord CityPlace to Front Street West for bicyclists and pedestrians. The bridge was constructed by Concord Adex as part of the City of Toronto's requirements for linking the new neighbourhood to the rest of the city. It was designed by Chilean artist Francisco Gazitua and is costing $8 Million to construct and install.

The black bridge or The Sir Isaac Brock Bridge is a steel Warren truss bridge. It carries four lanes for motor vehicles with Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)'s streetcar tracks along Bathurst Street over the railway tracks south of Front Street.

Entertainment District with hotels, theatres, restaurants and shopping.

Other Roofs

Union Station Toronto
City Hall Toronto
CN Tower Toronto Part 1

Bloor St West

 May 2018 - Toronto ON

I had intended to find a CONTACT photography exhibit near Bloor St. West and Lansdowne, I did finally find it but was uncomfortable in the area so skipped it and instead decided to explore this part of Bloor St. West. I will be coming back as they were many sights and stores that warrant a longer visit.


On Lansdowne, at one time this was a strong Italian/Portuguese  neighbourhood.

St. Helen's Ave has an animal themed mural beside the Value Village.

I had intended to get back on the subway at Lansdowne but spotted this on Bloor.

Toronto History Blog:
The Academy Theatre at 1286 Bloor Street West was one of Toronto’s earliest movie theatre. Plans for it were submitted to the city in November 1914.

This was cram packed with junk treasured items and I intend to go back and have a good look around.

An old sign uncovered at the now Emerson Restaurant. I could not find out anything about the Credit Strand Clothiers.

Sign at the Grey Tiger Bar.

Sign at the Muslim Centre.

Again, I couldn't find any information about this old LOANS sign.

We are in the midst of provincial campaigning and Doug Ford is unfortunately running. Everyone will remember him as the brother of the infamous Rob Ford who was mayor of Toronto and who made us a laughing stock.

And now for a little more elegance.

Originally named for its local community, the Dovercourt Branch was the first Toronto Public Library building to be constructed solely with funds from the City of Toronto, and without the aid of Carnegie grants. Designed by the Toronto firm Chapman and McGiffin, Architects, the branch is a Beaux Arts adaptation of the Italian Renaissance style. Its symmetrical plan features a low, hipped roof with extended eaves, Flemish bond brickwork with stone and terracotta detailing, and expansive round-arched windows. Considered the largest library branch in Canada at the time, the building was also noted for the outdoor reading terrace between the wings of its U-shaped plan. It was later renamed the Bloor/Gladstone Branch to indicate more clearly its location. Renovated and expanded in 1976, the building was nearly doubled in size with the completion, in 2009, of a contemporary addition on its western side.

Near Bathurst.

Black Horse established in 1892, I've read that it is a bit of a dive.