The Ned Hanlan

 

Location: Hanlan's Point

Date photo taken: 17 September 2021

This tugboat, now stationed near the ferry dock at Hanlan's Point, is a true piece of Toronto history. It was built for the Toronto Works Department in 1932 right here in Toronto. This piece of information shocked me. For some reason it never occurred to me that this city, despite being on a such a large body of water, would have a shipbuilding industry. 

The boat was retired from service in the 1960s and eventually moved to Exhibition Place before being relocated to Hanlan's Point in 2012. You may have noticed the name of the boat written on the side and assumed that it and Hanlan's Point are named for the same person, but you'd be wrong. The point is named for James Hanlan, an early settler on the Island. The tug was named after his son, an early Canadian sports hero who won seven straight world sculling championships in the 1880s.

Traffic Signal Box - Toronto Map Maze

 

Location: Eastern Avenue at Carlaw

Date photo taken: 9 January 2021

Image #21 in the Traffic Signal Box Series

If you find yourself near the corner of Eastern Avenue and Carlaw with some time on your hands, pop over to the north east corner and find this traffic signal box. On it artist Pam Lostracco has created a maze using Toronto's streets and rivers. The CN Tower is marked as the start and there are other destinations, many of them greenspaces, to discover as you work your way through the maze and around the box. A fun and different way to discover the city.

Hot Ash Only

 

Location: Ashbridges Bay park

Date photo taken: 5 May 2021

It might seem odd to see a "Hot Ash Only" sign on a bin in a park in Toronto but if you consider that 33 parks across the city have firepits anyone can use, it starts to make a lot of sense. Especially if you've been to one of those parks on a gorgeous summer day and seen how popular a venue they are for all sorts of gatherings, including barbecues. All those hot coals have to be disposed of safely, in a way that doesn't start trash bin fires or put small feet at risk of burns. That's where these bins come in.

While firepits are free to use for small gatherings, if you plan to have more than 25 people at your event, or just want to ensure your chosen pit is available when you want it, you need to book in advance and pay a booking fee. If you'd rather bring your own barbecue, that's allowed but perhaps surprisingly, you need to make a booking for that too. And don't think you can scavenge firewood for your cookout - only charcoal and briquettes are allowed, at least in the city provided pits.

Cleaner's Action

Location: 1628 Dundas Street East, just west of Brock Avenue

Date photo taken: 9 July 2022

Apart from the size, you could almost describe this mural in Little Portugal as understated. The faded appearance is the result of the way in which it was created - not painted, but rather excavated. The artist, known as Vhils, creates his murals by chipping away at the layers already in place, revealing what is underneath. Which is a perfect fit for the theme of the mural. It features faces and scenes drawn from archival photos and reports, of women, predominently Portuguese immigrants, who worked as cleaners at Queen's Park. In the 1970s they came together and organized to demand better pay and working conditions and sparked a major labour movement that would become known as the Cleaners' Action. 

You can learn more about the labour movement and the women behind it on this site. For more information on Vhils and his creation of the mural, there is an interesting article by David Ganhão.

Drink Canada Dry

 

Location: 900 Queen Street East   

Date photo taken: 28 April 2019

This awesome vintage Canada Dry sign hangs out front of Eddie's Convenience on Queen Street East just west of Logan. Whenever I see vintage signs like this, I wonder about their story - when they were first hung and how it is that they have survived. So I turned to the city directories to see if I could discover anything. It turns out that Eddie's Confectionery, the business name that appears in faded letters at the top of the sign, first appears in the city directory at this location in 1954, operated by Sylvia Rosenbloom. The "Eddie" is explained if you look further back. In earlier years, the listing for this address simply read "Rosenbloom, Edward, confy". 

With stores on retail strips coming and going and changing from one type to another, it was interesting to me to discover that since this address first appeared in the city directory in the late 1900s, it has been occupied by a number of different people - Norman Shier, Geo Sernissi, Nathan Besserman, and perhaps others - but it was always a confectionery.

City of Toronto Archives

 

Location: 255 Spadina Road

Date photo taken: 9 April 2025

There's an awful lot to love about the City of Toronto Archives. Their collection contains millions of records that detail the history of our city and the people who have called it home. If you visit, you can get a glimpse at how all those documents are organized thanks to a huge viewing window installed just outside the Research Room. You can also take in an exhibit. A new one, Under the Wrecking Ball: Shaping Toronto’s Downtown 1960-1989, opens May 1. It takes a look at some of the large-scale land redevelopments that occurred during the post-war years in Toronto and some of the the buildings that were lost as a result.

If you can't get to the Archives during their somewhat inconvenient opening hours (Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4 pm), there are plenty of online exhibits to enjoy. Also, a significant portion of their 1.25 million photographs have been digitized and can be searched using their database. If you prefer a curated experience, there is also a section featuring some of the staff's favourite photos. 

Nyx 2025

 

Location: Trillium Park

Date photo taken: 22 March 2025

This eerie work is one of the 14 light-based installations you'll find scattered around Trillium Park right now. It's part of the free light festival being hosted in the park until April 4. The theme this year is Neon Dreams: Light and Colour and this work is by artist Thadea Decora with Vincent Glasheen. According to the artist's statement, the sculpture "reflects the artist’s feelings about AI and technology in all its wonder and horror" and was inspired by Jean-Léon Gérôme's 1896 painting Truth Coming Out of Her Well.