Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Hidden Toronto: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1635

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

In this 1635th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with the official Toronto historian of the Toronto Mike'd podcast Jeremy Hopkin about hidden Toronto. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1635 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities like ours, good times like we're about to have, and brewing amazing beer, which we're not going to crack open because it's 10 a.m. but I'll have one with the same GLB crew at noon. Drink them if you got them. Order online for free. Local home delivery in the GTA. Palma pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. I bought some of their Irabbiata sauce. Unbelievable. A little spicy for the kids, but man they make a

good Erabbiata sauce. Recyclemyelectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future, means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Building Toronto Skyline, a podcast and book from Nick Ainiis, sponsored by Fusion Corp Construction Management Inc. and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today is the official Toronto historian of the Toronto Mic'd podcast. It's Jeremy Hopkins. Good morning, Mike. Welcome back, Jeremy.

How's it going? Your first visit of 2025. Yeah, and I've had a great year last year with you and I hope to have another one. Well, let me recap last year, then we'll catch up for a moment and introduce the topic. Heck, tell me what the topic today is right now, actually. Okay, this is an idea that actually FOTM Moose Grumpy had. She came to me at the last TMLX and we were talking about just you know just I was thinking of ideas for the next episode and she said oh what about things

that are hidden in Toronto and I've been well that's kind of cool but what you what do you really define as hidden and we didn't really figure that out there so I've just been thinking about it since then. She's just the idea person, okay? You're supposed to take that and then you're supposed to run with it. I thought it was a great idea though. And then I thought about all these little weird things that I know about that probably nobody else knows about.

And I thought, hey, that could make a great episode. Well, I love it, cause I have no idea. I guess you're gonna count down 10. I do have a rough listing of 10. We'll start off at 10 and go to one. Yeah, beautiful. And I'm looking forward to it. And I'll tell you if I knew about it or not, like I'll be very honest, uh, hidden Toronto. Now the Torontonians that are in the know and any Torontonian who's in the know

is subscribed to Toronto mic'd and they're definitely cherry picking those Jeremy Hopkins episodes. Okay. Every quarter. So let me tell the listenership that this is your first visit in 2025, because we're still in Q1, but you were here. Let me just recap this very quickly. In 2024, and we only started your quarterly visits in 2024, because I met you at a TMLX event at Palma's Kitchen

in Mississauga in, I want to say early December or late November. I can't remember, but it was 2023. So the end of 2023. Yes, that sounds right. I met you and then I'm like, Hey man, come over because I love talking about Toronto history. And you came over in April, 2024 episode 1468. So all the hop heads can catch up. Hop heads are also GLB drinkers. I feel like that.

Well, I don't know where the origin of my name comes from, but it could be the kin of the hop. Maybe they really liked brewing beer or something back in the day. Absolutely. You were, your people's were brewers back in the day. Absolutely. So April, 2024, brewers back in the day. Absolutely. So April 2024 and it was episode 1468 and I wrote Mike is joined by Toronto historian Jeremy Hopkins to discuss 10 Toronto buildings That should not have been demolished So 10 buildings that are no longer here, but we wish they were here and that was amazing

Thank you. You had like visual aids and everything and you can't hear those visual aids 10 buildings that are no longer here, but we wish they were here. And that was amazing. Because you had like visual aids and everything, and you can't hear those visual aids, but somewhere there's probably video. But yeah, it's good for your YouTube coverage. Love it. May, 2024 was episode 1492. You came back.

So that was Q1 in January, February, March. You were late for Q1. So we had to get you right back to get Q2 satisfied. So May, 2024, that was episode 1492. Oh man, so you were sailing the ocean blue. That was the one where we felt bad about talking about all these broken, destroyed buildings. So we talked about buildings that we saved.

So these are buildings that, right, 10 buildings that should not have been demolished and thankfully were not demolished yes so they're still here today we saved them yeah and some of those were fought for by people and some of them were just miraculously saved what a great episode okay so then you came back in august 2024 it was episode 1541 and we uh we discussed 10, so like TV shows or movies that were filmed in Toronto. Yeah, and that was sort of a timely episode because TIF was happening right around that time so I thought we would talk about that then.

Well, I can see that I had a lot to say. I can tell by the length of the episode how much I had to add. Oh yeah, you did. You had your personal story about Cinderella Man. Cinderella, oh my goodness. And I love that. Shut up to Michelle. That was great. I'll never forget. Okay, two hours we went that day, so we're not going two hours today, but

October 2024 was your most recent visit. It was episode 1572 and we shared, you shared with me, the top 10 Toronto ghost stories. This was a Halloween podcast spectacular. Yeah, we had fun on that one. We even dressed up. That was that was cool by the Toronto tree. Speaking of dressing up, I want to let the listenership know who aren't watching the video on YouTube that you are wearing a raccoons sweater. Yeah, for sure. Cyril Sneer. Yeah. Well, this isn't Cyril. This is one of the raccoons. I forget his name.

I haven't watched it in a long time. That's the main guy and I can't remember his name either. I'm going to check maybe Canada Kev or Dan J or somebody will tell me in the live stream. But that was like an ecological show we watched as kids when we had hope. Yeah, oh, definitely. Because Cyril Snir wanted to cut down the forest and they lived in the forest and they wanted to save it. And it was very much about the about the environment and about saving it and and cherishing that too. And now we our hope is dwindling but we're doing what we can right Jeho? Yes definitely

we're trying you got to fight the good fight and it's never gonna end. You're always gonna have to fight for this kind of stuff. Well you know that you're not throwing your electronics and your cables in the garbage because you're keeping those chemicals and out of our landfill. You're going to recycle my electronics. That's a definitely whenever I have an antique electronic I don't want. I would definitely throw it in there. All right. Check the live stream.

Come on, Canada, Kev. This is your assignment. Who's the main raccoon on the right? Because I can tell you this much next week,, somebody who's gonna be visiting the basement is used to do voices on the raccoons. So Stu Stone is in the calendar for next week. I didn't know he did raccoons as well. Yeah, this guy's prolific, okay?

I'm telling you, when you dive into the Stu Stone IMDB page, you're gonna be there a while, is what I'm telling you. Stu Stone's a bit of a poker-oo for me. Every event I come to, he's not there. But the guy's always filming the dark side of the ring. It keeps him on the road. He's very busy right now. Yeah and also with Don't F with Ghosts. Don't. He goes to Winnipeg for that one. I'm going to kind of lock him down next week and I'm gonna tell him he has to attend TMLX 18 which is now confirmed. It's gonna be June 26 from 6 to 9 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewery,

which is 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard in South Etobicoke. I'm gonna make sure Stu Stone's there. Will you, J-Ho, be at TMLX 18 on June 26 from 6 to 9 p.m.? As long as the heart's ticking, I'm gonna be there. Okay, I want you there even if you're at Ridley Funeral Home, I want Brad to roll you and Brad to roll me in. Yeah. He'll do a good job and preserve you. Drain those fluids. He's got a beautiful new hearse.

I would love to be rolled in in that. Well, you know what? You cross your fingers and your dream will come true. So shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. Shout out to Great Lakes Brewery for hosting us. There's some beer on the table for you, J. Hope, but you brought yourself a coffee so you can bring that home with you. Thank you.

And of course there is a lasagna in my freezer for you from Palma Pasta. So the last note before we dive into hidden Toronto is, um, much love to Nick Ienis from Fusion Corp, because he was my guest a couple of weeks back. You can get to know more about Nick. The good, the bad, the ugly, Nick Ienis, a reasonable man that you can get to know more about Nick. The good, the bad, the ugly Nick Aini's a reasonable man that you can talk to.

