Walking Across Toronto on Bloor/Danforth

Here is the story of my first walk across Toronto. I originally thought this might be harder than it was, but as it turns out it is quite easy - with the City of Toronto* being only about 21 km across. Rather than do it in one shot, I did three separate walks (and used the subway to either get to the starting point or return to our home) but documented it (below) from east to west from Victoria Park Avenue, along Danforth Avenue (named for American contractor Asa Danforth Jr. who was responsible for building it) and then Bloor Street (named after a brewer named Joseph Bloor**) to the Humber River. Click on any picture to see a big version!  Also part of this map.

*(not incl. Scarborough or Etobicoke)

**(From Wikipedia) "Originally surveyed as the first concession road north of the baseline (then Lot Street, now Queen Street), it was known by many names, including the Tollgate Road (as the first tollgate on Yonge north of Lot Street was constructed there in 1820) then St. Paul's Road (after the nearby church, constructed 1842). From 1844 until 1854 it was known as Sydenham Road after Lord Sydenham, Governor General of Canada 1839–1841. The street was then given its current name in honour of Joseph Bloor, a local brewer and land speculator who founded the Village of Yorkville in 1830 on the north side of this street and who was one of the street's original residents."

Victoria Park Subway Station was the starting point. The far eastern edge of the original City of Toronto and beginning of the unknown eastern lands :-) . Luckily I was heading west.

Next is Shopper's World (and the original Shopper's Drug Mart!) on the south side of Danforth just west of Victoria Park.

The west end of the main buildings of Shopper's World are shown below. Way back this was a Ford assembly plant.

(from the torontosun.com)

"In 1923, Ford purchased a little over 15 acres of land at the southwest corner of Danforth and Victoria Park Aves. for $1.5 million. During the second World War, Ford turned the Danforth property and its 182,000 sq. ft. of floor space over to the Canadian Army who used the space as a parts warehouse. In 1946 the building was acquired by Nash Motors of Canada and Ford began searching for a new factory site (Ford moved to Oakville in 1953). On May 11, 1950, the first Nash Statesman rolled off the line at the totally remodeled Danforth Ave. factory. Incidentally, it was the Nash model that had seats that could be converted into twin beds for “overnight stays along the way.” A dozen years later, the former car factory was remodeled once again, this time into one of the city’s largest shopping centers known as Shoppers World. An early tenant was Koffler Drugs, now a much expanded chain known as Shoppers Drug Mart."

Where Dawes Road comes into Danforth, this building used to be the Noah's Ark Tavern (bit of a dive; cheap beer; you could bring in your own meals from restaurants across the street). Considerably more boring now.

Hakim Optical has been on the SW corner of Main and Danforth 'forever'.

Now an A&W, this building just east of Danforth and Coxwell used to be the old Bus Terminal Diner (Art Deco style).

The old Allenby theatre (now a Circle K associated with the Esso gas station) at Danforth and Greenwood.

Not all condo projects have gone ahead. This photo is almost identical to a picture I took 4 years ago (but a few more weeds).

A small diversion - here's a picture of Pape and Danforth prior to the subway being built (and with streetcars that went both along Danforth and down Pape). Looking east.

And speaking of condos, slightly south of Danforth on Pape is YACCC (Yet Another Church Condo Conversion). This one is very nice - formerly Riverdale Presbyterian Church.

Back to Danforth, and a busy day a few years back commemorating the lives of those lost in the Danforth shooting in 2018.

One of many 'The Dominion Bank' buildings across Toronto at Logan.

And down to the SE corner of Danforth and Broadview (older picture).

Which is very similar today.

And looking east from just west of this intersection - prior to the Prince Edward Viaduct being built!

Just west of Broadview, this used to be public washrooms.

And after crossing the Don River (over the Prince Edward Viaduct), you leave Danforth and continue on Bloor. Here's the Rogers corporate headquarters just south of Bloor - off Mount Pleasant where it curves into Jarvis.

And the new building on the SE corner of Yonge and Bloor.

The SW corner of Yonge and Bloor. Used to be a Stollerys Men's Wear https://torontoist.com/2015/01/the-rise-and-fall-of-stollerys/

Church of the Redeemer at Bloor and Avenue Road.

