Bruce Bell

The burning of coal at the gigantic Consumers Gas complex—some of which still survives in the Berkeley and Front area—blackened the rich marble and brick facades of almost every building in Toronto. It was also coal gas that killed thousands ...

Downtown Toronto’s first local theatrical performance with a cast made up entirely of local actors took place in 1820. That first play was a production of “The School for Scandal”by Richard Sheridan. It was put on in a back room ...

Joe Shuster, the co-creator of the comic book Superman, once worked as a newsboy for the Toronto Star which at that time stood on the north side of King Street just west of Bay St. In an interview he gave ...

In the heart of Corktown—on the southeast corner of Parliament and King streets—once stood the Derby Tavern. The tavern was built in 1846. Generations of mill workers (on their way home from a long day toiling at the various factories ...

Present day Parliament St. was once a rough road that cut through the dense forest leading up to Lt Gov. Simcoe’s country home—Castle Frank—that at one time over looked the Don River at present-day Bloor St. Though our first Lt ...

John Hutchison was born in Scotland in 1817 and moved with his parents to Montreal in 1828. He went on to be employed with the mercantile firm of Torrance and Co. and in 1847 he came to Toronto where he ...

It’s been a while since I’ve been as excited about a new skyscraper in Downtown Toronto as I am over the 40-storey Ernst and Young tower being built at 100 Adelaide St. W. just west of Bay St. What makes this ...

These photos of corner of King and Yonge streets (one from 1937 and the other from today) illustrate the passage of time. The black and white photo shows a small portion of the Canadian Pacific building behind the newspaper kiosk. ...

When the TD Centre opened in 1966 it became the symbol of the new Toronto: wealthy, powerful and full of promise. We now had the largest, tallest and biggest corporate office space in all of Canada and it had been ...

Berczy Park behind the Flatiron Building (Front, Wellington and Church streets) has a very confusing-sounding name which over the years I have heard pronounced a few different ways, including “Bear-ski,” “Bear-tzee” and “Berk-see.” However one of the men responsible for ...