Lost Toronto. Rev. ed.

Pleasance Crawford is a Canadian landscape and garden-history researcher
and writer, and the editor of Landscape Architectural Review.

This is a book of descriptive essays, with archival photographs and
copious endnotes, about Toronto’s architectural history. The
prize-winning first edition (Oxford University Press, 1978) had long
been out of print when Dendy began its revision, a project he completed
shortly before his death in 1993.

His revisions were extensive. The greatly improved quality of the many
photographs carried over from the first edition provides new insights
into building materials, architectural details, and landscape settings.
There are 32 new photographs, most never before published. The book
begins with a marvelous panoramic series of 13 photographs taken in 1857
from the roof of the Rossin House Hotel. Many of the original essays
were extensively revised, and the endnotes have been expanded to more
than twice the original number.

In both editions, Dendy did more than simply document demolished
buildings; he celebrated their fine points. He also called readers’
attention to endangered buildings. Although the Bank of Upper Canada had
“seemed in 1978 to be doomed to demolition,” Dendy was able to
report in 1993 on its restoration in the early 1980s. For a prompt
reopening of the seventh floor of the Eaton’s College Street store,
unfortunately, he could hold out little more hope in 1993 than he had in
1978.