#TOhistory
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jbcurio.bsky.social
From the vaults: 45 years ago today, voters cast their ballots in one of the ugliest municipal elections in Toronto history, which involved a lot (and I mean a lot) of homophobia.

Here's my TVO @tvotoday.bsky.social story about the 1980 campaign.

#TOHistory #TOpoli

www.tvo.org/article/how-...
November 10, 2025 at 4:52 PM
rudydotca.bsky.social
okay, i tease... here's another pic of this plaque, which is beside the stairs that go down to the Belt Line trail from Mount Pleasant Rd just south of Merton

#Toronto #TOhistory
DOMINION COAL & WOOD Originally located on Danforth Avenue, the Dominion Coal and Wood Company was founded in 1912 by William H. Smith. In 1929, the company opened a landmark facility on this site. Its nine adjoining concrete silos were designed by E.P. Muntz Engineering Company. Coal and wood were transported here by rail car along the former Belt Line Railway and then sold as heating fuel to local businesses and homeowners. Originally just one among many similar suppliers in the city, Dominion Coal and Wood outlasted most of its competitors. The company expanded into building supplies as coal sales dwindled, but continued to sell coal here until this site was closed in 1999. Although recognized as an increasingly rare type of industrial architecture, the historic silos were demolished in 2001.
November 9, 2025 at 6:52 PM
jbcurio.bsky.social
Just a little something I whipped up for the current issue of Spacing, available now!

#TOHistory #bluejays
spacing.bsky.social Spacing @spacing.bsky.social · 20d
In a nice coincidence with the Jays, the new issue of Spacing opens with a mini-section on sports - with a feature on Toronto's other baseball team (the other Maple Leafs), whose games, by contrast with the Jays, are free, and @jbcurio.bsky.social on the major league baseball teams we almost had.
October 27, 2025 at 1:50 PM
jbcurio.bsky.social
As Game 3 of this year's World Series looms, for Toronto Today @torontotoday.ca I look at how the city celebrated the #bluejays first WS victory in 1992.

#TOHistory #worldseries

www.torontotoday.ca/local/histor...
How Toronto celebrated the 1992 Blue Jays World Series win
Historian Jamie Bradburn takes a look back at the pandemonium that followed the Jays' first World Series victory 33 years ago
www.torontotoday.ca
October 27, 2025 at 8:18 PM
jbcurio.bsky.social
NEW! For Toronto Today @torontotoday.ca I look at how Blue Jays fans celebrate when the team won their first World Series in 1992.

#TOhistory #bluejays

www.torontotoday.ca/local/histor...
How Toronto celebrated the 1992 Blue Jays World Series win
Historian Jamie Bradburn takes a look back at the pandemonium that followed the Jays' first World Series victory 33 years ago
www.torontotoday.ca
October 25, 2025 at 4:09 PM
adambunch.bsky.social
44. Here's hoping we add to that history tonight.

Thanks so much for reading! If you'd like more from me, you can subscribe to my Toronto Time Traveller newsletter for free here: tinyurl.com/tohistory

If the Jays go the World Series, I'll also do a baseball history tour next Sunday. Stay tuned!
October 19, 2025 at 9:04 PM
rudydotca.bsky.social
Government House, Chorley Park

#ThenAndNow #TOhistory
Chorley Park, Government House, showing the driveway from the southwest Chorley Park, no Government House, showing the driveway from the southwest
October 16, 2025 at 9:47 PM
jbcurio.bsky.social
NEW! For Toronto Today @torontotoday.ca I look at the rise of Nelvana, including its role in introducing an iconic Star Wars universe character. #TOHistory

www.torontotoday.ca/local/histor...
How a Toronto animation studio that once wowed George Lucas made it to the big leagues
After news broke this month that Corus is pausing production at Nelvana, historian Jamie Bradburn looks back at how the local company grew into an animation giant
www.torontotoday.ca
September 29, 2025 at 4:56 PM
jbcurio.bsky.social
NEW! For TVO @tvotoday.bsky.social, with speed cameras in the news, I look at Ontario's experiment with photo radar during the 1990s. Let's say some arguments will sound familiar...

