Bruce Bell

In 1875 one of 19th century Toronto’s most popular music halls Albert Hall, opened for business. Popular not only for its fine musical and Vaudeville acts but because it was located in what was becoming the new centre of the ...

Bruce Bell — The corner of Berkeley and The Esplanade is undoubtedly one the most historic spots we have in Toronto today. It’s where once stood two small red brick buildings built in 1796, Canada’s First Parliament buildings. The buildings ...

Bruce Bell — On the hot sweltering Tuesday afternoon of Aug. 10, 1909, passengers lining up waiting for the ferry to take them to the coolness of the Toronto Islands could see a thin line of smoke rise above their ...

I have been looking for what stood at the northwest corner of Jarvis and Shuter for a while now. I have heard it was a bar, flophouse, rooming house—a three-storey building of some sort. But can’t find anything. I work ...

In an editorial written for a local newspaper, The Canadian Freeman, dated May 26 1831 Francis Collins writes the following: “Houses of infamy are scattered thro’ every corner of the town and one of them had the hardihood to commence ...

Dear Mr Bell, I considerably enjoyed your article on Eatons and the Eaton family, mostly because every member of my (originally) Northern Irish extended family–including myself one summer when I was a student–worked there at one time or another, beginning ...

To Bruce Bell: At the back of the courtyard of Biagio Ristorante on the back wall of the North St. Lawrence Market is a row of concrete classical heads. Could you shed some light on their origin and meaning, and ...

Bruce Bell — If the word “Multicultural” best portrays Toronto today, then 100 years ago the word to best describe our city was “Methodist.” Methodists did appear to be austere; a sober Protestant religious congregation best summed up as without much ...

Bruce Bell — By the age of 7, growing up in the wilds of Sudbury, I could recite the last words of American patriot Nathan Hale as he stood on the gallows before being hanged by the British during the American Revolution: ...

Paulette Touby — When Waterfront Toronto was looking for locations for art installations in the West Donlands they settled on the corner of Eastern Avenue at Sumach. Why? Because it is the site of the home of Lucie and Thornton Blackburn. ...