And if you convent have a convincing argument, which you know, that's what we do, right, J. Oh, we bring our facts to the table and we have convincing arguments and he'll have an open mind and change his mind on different things. A Lanric Bennett Jr. Had has him sold on the need for some bike lanes in Toronto to help a cyclist get around. So shout out to Nick Aines because he opened his wallet and he said, I want to keep this

going. I love the conversations I hear on Toronto Mike. I want my quarterly Jeremy Hopkins fix. Cool. So much love to Nick who did attend an TML X event at the GLB Brew Pub. So we love this guy and we look forward to hearing more from Nick in the future. Are you gonna be watching the hockey game tonight?

I think I am. I actually- What, you think you are? What, if your heart's ticking, what's keeping you from it? Well, we were gonna do a pub dive tonight, but not anymore. So- Well, the pub you dive into, hopefully it serves GLB

and it will have the game on TV, right? It probably will. Yeah. It'll probably be way too noisy to talk anyway. So yeah. And that might be the way to go. Like my 10 year old's into this. So I'm not going to a pub tonight. I'm not cause, uh, you know, bringing the 10 year old to a pub at like 10 30 at

night, I'm not sure that's great parenting or whatever, but we're pretty jazzed about this. I'm wearing my Canada Jersey. You got the raccoon sweater. I got my Canada jersey on. I wore it from RCE and yesterday. I'm pretty damn anxious and excited about 8 p.m. tonight, PogChamp.

And again, I don't know the numbers, but a lot of people will hear this episode, believe it or not, Day It Drops, which is today, the 20th. And they'll have consumed it before the game. But I think more people, the vast majority of people, will actually listen to this after the game so they'll know whether we had a good night or a sad night any predictions from you Jeremy Hopkins I

want Canada win imagine you told me you wanted USA I'd kick you out of my basement I would say I would don't think I won't do it I'm looking forward to the first time I kick a guest out of my basement never have Canadians been this passionate well it's been a long time so it's nice to see that again. People passionate about kicking people out of basements. You know what? Nothing unites a people like a common enemy. Mm-hmm, definitely.

And we got one now. Oh, we so do. All right, man. I feel like a go Canada go. Glad you got here through the snow They're starting to like so I guess step one was to like plow Although so I biked with my eight-year-old to school today and we have a bike lane on a street called Birmingham And I can tell you unrideable we had to take the lane. No, there's they're not they'd nobody plowed

So anybody and there's a bike lane. The waterfront trail has a connection like a stand And there's a bike lane, the waterfront trail has a connection, like a separated bike lane from First Street to Norris Crescent. And I rode it a couple of times, oh I did ride it, because it's actually unrideable too. It's as if they put all the snow in the bike lane, so they cleared all the snow from driveways and the street. And it's all the bike, you couldn't walk that bike lane,

okay, so I had to take a lane on Lake Shore. And, but they're trying to remove some snow. You know it's unrideable when you don't ride it because you ride in anything. Yeah, I, you know, you can't ride like mountains of snow. So no go. My friend, the mic is yours. People are tired of my voice.

I don't blame them at all. No worries. No, your voice is fine. Don't worry. Yeah, is it a good voice? Yeah, it works. It's perfect for trying to mic. My tire, well good,

because it's the only voice I have. I could do something. No, I don't have any other voice. Okay, Jeremy Hopkins, Hidden Toronto. So it's going 10 to 1. Well yeah, is it okay if I do a little bit before that? You know what? Take your time, honestly. Alright, I just wanted to, since our friend Robert Lawson didn't rob or lossen me, I thought I would rob or Lawson myself for this. That's a fact check.

For the season. And the last four episodes, the first four, 10 Toronto buildings, I was trying to think of a dance hall that was down at the Lake Shore and it was the Palace Pier. I was trying to get out of my head, but I couldn't. So the Palace Pier, but I thought it was more over this way, but it's actually technically in Humber Shores now. So if you listen to that episode, that's the one I'm trying to spit out there. Also, 299 Queen Street West. Back then, I should have known they weren't

turning it into a train station or anything like that, because even back then, they weren't planning on doing that for the Ontario line or for the Queen line. Okay, why did I get that bad info in my... I think I misled you on that one. It's not probably not misled. There's a lot of things thrown out there in the press. So there's a lot of ideas that people had. So that could have just been one of those. Okay. Other than that.

But can I, did Bell Media sell that building? They didn't sell the building. Apparently they're revamping it for, I think Bloomberg is the company coming in. So, okay. That part of it is. Okay. They own Bloomberg, right? Yeah, it's one of their divisions.

So, oh, I'm so sorry. That's okay. The great Jeremy Hopkins, it's only his fifth appearance. He doesn't know you turn off your ringer. And as I remind you to turn off your ringer. I plead the fifth. I'm doing the same because it would be awful if mine just rang out at that moment. But okay, so any more fact checks? Yeah, there's a few more that I can throw in there. The second episode I said Henry Pellet, the owner of Casaloma, had died in his former chauffeur's house. Or no, his gardener's house, but it was actually his chauffeur's house. I'm glad you corrected that one. I got a lot of angry emails about that one.

They're like, you guys are supposed to know what you're talking about, gardener, chauffeur. It's a good thing you guys have good security at the New Toronto border because if they got through, man. Oh my goodness. Whose side are you on when New Toronto and Mimico meet up on Dwight to battle it out? Oh boy. Well, I'm coming here. I'm on your side. Okay, thank you. Because you know, we got to get these Tyler Campbell's out of here and retain the Mimico Joe's. Okay. So all right. Thank you. Any more fact checks? In that same episode, E.J. Lennox,

I was trying to think of a building that he had that was currently at risk that was at U of T. And you thought maybe you knew it, but it was the Stewart building I was trying to think of. Since then, there's new news, it's actually gonna become a student residence. So they are saving that building. Oh, that's good news.

Yeah, it's a beautiful building. It kind of looked like an old skyscraper that he designed earlier. So it was nice that they saved it It was built for the Toronto Athletic Club Also, there was another time another instance in that I've got a mistake Jeremy Hawking Oh, no, I do I need a new 20 Adam bunch in here a couple of these are just Clarifications too because we were talking about Zenniels and we're trying to think of the years that they were the zennials and it's from 1977 to 83 so your wife is a zennial I'm a zennial so that's like a hybrid like

your part gen X part millennial yes there's so many technological yeah my wife's 81 advances that happened in that time too that they're kind of a different breed of people it's it's weird how they define them interesting yeah because I did think okay so there's a little bit of a like a fringe there on each side. Definitely. Zennials okay. And I also couldn't think of my wife's birthday that episode. Wow. 1983 so there you go she's one as well. Well you can't track these things you got a lot going on. Did your wife does your wife ever listen to your appearances on Toronto Mike? She does and she's shown a few of her friends the appearances and they said hey you did great on

She's not ashamed of the fact that now we need to fact check everything now. I need to get Robert Lawson listening even closer. No, she's just glad to get me out of the house and uh and that I'm not fat checking fact checking shows in front of her and stuff like that. Oh that's funny. So it can't be irritating and I've tried to I tried to lay off on it a little bit, but because you know, if you've got someone spouting out stuff all the time about things, it's annoying. Listen, you're preaching. Listen, okay, just go talk to Monica about that, okay? She's been living with me for whatever, 14 years or so.

Okay, my friend. Okay, I got it. I am so primed for the top 10 hidden Toronto. Oh, right. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shut you down there. That 10 hidden Toronto. Oh, right. Oh, I'm sorry. That's your cue. I didn't mean to shut you down there. No, that's your cue.

