Montreal planner Frederick Gage Todd, who designed Leaside’s layout, exerted a strong influence over the naming of some of Leaside’s streets. One example is Rolland Road, named after Quebec’s Jean-Damien Rolland, born 1841, whose father …more
Travel is an opportunity to take in new things…right? Well yes, but it’s also nice to see something in our travels that is suggestive of home. In this case, the sight of the Crazy 8 …more
On December 31, 1966 the Town of Leaside was one of 13 incorporated municipalities that made up the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto (now the City of Toronto). But when the new year dawned, the province …more
![Frederick Gage Todd. Wm. Notman & Son [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.](https://leasidelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Frederick_Gage_Todd_featured-326x245.jpg)
Field Avenue, as Jane Pitfield has written, refers to the field on which Bessborough Public School now stands. But the name also reflects some of Leaside’s earliest history. In 1912, the Canadian Northern Railway (CNO) …more
Did you know that 100 years ago Leaside was a complete live-work-play community? In 1912, Emil Andrew Wallberg, president of Canada Wire and Cable Company, purchased approximately 16 acres intending to construct a factory and …more
Like many other streets in this area, Fleming Crescent was named for an associate of William Mackenzie and Donald Mann, who laid out the Town of Leaside in 1912. Born in Cabbagetown to poor Irish …more
Many streets in Leaside were built and named for the executives behind Toronto’s Belt Line Railway and the Canadian National Railway to mark the impact of their contributions to the growth of rapid transit in …more
Last month’s article “Art Deco architecture across Canada… and in Leaside, too” missed the former Leaside Railway Station, which has seen better days, but has an interesting history. A brick structure, built in Streamlined Moderne …more
Tucked between Wicksteed and Vanderhoof, east of Brentcliffe, is a street with the unassuming name of Research Road, home today of companies like Uberdog Hotel. But it’s here that some very serious research indeed took …more
What places come to mind when you hear the phrase ‘Art Deco’? The Empire State and Chrysler buildings in New York? The Christ the Redeemer sculpture in Rio? The ‘Detroit Industry’ murals at the Detroit …more
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