Stones, Bricks, and History: The Corner of "Duke & George" 1798-1984; The North-East Corner of Adelaide Street East and George Street, Toronto

John H. Gryfe is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon practicing in
Toronto.

The sesquicentennial celebration of Toronto’s incorporation provided incentive for a variety of cultural acknowledgments of this auspicious occasion. A predictable barrage of books published during 1984 detailed innumerable aspects of Canada’s largest metropolitan area. While Stones, Bricks, and History is not the most memorable of this group, it does demonstrate the special allure Toronto has for some of its inhabitants.

Neither of the authors has let formal training in other professional fields interfere with a commitment to community involvement. Sheldon (a practising lawyer) and Judy Godfrey (a physical and occupational therapist) first gained prominence in 1982 when their restoration of a downtown Toronto historical building was rewarded with the Heritage Canada National Award of Honour. This restoration of a group of structures at the “corner of Duke and George Streets,” a project that entailed two years’ labours, is the subject of this informative book.

The northeast corner of present-day Adelaide St. East and George St. is the site of a curious mix of Canadian history. A bricked-up wing, in its reincarnation the country’s oldest surviving post office, neighbors a building that, as the head office of the Bank of Upper Canada, exerted considerable influence through a directorship that included many members of the infamous “Family Compact.” Further decades would see a succession of real estate transactions that would allow a boarding school and, later, a prestigious religious institution to share this historical ground with a Royal Air Force recruiting centre, a farmer’s organization that was the government of Ontario for four years, and, ultimately, an egg packing plant. In 1977 the Bank Building was declared a National Historic Site, but a dramatic fire on June 30, 1978, was the actual impetus for the restoration.

This text does not pretend to be the ultimate historical document. It contains detailed information as well as many anecdotal illustrations. All references are carefully footnoted at the base of each page, a practice that, though laudable, can be distracting. A more conventional listing at the end of each chapter is preferred by this reviewer. Many of the photographs and illustrations are reproduced less effectively than one would have hoped. The pictures of the restoration, a personal scrapbook, are unfortunately too small and of poor quality.

For the reader interested in peering through a small window at a progressing historical view of nineteenth and twentieth century Canada, this book offers a pleasant, if frustrating, diversion from more formal documents. It would be a great deal more enjoyable, however, if the publisher had taken as much care as the restorers in creating the product.