Okay, the first thing I could think of was one place that people really aren't allowed to go in and a lot of even doors open is the attics of places. So a few of them I thought about right away that ones that had been, you know, unfortunately and fortunately, our prices in Toronto have gone up for rent. So a lot of those places that weren't accessible are all of a sudden becoming accessible because people have to make use of every square inch of buildings. So one place I was thinking of right off the top of my head was in the King Edward Hotel. There is the Crystal Ballroom on the top of the 1922 Tower Edition,

the higher part of the King Edward Hotel. And it was basically named for the incredible crystal chandeliers that hang in there, very beautiful decorations in there. And it drew a lot of high profile events and a lot of big bands played there, kings, princes, you name it, had visited that location. But not Prince? I don't know if Prince was in there but he could have been. But other princes? Other princes, yes. And in 1979 a lot of the building codes got strict and they had to shut it down because it didn't meet fire code and a few other codes. So it sat basically vacant and just used as storage up until 2017 when they got the idea to restore it

and have a grand opening. And they use it, they've used it for a lot of high profile events since then and it's just beautiful inside. Unfortunately, of course COVID, and it's not really great to have that happen right when you open up a new event venue. So-

Well, tell that to Michael Weckerle. Yes. The El Macombo. You want to go in and buy it with me? I would love to if I had the cash. We'll just have like TMLX events at the El Macombo. Apparently the recording studio in there is incredible. I almost, well, Donovan Bailey, I produced his show,

and there was a, I don't know, they met on a beach and I don't know where they were at a wedding or something. Michael Wackerly and Donovan Bailey are buddies apparently. And Michael said, Hey Donovan, use my facility. And I lit, I biked over one day to get a tour. There's a guy named Andre who works there and he gave me this thorough tour. Oh, I met him before too. Okay. And uh, basically, we strongly considered recording there and I decided, uh met Andre, okay. And basically, we strongly considered recording there and I decided, nah, it's better here.

And it was, you know, I didn't spend $20 million, but we did it here instead. It's a much nicer commute down just stairs instead, yeah. We don't need that El Macombo studio, but yeah, he sunk a lot of money, but now that the news is coming out that I guess he borrowed the money and never paid it back. So there's some stuff going on there. But that's all in

the mainstream media news you could read. But, but back to the King Eddie. Yeah. And I don't know how many, I know that once a year I get invited by FOTM David Kynes to go to what he calls the Hollywood sweet breakfast. And it's a really cool event. Like I hang out with the Jonathan Grossman's of the world and the Ed Conroy's of the world and, you know, Joe Goldberg's and these guys are all hanging out there. And it's a great breakfast. I love it. I don't know what room I'm in. Like I'm in a big, beautiful ballroom.

Like it does King Eddie have a bunch of these? It does have a few ballrooms. OK, like I don't want to say I was in this crystal ball. Is it open now? It is open now. It's a very big, spacious ballroom. Well this is a big, spacious ballroom. I think some of their other ones are a little bit smaller but even those are fairly large so yeah, I'm not sure. Well while you count down, while you talk about your number nine, I will search my Gmail to find out what room I'm in when I go to the King Eddie, you know, shout out to Jerry

Levitin, Sir Jerry. But I have news about the raccoon we did not name effectively. This raccoon's name is Bert Raccoon. How could I have forgotten that? Yes. But I forgot too, but it's like you don't see it anymore. We watched it in the literally the mid to late 80s. I guess this show ran from 85 to 91. I love that show when it was on, but yeah, I couldn't think of his name at all. Oh, I loved it too. They had the faucet noses basically. And yeah, it looks like their eyes are handles

for the faucet for the other sneers. And one more note here before we get to number nine and I find out what room I was in. This is like a radio, like mainstream media would have like teasers like coming up after the break. We'll tell you the top reason Men forget their wives birthdays or whatever right so King Eddie actually had a radio station for a number of years to built right into one of their rooms

See you never know it'll trigger a fun fact that you okay So one thing is your first four appearances you would sit in that chair And this is some inside baseball for the FOTM's listening, but you'd sit in that chair and the camera would be here. Yes. Angled like that. Then about a month ago, Charlie Angus came over. Did you hear the Charlie Angus episode of Toronto Mike?

Yes, I did. Okay, so Charlie Angus came over and I sat him where I always sit, my guest, right there. That way I can see them. Like I can't see you if I'm hurting. So I would stare in the guest's eyes here and the camera would be here at this angle. I know there's a lot of visuals here, but work with me everybody. And that clip, I put a clip online, a couple went kind of viral basically.

One about Wayne Gretzky and another about Pierre Poliev and they were pretty good sound bites from a guy who's pretty good at making sound bites. And Charlie Angus was riled up and it was kind of a big moment and still is but they're still getting shared quite a bit and a woman was watching the clip and she wrote me an email and said I just saw the clip of Charlie Angus in your studio and I produced and she gave I can't remember her name and she had a long list of shows she produced she was photography person on all these shows and everything. Like she was a big wig in photography or whatever.

And she said, you're both looking the same direction. And she said, I have it wrong. And I realized I actually never considered the visual aspect of this show. Like I never considered it. I threw up some cameras and I went. And she's like, you have it backwards for your guests because you need to like when I look at you in the visual We should be looking at each other, but we were looking the same way

So I said I went back and forth with her and I said this is my current setup and I drew a map I told her I said what should I do and she said I'd have the guests sit where you are and then the camera instead of going this angle do the exact opposite which is what we have now and then the camera instead of going this angle, do the exact opposite, which is what we have now. Yeah. And voila. So the, if you watch a clips, I put some clips of Marcy Ian online. There was a great moment yesterday. So she knows, I know because I know about, uh, she had a relationship with Maestro fresh West beloved FOTM, but I'm not going to like, she's in my basement, this MP, this honorable one who's a member of cabinet but I'm not going to like, she's in my basement, this MP, this honorable one, who's a member of cabinet and I'm not going to out her on that. So I just basically play some let, let your backbone slide. And we talk about the day because she talks about

being a friend, you know, friendly with maestro and we're talking about the scene. I'm looking and then at some point I asked her, so you were just friends because I'm good. I'm not going to say, I'm not going to outer like this is her job to out herself or without the, you know, no shame in dating the maestro Marcy and the maestro imagine that imagine maestro is like the first man or whatever okay so I'm looking her in the eye we're looking at each other and I know she knows I know and we just start we just break out and laughter like it's this moment and she's like we were good friends and she's smiling at me with this twinkle and right so I took that clip I love that clip and I shared it. And basically I've got the right camera angle now. This is the long-winded

way of saying I modified the camera angle based on this email I got from a woman who saw the Charlie Angus clip and said, Mike, you got it wrong. And I said, lady, I never considered the camera angle. This is a podcast and now I've got it right. I did notice the difference. It was nice to see you facing each other in that in that clip. Okay so all is well in the world. Number nine! Oh number nine actually I had a few subheadings under the the addicts besides besides the King Edward Hotel I wanted to talk about I've actually been up in the attic of the Parkdale Theatre and that was a fun experience to actually get

to go into one of those places that's normally not open. And it's an old theatre down on Queen Street by Roncesvalles and it's now an event centre. But when I first found out they were renovating it, I dressed up in my old suit and introduced myself to them and they said, wow, you look like you're from the air. And I said, wow, it's really cool. Like, what's up? What's up there in the in the attic? And they're like, oh, there's like about 30 feet up there. You want to go see it? Yeah, of course I do. So I got invited up there. And we looked around and it was very dusty.

