Toronto’s Waterfront Resort Era

May 26, 2012

The sweltering days of mid-summer have come again early this year, and Torontonians are flocking to the city’s waterfront trails, parks, and numerous blue flag beaches in record numbers. This renewed interest and activity at the shore is encouraging, and harkens back to the days in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when tens […]

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The Toronto Island Archives

April 28, 2012

Many of us are drawn to the past, and in particular, local history, though few of us make it our life’s work. Those who do are keenly aware that the past informs the present, and that the stories revealed by our shared experience deepen our sense of place. Toronto Island resident Albert Fulton was one […]

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Along the Shore Facebook Page is live

April 2, 2012

Thanks so much to all those who have read and commented on my blog posts. I also have a Facebook page up and running, that gives more frequent, smaller “bites” of information on the history, landscape and people of the Toronto waterfront. Please feel free to “Like” that page, and visit it as often as […]

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Book of the Month – Toronto During the French Régime: A History of the Toronto Region From Brûlé to Simcoe, 1615 – 1793

April 2, 2012

Classicist, artist, teacher and historian Percy J. Robinson’s Toronto During the French Régime is a foundational text on the history of Toronto. The book focuses on the earliest roots of Toronto, and the First Nations and French presence at and near the waterfront, prior to the commencement of official settlement with the arrival of Lieutenant […]

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Rediscovering the Lyman M. Davis

March 19, 2012

Here is a link to a video of a dive to the wreck of the Lyman M. Davis, which lies in Humber Bay, about 130 feet below the surface of Lake Ontario. Blown up and burned as a spectacle off Sunnyside Beach in 1934, the Davis refused to completely die, and though now buried deep […]

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Toronto’s Forgotten Waterfront and Marine Heritage

March 6, 2012

The Lyman M. Davis, Muskegan piers, 1906 Newaygo County Historical Archives, Miscellaneous Photos, no. 47 In our high speed, digital age, it is hard for many Torontonians to imagine a time, not so long ago, when Lake Ontario was our life line to the outside world. Shortly after the arrival of Lieutenant Governor Simcoe in […]

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Excerpt of Along the Shore to appear in Scarborough Big Art Book

February 7, 2012

I am very happy to announce that an excerpt of my upcoming book, entitled “The Scarborough Shore”, has been chosen for inclusion in the Scarborough Arts Council’s Big Art Book, 2012: A Digital Anthology of Writing & Visual Arts in Scarborough. I was also one of ten writers chosen by the Scarborough Arts Council to digitally record […]

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The Cliff, the Lake, and the Book

January 25, 2012

Dear readers, For the past number of years, I have been researching and writing the story of the Toronto waterfront through the lens of four waterfront districts in the city that retain a direct and immediate connection to Lake Ontario and the natural world. All this work has resulted in the completion of four manuscripts, […]

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