North end of Philosopher's Walk  U of T. Nice green pathway through a small part of campus.

Close by is the original headquarters of the Meteorological Service of Canada.

When I first came to Toronto I loved the older buildings. Aside from many on UofT campus, there was one by the St George subway station that looked so cool - turns out it is The York Club. The original residence of George Gooderham Sr. Of Gooderham & Worts Distillery fame, but the family also helped found Dominion of Canada General Insurance (my old company).

And in an interesting link, I saw this (Art Deco period?) building nearby. It is now the Jackman Humanities Building. The same Jackman that controlled E L Financial which owned Dominion of Canada General Insurance. And right across the street from the previous building (with the Gooderham connection).

Bloor Street United Church getting a little roof work done.

At Spadina - some history on the 'Spadina Expressway'.

Lee's Palace. We saw Teenage Head there!

New building going up where Honest Ed's used to be - the block south of Bloor west of Bathurst.

Christie Pits park. Infamous baseball grounds of the Christie Pits Riot are in about 100 yds and down a hill.

Cool older building beside Ossington Subway Station. An old police building it looks like - now a day care.

Bloor Gladstone Library (you'll see various - but not all - libraries in these trips).

And a couple of photos of this library at its opening in 1913!

They're demolishing Kent Public school right next door to Bloor Collegiate (which is also being demolished).

The UP Express stop (just east of Dundas Street West - where Dundas is running N-S instead of E-W, but that's another story).

Cool giraffe camouflage at Bloor and Dundas.

A chess house! (At High Park)

Looking down to the NW entrance to High Park.

Runnymede Library.

There's a theatre down there 😀 - Village Playhouse.

Shoe store - with a big Blundstone.

Bloor St West looks just like Danforth between Broadview and Pape or so.

And finally, as you approach the western edge of the city of Toronto, looking down on the Humber River.

And the Old Mill Station - at the far western edge of City of Toronto (actually slightly into Etobicoke).

Stay tuned for trips across the city on other major thoroughfares!

The Rouge River part 1

We started our exploration of the Rouge Valley today - and have probably seen up to 1% of the valley by now. See this link if you want some info on the Rouge. Or perhaps this for the trails. We only saw the Rouge River on this trip - not the Little Rouge Creek.

So we started out near the Toronto Zoo around Meadowvale and Sheppard, just onto Twyn Rivers Drive (from the Welsh it seems - Twyn). It started out with a fairly open area and path.

We already knew that the area was known at 'Glen Eagles Vista' so were expecting a great panoramic vista of the valley. Not quite. However we could see a trail winding its way down into the valley (see below) so we took it.

It was a welcome change from the 'asphalt path and carefully maintained' look of many of the places we have walked, and it was a beautiful day. Heard lots of birds chirping and saw a raccoon (not as big as the inner-city ones😀) and a rabbit.

Nice open woods. Took this photo to document in case we got lost as we knew each tree had its own unique 'fingerprint' and it would be easy to find us through CSI technology commonly shown on TV!

Crossed over the river on this old tree trunk (or possibly on a bridge just upstream)...

and came upon a quite new-looking BBQ just waiting to be used!

At times our path was blocked by impenetrable barriers - each more impenetrable than the last.

The final tree trunk was over 2 feet off the ground but we navigated it successfully.

The trip wasn't without fear and the feeling of being watched by otherworldly beasts though. First we ran across this:

Which was probably just raccoons having fun with out-of-town tourists, but then later we realized something spooky in the following picture.

At first I had taken it as a picture of a nice little waterfall and was going to then point out that it's actually coming from a big sewer line. But later when I looked at the picture I saw something in the sewer pipe (expanded view below) that made me realize that we were being watched by something possibly of extra-terrestrial origin. If I had known at the time I would have jumped into the Rouge and covered myself with mud to deceive its probable infrared vision (per Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator). Later realized there is camouflage you can get for this very reason! Didn't double-check what the large pile of bones was beside the pipe.

Took another picture of trees just because they were so photogenic.

And then it was time to gain some elevation to get back to the van. And back for the other 99% of the valley some other time(s).