You can see the old ventilation system and everything. But there was also stuff up there from 1919 when they built the building and it opened up in 1920 but still there in the dust there was milk bottles and cigarette packs and everything and I checked the dates on some of these things and I'm like these have been up here since the place was built. I can't believe it. Just amazing what was there. So these hidden spaces that we find, it's really cool what you can find in them and I really hope more of those are retained instead of just everything

being faceted because the inside of buildings have so much character as well love it so much here here's what my invitation said oh okay it's kind of exciting to reveal this to you now yes so it tells me the date and the time and it says Crystal Ballroom King Edward Hotel, so for the last few years I have spent some quality time in the Crystal Ballroom Amazing so it's no longer hidden because I've been there and I tell you it's very unhidden now Yeah, I guess we could call this episode hidden and found or found and hidden I lost and found now. Yeah, I guess we could call this episode hidden and found or found and hidden. Lost and found. Lost and found with Jeremy Hopkins. Okay, amazing. Also under the subheading of Attics, I wanted to talk about the Whitney block of Queen's Park. Have you seen the Whitney block? Probably. Okay, it's

across the street from Queen's Park and it's an art deco building built in the 20s, but they added a tower in the 30s that place Also because of fire code they had to abandon the the tower So it's basically storage now because it had a hand-operated elevator and there's just staircases and it's very inaccessible to today's standards So who knows what they're gonna do with that one day if they're going to make it accessible, but it's a beautiful art deco building. I hope they just keep it going. Amazing. And I guess that's it for the the addicts. Okay, so there's some hidden addicts that are now, you know, been revitalized and we

need the space because it's expensive, like you said. Exactly. Nine is observation decks. So I'm also it's not quite an attic, but it's right up there as well. And there's a few in, let's see if I can find it here. That's exciting. I wanted to- Observation decks.

There, you know, every building downtown, even from the teens, when they started building these skyscrapers had an observation deck because for that short amount of time, they were at the tallest building and you could see all around the town. As they built them up and the views got blocked,

those places got shuttered or just basically turned into regular office space. So one of the ones I wanted to talk about was the Bank of Commerce building. I've actually been to the observation deck in that building. Every once in a while for doors open, they open it up. This, in this occasion, I knew the security guard there and he said do you want to come up and check it out and hell yeah. Was it Chuck the security guard? No it wasn't Chuck it

was a it was another another guy Jess. Sam Crenshaw? I wish it was him that would be really cool Sam and yeah I got to go out there it was nighttime so it was kind of cool looking around there and seeing what the view, just dreaming about what the view might've been back then because you look around this observation deck now and it's all just buildings all the way around. Right. Another deck I've been to recently for Doors Open

was the TD Center Building. On the 54th floor, they basically reserved the floor as an observation deck and a special meeting room and it basically got shut off to the public and eventually they opened it up for special visits like this. Also City Hall, they recently had a doors open tour for the observation deck there. A lot of people don't know there is an observation deck on the roof and it had a cafe and a few things up there that you go to it's largely unoccupied now. And also the manual of some manual life center had an

observation deck on its 54th floor. Why would they not make the observation deck of the new City Hall accessible? I think it's only really I don't know if it's a money issue or if it's Do I need to call a more Lee right now? I'll call her what you keep talking It's a really cool space and I'm sure it would be a great place to have events and also Just a cafe and just a hangout spot, but it's it's normally not open I'm gonna see if I can score a future tmlx event on India, the observation deck of the city hall. That would be very cool.

I will make some calls. Diane Sachs takes my calls. All right. And I think that's about it of the ones that I wanted to highlight it for the observations. Okay. So we got, we got attics and observation decks. I feel like they're similar, but different.

Yeah. I'm digging this so far. Okay. So we're on number eight. Okay. So one of the very first things I thought about was just the underground, things that are hidden, buried underground. And I didn't know until fairly recent that, you know, I started doing research in certain areas that mammoth bones were commonly found in

Toronto when they were building the first buildings downtown. Wow. And woolly mammoths. Woolly mammoths, apparently when they were building the Eaton Center, the original Eaton Center, just when it was Timothy Eaton, they found some mammoth bones there. They also found some on DuPont Street. And in North York- DuPont and Dufferin, right?

That's the Galleria Mall. They were building the Galleria Mall and they found woolly mammoth bones. I don't know if they found them there, but. All right. And yeah, North North York everywhere they did find that and I was very surprised because I didn't think they had found anything like that but more recently they don't because those sites have been already developed right so.

Wow okay let me shout out really quickly uh I'm working on a change of heart deep dive with a couple of members of the uh founding members of band Change of Heart. One would be Ian Blurton, of course. And I just bought a ticket to see there's a couple of shows. There's a new album from Change of Heart, an FOTM band, and they're going to go back to back like a Friday and a Saturday in April. And they're playing at this garage, which is on Geary Street. And I actually saw a band playing in this garage during the Geary Street art crawl that I attended last summer. It's very cool. That's a cool event but I can't wait to see Change of Heart at this garage on Geary Street and Geary is like parallel to DuPont just like a titch north. So

this event's very close to the aforementioned Galleria Mall location. So I just wanted to throw that out there. I'm working on my Change of Heart deep dive with a couple of founding members of the band. That sounds like fun. Yeah, come on, that's why we're here, to talk about Hidden Toronto and Change of Heart. So some more underground Hidden Toronto.

When they were digging an intake pipe in Toronto Harbor, the workers stumbled upon a piece of stone that had footprints in it, ancient, ancient footprints, indigenous footprints that were all crisscrossing. And I guess at one time that was the lake bottom and it had become fossilized over the years. And they found this and because it was just a work project and they didn't really think they could save this thing, they ended up just burying it afterwards and probably destroying part of it. So I'm currently looking into this a little more because I want to find out more about the story, but that just seems amazing that they dug under the lake and then found this

amazing discovery. I feel like that could have been used. They built out all these spits or whatever, these manmade spits. So there's one near here, Sam Smith, Colonel Samuel Smith Park. And there's like spits or I guess they're called spits and it's already like manmade shoreline. Oh yeah. But it's just all the junk they dug out.

Like we could have it there. Yes, definitely. It, you never know what you're going to find in some of these places. Amazing. Usually it's just like old rounded brick or whatever that's been eroded by the waves over the decades. There's also on the ground, I was thinking another hidden thing in Toronto is the old garbage dumps. Apparently there are about 160 garbage dumps that were in the city of Toronto, the current borders, and none of them are really open anymore. They've all been closed more than 40 years ago. Currently the solid waste pretty much goes out to this place. Oh where was that again? It's out by London, Ontario.

We don't just throw it into outer space? No, it would be nice if we could shoot it into the sun, it would just burn off, but no, we can't do that. No, because I feel like those chemicals would be harmful. Yeah. We burn those off. I think you put them in like a big cargo ship and send it to the Philippines or something. Oh no, I hope not.

And then they send it back. Oh man, as new products I guess. Or not. So is there any garbage dumps in New Toronto I should be aware of? I'm putting you on the spot, you probably don't have all. I don't know any of the ones in New Toronto. I do know that there's still a dump. It's some, maybe it's a special kind of dump, but there's one at Jane and Dundas. It's been there forever I feel because there was a library at Jane Jane and done best okay and then there was a now it's pizza Nova I think but it was forever a Dairy Queen when I was growing up and then the other side there's there's a dump okay

because why they're train trying sometimes they do allow clean fill now but as far as dumping something that will rot and become you know have methane off gassing they it doesn't it seems like they don't really do that anymore but I'll have to look into that one too. Now, Canada Kev chimes in that Eglinton Park's awesome Toboggan Hill is on top of a landfill. Oh, wow. That's a good point.

Wow. And now I'm thinking, I just watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with the two little ones, the 1990 version. So the sequel is coming up next with the legendary rapper, Vanilla Ice. So, um, go Ninja, go Ninja go.

And it's called secret of the ooze. And I'm just wondering like, if these like toboggan hills on landfills is how we get mutants. It could be because a lot of these, um, old sites have leachate that leaks out from the places and sometimes makes a toxic plume that goes wherever the water flows. So this is how this is an origin story for many a superhero. I know Riverdale Park is an old dump site and

there are a few other ones that have been turned into parks over the years. But sometimes you'll know where they are. They have there'll be a vent pipe that comes out of the ground to vent the methane. Now some places in the States have actually harnessed that methane and turned it into fuel. Here we haven't done it yet, but in any of the sites that Toronto has. Fascinating. But some of them burn it off though. You'll see little flames at the end of the pipe just burning off this methane.

Well, you think that's methane. I think that's something else, but to be discussed. Okay. Other than that, that's methane. I think that's something else, but to be discussed. Okay. Other than that... Do you have to mark a dump? Like when we have these unmarked dumps... Because Canada Kev's wondering if Christy Pitts started as a dump. Oh, Christy Pitts was a sand pit. So I don't think they really... There was a possibility it could have been turned into a dump, but they didn't do that. And then it became a park so early that really there was no chance for it to become a dump. And stay tuned.

I hope to be recording live from Christie Pitts. Be it whatever it was. I know what it is now. It's where the Toronto Maple Leafs play and I hope to be back there this summer. I had an amazing time there with you and Tyler that day. That was really cool. We're going to duplicate that. Maybe we'll add some guy named Ceto.

Maybe we'll add him to the roster. Stay tuned. Yes. So the current city of Toronto dump is in South Wold, Ontario. And there's this huge complex there where they contain all this, the off-run and everything. And there's farms all around it.

So hopefully they've contained it very well there. Hopefully. Yeah. The next one is number seven. Number seven. Hidden cemeteries. Oh good. Toronto does have some hidden cemeteries around. I saw poltergeist this is a bad idea. Well are they gonna burst through the walls soon? Are you on a... Tell me more because I... Are you on an ancient Indian native burial ground here? Probably. Okay, indigenous story. Right. You're quoting the movie, so it's anachronistic. Okay, please tell me more about these hidden cemeteries.

Well, some of them are hidden from view, like St. Michael's Catholic Cemetery at Young and St. Clair. It has buildings and trees surrounding the place and you can't see it from the road. So even though this thing is 10 acres, you don't see it. And a lot of people have commented about what's that there and I had to look into it because I never saw it either from the road. So there is that one. There's also one that you go by it so fast that it's basically

hidden. It's between the interchange of the 427 and the 401. There's the Richview Cemetery in Etobicoke. It's right between those two. And yeah, it has about 300 people, about 500 people in there. Oh, no, sorry. I think it's about 300. Well shout out to Botto, Joey Botto.

I think he's from that neck of the woods and There's also I was called him Jeremy Botto. Oh, I'm staring at you. Yeah, Jeremy Botto No, come on. Joey bottle. You have so many names in your head. I don't know how you keep well We've got to get Joey Botto on the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. So it all ties together I'm still working on that one. Incredible. Can you imagine? Good luck. You know there's gonna be a woman pitcher. Oh no I didn't know that. A Japanese woman, like she's a phenom, is going to pitch for the Toronto Maple Leafs at Christie Pets. Wow. That's amazing. Maybe her first start, maybe that's the day we record live. I gotta talk to FOTM Keith Stein about this.

Geez, that'll be incredible. Wow. I like when you visit, I can work things out with you. Okay. And one more grave site that I wanted to talk about was one in my hood, one that I grew up in Scarborough. We also knew it, always knew it as Tabor Hill, and didn't know really the history behind it until you go up to the stone and it says it's an ossuary for an indigenous, for the Huron and Wendat. They would have this event every few years where they would go to the various sites where people were buried, exhume the bones, and then bring them to the site and have a feast of the souls, and then inter them in this big hill, which I kind of think was a drumlin, like a geological formation from

the ice age. Basically something gets stuck and makes a big hill, natural hill. And yeah, the indigenous community visited there many years. It was a very sacred site to them. In 1950s developers came along and wanted to put a housing subdivision there, ran their plows into it and...

Subdivisions. ... and discovered there's a whole bunch of bones here. And the news got out quick enough that they couldn't really haul them away and flatten the hill. So what, I mean, I don't know if you'll have these answers, but what happens in that situation when a bunch of developers decide to go into some ground and they find bones? Well, back in the 1950s anything could happen really. All beds were off in the 50s. If nobody saw it back then, there was a good chance it could just be put into a dump site and a couple places in Toronto that actually

happened. It's a little hush-hush about about that happening but it was a whole different time and different era and some of the burial sites have been relocated nicely. I did a story a little while ago about this one up by High Park area where they were basically fixing the road in the area, and they discovered a burial site there of the red clay people, I think they were called, and they were buried, huddled together with this red sort of oxide on them. And he wanted to do what was best. He consulted the chief of the Ojibwe at the time on what to do, and basically he had his blessing

to re-enter them in the ground there, and he did. And so it depends on who finds it, I guess, who respects the land and who respects the history and how many eyes are looking at the time to see that you're doing the right thing. Wow. Okay, you're bringing the heat today, J-Ho. I don't think there'll be many Robert Lawson fact checks required today. You're bringing the heat.

I sure hope not. Maybe we'll spend... Every time you visit, there's a longer period of time off the top where you fact-check things you said in previous episodes and then we realize it's 90 minutes of correcting yourself and we don't have time to do a new episode. Well luckily I didn't have too many corrections the corrections went down as the episodes went on and I got more comfortable so. Good okay you comfortable right now? I am but my daughter got me up at 4 in the morning and I've been up

since then so her legs were hurting so. Are you gonna be now? I am, but my daughter got me up at four in the morning and I've been up since then, so her legs were hurting. Are you gonna be okay for this hockey game tonight? You gonna get a nap in there? I'm gonna have a little nap before that. Oh, see, I actually, okay, so yesterday, my wife worked from home yesterday, and I heard her on a work call and somebody was legitimately asking the question,

if you have toddlers, which I no longer have toddlers, but I had, I've had four toddlers, and now they're not toddlers. But the question was, how do you nap with toddlers? That was a question. And this young woman was like, I don't know if I want to sacrifice naps to be a mother or whatever.

It was sort of the vibe going on here. And I'm listening to this and I'm realizing, I have never napped. I almost said mapped. Shout out to Esri Canada. I have never napped. Like unless I'm feverish with a flu or something, I've never napped. Like I sleep during the night. And then if I'm tired, I plow through the day and I go to bed at maybe a little early,

maybe like 10 p.m. or something like that. I don't know. But I've never napped. But it sounds like you can nap. I can't. I can nap. But sometimes it's a marathon nap and it turns into a full sleep. Well, I'm kind of jealous of you nappers. I feel like I'm missing out on like there's a hack, like a life hack. And I know I've heard, I don't know, like Winston Churchill or whatever. There's these quotes from people are like, if you have a nap, it divides, you get two days of kind of thing. I just have never napped and

I don't want to waste my day napping. I'd rather just plow through and sleep at night. But anyway, I think I got it wrong. I'm just kind of envious that you might be able to nap well before this hockey game today. I might be able to but you might have to if you're awakened at 4 a.m My alarm went off at 730 a.m. This morning. It could also ruin me though I notice if I get to a certain nap length if I almost hit REM and I'm pulled out of it I'll be a beckon mess. Yeah, I'll be a wreck for the rest of the day. You're like a don't operate heavy machinery Definitely no snowblowers. Do you have a snowblower? No, I'm actually in an apartment. So I let the other people do it for me.

Okay. Because this past week we got a little snow. And it's probably like, I do have a moment of like, oh, like that's a lot of snow I'm about to like shovel and I don't know how much place to put it. Like it would be nice to run some machine over it, but then I'm like, fuck that. Like I'm kicking it old school.

Now this will probably kill me. Like at some point in like, I'll be 60 something years old and I'll just have a heart attack. I keep hearing about the shoveling heart attacks. But if that's how I gotta go, that's how I'm gonna go. I don't feel the need, at least at 50 years of age, a little older than you, but at 50 years of age, I don't feel the need to run a machine over it in Toronto.

Maybe if I lived up in Barrie or something. Or where Dan Jay lives I might need a snowblower. You see though, you're a fit guy. You're always bicycling out there and everything. So you're keeping your heart going all the time. A lot of the people- Oh, is that what it is? A lot of the people that go out there for a snow shovel, it's just all of a sudden there's that huge strain on them.

I'm glad we had this chat. Because now that I'm 50, I'm like, oh, I'm thinking, oh, I know people who have gone out to shovel a lot of snow. Oh yeah. And they had a heart attack. Mm-hmm. At 50. All the time, I see tons of articles too in the papers. Historically, tons of people have died

in those shoveling accidents. Again, not to pat my own self in the back here, but I do get pretty good exercise every single day with these 30K rides or whatever it will be. So that might save my life on snowy days because I don't have a snow blower. Yes. Thank you. J-ho. And you probably have good lifting technique as well. I do try to lift with my legs or whatever. I don't want to break out the back. So not only are you the official Toronto Mike historian, you are also our medical advisor. Please continue. So the cemeteries I can't let the cemeteries go by. Yeah. Although Canada Kev got a snow blower so he won't

have a heart attack. Good. We don't want Canada Kev around. But now that before we leave the cemeteries I just want to make sure we have shouted out Ridley Funeral Home. Yes. Okay. Always. There's no better place to go when you kick the bucket than Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of this community. I don't care what community you're in. Have them bust the body to Ridley at 14th and Lakeshore. And I was very impressed with Brad and his snow shoveling technique. Did you see his roof? Yeah. Oh my God. He's got six kids to help him. Oh, that's good at least. Okay He's made a little army of uh, he recently hired a new guy, right? Well, he's hired joe joe from t. I don't know if this is public i'll share it now, but joe from to

Who was my first best friend? We were best friends in junior kindergarten Very cool, and he was traveling around the world with his family took a year off teaching to travel around the world and he was uh in cambodia or something when the COVID pandemic struck and he came on to talk about like decisions they had to make, how it changed things and how plans were altered because of COVID. And his son is going to work at Ridley Funeral Home, which is cool. Wonderful. Amazing. Okay. Next. It always helps to hire somebody that you know. Or somebody that you know who knows somebody that you know.

It always works out. Yeah, yeah. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Hiring family can be problematic sometimes, but. Yeah, but it's okay, you're hiring somebody who knows somebody's family. Yes. That's okay.

So now we're at number six. I wanted to talk a little bit about hidden rivers and creeks of Toronto. I was hoping you'd do the hidden rivers. Always fascinated by this. The main one, I didn't want to touch on too many because I've probably already gone way over time, is Garrison Creek. That's probably one of the most famous. It kind of wound its way through Toronto from the upper areas and went all the way down through the Garrison at Fort York. And a lot of it, pretty much all of it has been

buried now underground and it goes through sewers and yeah it's just gone and wild it also went through Trinity Bellwoods Park and there was a bridge going over it that once they buried all the water they didn't need the bridge anymore so how do they bury it without killing it like no it's all put through pipes it's just put through the sewer system or through a drainage system and yeah, it just goes out to the lake. Speaking of Canada Kev, he knows his pipes as well.

Very nice. So one interesting thing in that park is that bridge is still there and they just buried it. When you go over the Crawford Street Bridge, it's still there but in the ground. I love when I see these maps of hidden rivers and streams in this city and you're like, oh, I had no idea. And there's so many.

And people's opinions on Toronto, basically in the 1700s, early 1800s, a lot of that lower area was swamplands. And everybody basically thought that's why we're getting sick. So a lot of it was filled in because of that because they didn't like swamp areas, they didn't like catfish ponds. Well, they did, but they didn't. And even in the history of Scarborough, since I know a little bit more of that, David and Mary Thompson, who are credited as the first people living there in Scarborough. David Thompson worked in Scarborough, helped build the first Parliament buildings that were here, that were later burned down by the Americans. He basically moved to

Scarborough because it was the highlands of Toronto and his wife had some health issues and this is the story I've heard is the reason why they went all the way out there even though he worked downtown which is a long haul for him to come in. That's where they went to live because they were trying to escape all those rivers so you can see why a lot of those were buried also accidents over the years. I know there was a one river going through the beaches area that they basically completely covered up because, um, some boys had been playing in it and drowned. So you'd have that as well where people would demonize the watersheds that were in the area because of just, you know, bad luck like that.

So, very interesting. Yeah. And, um, yeah, so now we have a lot of those, uh, hidden. There's a lot of great websites out there about the lost rivers of Toronto that you can check out as well. And I'll do so. Okay. You've inspired me. Hidden Transit. Is this number five? Oh sorry, yes this is number five. We need the big number five. Number five. Like a real radio show. I wanted to talk about some hidden transit things, such as,

past couple of Halloweens I've gotten to visit this place, the Lower Bay Station. Have you ever been in there? Yeah, there was a Nuit Blanche event I attended before I had these kids ruining my all night adventures, and well, the new two anyway. And it was open and people were like sleeping on it. Like, so we got to like at 3 in the morning. We were my my wife and I were wandering Around lower Bay checking it out people in pajamas sleeping on it like as part of this new week Blanche

Was super neat. Yeah, I did see lower Bay. Very cool. And it basically it was in use but only for six months It was an experiment when they were trying to interweave the subways that were going through there on both the lines, and they found out it was just a horrible failure, so they just ended up closing it up, and it became a transfer track, or just whenever they needed to do some testing, or- Or filming.

Or if they wanted to make some money on filming, revenue on filming. It does some great business down there with movies. And when you go down there at Halloween, they have a lot of the movie clips playing for the movies that have shot down there and some of the posters up there. So that's really cool. That's an expensive experiment, right? Like this is, you know, that's a lot of effort and money and time to shutter it after six months. It is. And I think they were very, they thought it was a very promising thing to do in that situation but it just it just led

to longer times wait times and yeah they just had to abandon it. So explain to me again so of course there's Bay Station. Yes. So what was the idea behind Lower Bay? Basically they they wanted it was an interlining experiment. So they ran the trains along three routes. And then it, I don't know quite exactly how it worked underground, but the way that this would turn around, you could have the trains going both ways and inter leaving.

And it's very hard to explain without diagrams. Fascinating. Yeah. Fascinating. Yeah. Thank you. Also, you'll notice around the city, this is a subheading of the hidden transit, hidden streetcar tracks. You'll see them basically buried under the pavement

a lot of the places that you go. And lines like the Danforth line, when they brought the subway across, they abandoned them in pieces. So there's certain places like at Danforth line, when they brought the subway across, they abandoned them in pieces. So there's certain places like at Woodbine, you can see the end of the loop that's there off of this street called Strathmore Boulevard. And there's also an abandoned passageway to get from that streetcar area to the subway area.

And it's just basically storage now as well. Right, I think I know places like BlogTO and stuff will often like have a photo of like these are the tracks to nowhere. Yeah and the city does try to quickly close them up now because tragically in 2012 a cyclist was cycling near the old witchwood barns where Artscape which would is and Hit a track and then ended up flipping and hitting their head on the ground and dying Glad you brought this up. That was Joe Mavick Joe Mavick Yeah

The streetcar tracks because on Lake Shore the streetcourt so I've mentioned my eight-year-old is biking in the winter we bike today to her school and we have to cross Lakeshore and we have the same conversation before we cross paths every single time which is we say the magic P word which is perpendicular and basically I won't let her across in wet conditions or snowy conditions yes I won't let her cross streetcar tracks unless she is Absolutely perpendicular to the tracks because it's like black ice I went and I've been very careful because I'm on the blood thinners and I'm not supposed to crash but a few weeks ago I wasn't exactly perpendicular

I was like a 45 degree angle and my tires still got locked into the slipperiest of slippery Which is those damn streetcar tracks. They really are the most dangerous thing out there in rain and storms. Uh, and all cyclists must be very, very careful when crossing streetcar tracks. And that's one to grow on Jeremy. Now, you know, now, you know, so, uh, the city did come up with a plan to actually cover up a

lot of these tracks because it's more expensive to pull them out. It's quite a big cost. So I was gonna say you need to like rough them up or whatever like so they're not smooth anymore. Yeah, yeah, there's something. Get that, get out there, start carving them up a bit. There's got to be a way. So I personally like seeing those things and those remnants are around because I'm I'm weird like that And I love the history but I can see why that would be just horrible and and it's sad that somebody had to die for them to really pay attention to that well, I always we drive on Lakeshore and there's a the Legion very close to

Well, you know near not far from Jamison I guess but the Legion on Lake shore near Jameson and they have a ghost bike there. And my kids are always asking about the ghost bike. And I tell them the story of Xavier Morgan. Like I tell them, I said, until Xavier Morgan at five years old was biking. So he's biking on the waterfront trail, which is separated from Lake

shore, but he's biking West with his grandpa, I think, and he's only five. So he goes off, accidentally loses control, and goes into oncoming traffic and dies. And then immediately fences go up, and now there's permanent fences there. So the next five-year-old biking that exact same route who loses control will hit the fence

instead of going on Lake Shore where the cars are driving pretty fast Yeah, and it's kind of you look at it and I'm you look and you go. Oh that makes sense We just had to lose a five-year-old before we implemented it like so many things that I look at now that oh That's a good idea. We didn't consider them until somebody died I know it's it's very sad that that has to happen for that to really be pushed forward. But when city budgets come up and that sort of there's that drive to get elected, people don't want to see more expenses. They want to see more more frugal frugality from the politicians as well.

So it's just everyone has to get on board and push ahead with that. Me, now that I have kids, I want there to be bollards everywhere. You're on the sidewalk, you're not safe. Well, there you're, you're so close to a lake shore where people drive pretty quick. It's not a highway, but it's kind of close actually, especially if there's room to move. And then you realize like, Oh yeah, you're only like, you only got like a meter or so between the actual bike lane and and it's a hill, right? We're going down the hill because that's where the legion is there. You just look for the big poppy. Oh, okay. It's right where

the giant poppy is there and it all it's just it was an accident waiting to happen. But I digress. digress. That's it. So um I guess what number we are? On to number four. Number four. Hydropower residential substations. Have you ever seen any of those around? So many on Islington. Oh okay. So many. There was about 150 in Toronto, now there's only about 90 because as technology progresses and they figure out better ways to hardwire all of this, they don't really need to have these stations, but depending on the neighborhood you go, you'll have this nice looking house,

nothing in it except for a big transformer. Yeah, I can, I just now thinking about it. So between like Bloor and Queensway on Islington, there's a few. Oh yeah. And I don't know if they did that for the telephone stations. I don't think they did.

But a lot of the the old telephone exchanges are in big buildings as well like that you can't get into. But they look really cool. A lot of them downtown are pretty interesting looking. But I think even those as technology progresses, they might not need those anymore and they may be converted into other uses. So you said there's still 90 of these things. So they so the facade, it looks like a house, like in a residential neighborhood.

Yeah, it looks just like a bungalow or whatever type of house is in that neighborhood. And although they always have a sign like a warning sign or something about don't don't the hazardous, I don't know, electricity, there's like a lightning bolt on it or something. They will have that on the sign and on the front. And also, I know early on they had fancy doors and they looked a little more like they were a house but now they all have those solid metal doors and you didn't yeah you really wouldn't mistake them now yeah those I always uh find those interesting the uh yeah the fake homes yeah uh number three so what is in these fake homes like there's like uh it's basically relays

transformers, you name it, anything to transfer the power to the neighborhood. So you're basically, it's like a condenser or something like that and a piece of electronics. You're coming off the main power off the wall or the main power from the the big station and these are substations to delve out that power to the smaller applications in the houses. And shout out to M&M, Black Stations, White Stations. And they named, yesterday when I was talking to Marcy about Maestro, I pulled out my Maestro Fresh West 12 inch of Let Your Backbone Slide, which is over here.

And I always know that was 89 because Maestro name checks the year in the song. It's 89, y'all not Beethoven's fifth or sixth. So he name checks the year. Black Stations, White Stations by Martha and the Muffins who were going by Eminem at the time because Mark didn't want to be a muffin anymore. I had him in the basement to ask him all about that but they name check it. There's a line in that song that this is 1984 so you always know what year it was. Maybe all songs should name check the year so we can stamp it. Okay that's my new idea. We're gonna party like it's 1999

That'll confuse people you're right So I guess we're on to that it was just about those stations so okay Number three number three. I just wanted to touch on ghost signs, which I've talked about in the past but These are being discovered all the time whenever buildings are coming down. Like when Honest Eds came down, they left one of the buildings up and there was this beautiful Quaker Oats sign

on the side there. And these are still hidden around Toronto and we're gonna see more and more of them as things get ripped down. Recently, they did some work right beside the Royal Alex and two ghost signs appeared there. One of them was sort of visible before, but the other one was a little bit darker because it had been more exposed than the other one. So I eventually deciphered it and I'm going to write an article about that too, because I did a lot of research into the property and they made

undergarments for people and suspenders and all that. So well, I love the ghost signs. Those are pretty cool. Yeah. And we got to make sure we can differentiate between the legit ghost signs. And I don't want anybody left there faking a ghost sign. You know what I mean? Like just painting it so it looks like it's from the 40s. You want the OG lead paint. That's that's where it's at. A lot of people wear. Oh, you're wearing one right now, actually. but and it's cool that you're wearing like a raccoon shirt, right?

Mm-hmm contribute to this show But what I want is the 1985 raccoon shirt and they may not have made any because nobody thought like that back in the day But it's like when you see the CBC retro like I want the og like I don't want the faux retro But you know and you see a lot of Nirvana shirts out there Okay, or Ramones, okay. I don't want you going into H&M and buying a Ramones shirt or whatever Yeah, I want that Ramones shirt. You got it from you know, CBGB's back in the 70s. So cool Yeah, be so worn out though Shadow to CBGB's

Show it to Ridley funeral home and and CBC your retro CBC shirt, that's the OG right there. Well, I have one that's faux retro and my daughter got me and then there's the, I do have the real deal from 1976, the Montreal Olympics. That one's so cool. And it's flammable, so I have to be careful when I wear it. It's 1000% polyester, I guess. It's almost flame. It is not, on those warm days, I regret having this CBC personality over.

Oh man. So I did write a chapter in a book called, oh, what was that again? Signs That Define, brought out by Spacing Magazine and an architectural company, and I touched a lot on the signs and how they're made and how there were some dangers to the people that actually even made them with the amount of lead paint that was used and a lot of these guys

would mix them on mix it on the spot so that's the reason why a lot of these old signs are still around because the lead paint in them it basically defies time and and there's also some good situations too where another building will be built right up against it after it was painted so you don't have any weathering so I'm on the lookout for those constantly. So how often would you contribute to Spacing magazine? Not as often as I'd like to. I'm currently actually... Do you want me to write FOTM Sean McAleff right now? Oh that'd be cool. We chat every once in a while though online just through posts but yeah that'd be really cool. See I don't think Sean is in the country right now because I follow him on Blue Sky and I think he's out of the country but this is the kind of

time where Sean loves Toronto because he loves to put on his cross-country skis. He skis the city and as you know as a Torontonian like last winter there was no opportunity like I looked at my biking stats from 2020 from last winter and it was like a snow for we had more snow in this past week than we got all last winter. Oh wow. Okay but Sean McAleff if he was in Toronto right now it would be in heaven because it is very very skiable all over this city and it's been that way for several days now. Yes. Shout out to Stacey.

And I am currently doing a... Oh sorry. No, you drink, you know what? You drink... Listen, we can't lose our young Toronto historian. You're doing a great job. So we're in the final two, right? You're almost home. Yes. You've been kicking ass as normal. At the very end of this, we'll see if you have any ideas for the next topic, because you're gonna be back here next quarter, but we're on number two. Okay, so number two is a place that's now a museum

called the Toll Keepers Cottage. And it's at 740 Devonport Road at Bathurst. And they're pretty sure that that's the only toll keeper's cottage where the toll keeper would live and actually collect fares that exists in Canada today. And it was almost lost because, well there was five of these toll places along Davenport between Humber and the Don River.

It was built in 1835. And it's actually built of a rare vertical plank construction where they, instead of putting the planks like this, like horizontal, they actually had them standing straight up. So on Howland Avenue, there was a developer that was going to redevelop a property and they were told by a neighbor that's an old toll keepers cottage and it's like no it isn't and but they investigated and they pulled the clapboard away and they looked underneath and they're like yeah this is and so the developer basically was nice to them and said well you got 90 days to remove it from the property

and some people gathered together to save this thing and they turned it into a museum and it's not part of the Toronto museums that are actually run by the city it's a distinct group just for that building so it's a very interesting site they've got it now on the corner there where there used to be a streetcar or a bus loop I think it was I'm not sure what it was but they'd reuse that property and put this cottage there and it's now a museum, an interpretive center. I love that, you know, people get together and save things like that. Yeah, for years, from the 1830s right up until 1996, whenever it stopped being a toll keeper's cottage, somebody hauled it up, turned it into their house and it just sat there ever

since. So there's things hidden like that all over Toronto that you wouldn't know. And yeah, it just looked like a regular house in the neighborhood. So that was lost and found. Lost and found. On the live stream, there's a question about cobblestone streets. Oh, yeah. Now, I'm, I know there's a cobblestone street.

There's the hills that kind of this is'm thinking of ATN Brule Park, and not far from the Old Mill. There's, I don't know, Riverside, I can't remember the names of these streets, as you come up, and I know there's Lysard Park is at the top, and now you're at like Jane and Colbeck kind of area. But there is a cobblestone street that I still,

I still there, and it's kind of neat to see. It's like, oh, where am I? Am I am I old Europe or something but are there a lot of cobblestone streets still active in Toronto because Kev used to live a block away from Elmsthorpe Avenue in North Toronto and it's still cobblestone for one block and I'm thinking there are these pockets yeah well yeah there's still a redistrict I guess has some cobblestone well distillery does have some now it was actually trucked in from the states from buildings being torn down But it's it's there but if you look at some of the bricks you can even see some of the United States names in there, but it

it's great that they did it there because a lot of Insurance companies wouldn't like that as well But there is a lot of cobblestone in amongst some of the streetcar lines that are still around you You'll see that sort of packing the tracks, right? And yeah, that still exists in some spots what else there was actually corduroy roads at one point that were made out of wood and In the 1920s, they found them every once in a while, but those are from like the 1800s So they'd be long rotted by now. But yeah cobblestones. It's very rare in Toronto go to Montreal You'll find tons, but here not not so much

very interesting and now that brings us to number one number one hidden bank vaults you'll find these in certain places because They're just too damn big to move so a lot of times People have readapted these bank vaults into a new use. Like the prime example I'm going to name here is the at one King West. It was a bank building banks, bank skyscraper, and it's now an event venue where their big

lockup used to be down in the basement. So you can go have your wedding down there in the bank vault. Fascinating. I had no idea. Yeah, just very cool. It's a 40 ton door, so you know they could have recycled it, but it would be very hard too, so they adaptively reused that because it was so hard to move. But you go around to a lot of the old buildings in the city, you'll find bank vaults or safes

that just haven't been moved because it's huge and it would cost them a lot to move. So I know in Leeside there's an old bank building that's now a bar and it would cost them a lot to move. So I know in Leeside there's an old bank building that's now a bar and it has the old safe in the back and you'll find those from time to time here and there. Did they leave any gold bars behind? That's the thing they never really left those behind. It's no Al Capone's vault or anything like that. Well good because you know they broke into the vault of Capone and they couldn't find Jack so they all went home.

Yep. It's all about Maestro and Toronto Winks. But my friend, this Hidden Toronto episode hit it out of the park, but have you even given any thought, again, I feel bad because you just birthed a baby. Okay. And I'm asking you, are you going to get pregnant again? And what are you going to do? But have you considered the topic for Q2 2025? Q2? I haven't exactly considered it yet. Can people suggest

topics? I would love that. Yeah. How can they reach you to suggest a topic? Well, I've completely dumped X now. So you'll have to get me on blue sky, Jeremy Hopkin dot blue sky dot com, I think, or one of those. Basically, search Jeremy Hopkin on BlueSky and you will find this man. I follow him. He's a good follow. I'm still on Facebook and I'm still on Instagram too. And I'm still on threads,

but that might be the next one to go. I had to leave it a long time ago based on the fact that I did not like it. No, yeah. A lot of people don't. I'll post our photo. We're gonna take a photo right now. Yes.

I'll post it on Instagram. I don't do anything on Instagram, but I post the photo and I do the same blurb I put in the other places and I just copy and paste it down. And Instagram likes to tease you. Like you'll see two lines of something and then I'll be like, go to threads to see this. And I'm like, I'm not interested.

I'm not going to threads to see that. Thank you for teasing me. I have no interest in clicking through. but Instagram likes to put thread stuff in there Yes, they try to get you to cross over but I ain't playing that game But we can find you on social you're on Instagram. Yeah Instagram Jeremy Hopkins or Hopkins design You can find me under either of those on there so if you have a suggestion because he going to make three more visits in 2025. And we do have like the sequels we could do to the films thing. And there's a lot of ideas floating around. But if you like Moose Grumpy suggested this topic,

and you went with it, and I loved it. If anyone out there has an idea for Jeremy Hopkins, his top 10 as he does every quarter, reach out to him, slide into his DM, let him know. And if you can't find Jeremy Hopkins, just write me, Mike at torontomike.com, I'll flip it to Jeremy. And you were great again, buddy. And your voice held on there. It's very dry, right?

Because of all the heaters going on. Oh, definitely, definitely. At our house, it's, well, we've imported so much distilled water, It's insane. Wow. And that brings us to the end of our 1635th show. 1635. Go to torontomic.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. I'm also active on bluesky at torontomic.com. Much love to all who made this possible. That is Great Lakes Brewery. They're actually here soon to record a new episode of Between Two Fermenters. They're next on the calendar.

It's a good show. Palma Pasta does not have a podcast. What's going on? But they got delicious food. Go to palmapasta.com. Recyclemyelectronics.ca, Building Toronto Skyline. That's a podcast from Nick Aini's, and Ridley Funeral Home. They actually have a great podcast called Life's Undertaking with the aforementioned Brad Jones. I get to co-host that show. See you all tomorrow when making her Toronto mic debut is Christine Maitland. That'll be on the live stream at 11 a.m. tomorrow. See you then. Go Canada, go! So Music