#onpoli #history #TOHistory

www.tvo.org/article/the-...
September 24, 2025 at 8:08 PM
jbcurio.bsky.social
Check out the latest issue of @spacing.bsky.social, which includes a piece I wrote about department stores in Toronto (inspired by the demise of The Bay) #TOHistory

Order a copy from @spacingstore.bsky.social or check out your favourite newsstand!
September 2, 2025 at 1:48 PM
rudydotca.bsky.social
#OTD June 26 1978, at Toronto Intl Airport, Air Canada Flight 189 blows a tire and experiences a 600 foot "runway excursion," landing in Etobicoke Creek ravine

photo gallery -- baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-...

of 107 people on board, 2 are killed and 105 injured

#TOhistory
Air Canada DC-9 lays broken in 3 pieces in Etobicoke Creek ravine... workers are shown in the foreground collecting luggage removed from the plane... in the background, the steep 20-metre wall of the ravine
June 26, 2025 at 12:25 PM
jbcurio.bsky.social
The latest update to my guide to online Toronto historical newspaper resources includes the start of what will hopefully see the full uploading of a paper I contributed to... it's Newspapers_dot_com's addition of The Grid.
#TOhistory #TOpoli

jamiebradburncreative.wordpress.com/online-newsp...
Guide to Online Toronto Historical Newspaper Resources
Let’s say you’re doing a Toronto-related research project. You need to browse old newspapers, but cannot physically access a research institution to view their paper or microfilm collections for wh…
jamiebradburncreative.wordpress.com
August 11, 2025 at 2:33 PM
jbcurio.bsky.social
Come hear me talk next week in the Beaches! #TOHistory
November 13, 2025 at 12:54 AM
rudydotca.bsky.social
gorgeous video

#TOhistory
transittoronto.bsky.social Transit Toronto @transittoronto.bsky.social · Sep 17
Back in 2021, we launched a successful Kickstarter to raise funds to digitize Richard Glaze's collection of 16mm film.

As we move to our new channel, I am re-releasing this video as a teaser for all of the Richard Glaze videos we'll be posting in the weeks to come.
TT Productions - The Films of Richard Glaze
Back in 2021, we launched a successful Kickstarter to raise funds to digitize Richard Glaze's extensive collection of 16mm film stock covering transit operations across Canada during the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Thanks to generous supporters like you, we successfully digitized the first third of the colle
www.youtube.com
September 17, 2025 at 6:58 PM
rudydotca.bsky.social
gorgeous photos, simply gorgeous

(plumber's car LOL)

#TOhistory
October 29, 2025 at 12:40 PM
jbcurio.bsky.social
Come hear me talk about some of Toronto's journalistic history this week! #TOHistory #cdnhistory
November 16, 2025 at 3:58 PM
jbcurio.bsky.social
Here's Tales of Toronto's look at Zellers #TOhistory

jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com/2019/08/13/z...
Zellers: Where the Lowest Price Was the Law
A merger of two Torontoist posts, one written when Target bought a pile of Zellers leases (published January 13, 2011) and one when Target Canada called it quits (published January 23, 2015), along…
jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com
August 29, 2025 at 5:40 PM
rudydotca.bsky.social
#TOhistory tucked well back from Yonge Street, amidst the trees of the West Don river ravine, the CW Jefferys house, with its commemorative plaque near the sidewalk well hidden by shrubs and trees

see also nyhs.ca/news/c-w-jef...
at 4111 Yonge Street, on the east side half way up the hill from York Mills to the 401, the CW Jefferys house sits vacant, behind a white picket fence and paved driveway at the southwest corner of the property, just behind the white picket fence, the commemorative plaque is hidden plaque reads as follows -- C.W. Jefferys 1869-1951 This house was the residence and studio of one of Canada's leading historical artists. Born in Rochester, England, he came to Toronto about 1880, and first worked as a lithographer's apprentice. He studied art under G.A. Reid and C.M. Manley, and was a pioneer in the painting of distinctive Canadian scenes. Jefferys had an intense interest in history and his reputation rests principally on his accurate and meticulous portrayal of early Canadian life. The best known collection of his historical sketches is "The Picture Gallery of Canadian History". Jefferys was a president of the Ontario Society of Artists and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Erected by the Ontario Archaeological and Historic Sites Board.
June 30, 2025 at 10:08 PM
jbcurio.bsky.social
With the CNE back for its annual run, here's a series I wrote a few years for Tales of Toronto about its history, or at least up though 1939

(Someday I may get back to it. Someday...)

#TOHistory #cdnhistory #cne

jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com/category/thr...
through the years with the canadian national exhibition – Jamie Bradburn's Tales of Toronto
Posts about through the years with the canadian national exhibition written by Jamie Bradburn
jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com
August 17, 2025 at 12:24 AM
jbcurio.bsky.social
Side research find: come for the good music, stay for the authoritative news and limited commercials in this ad from the early days of CHFI (Toronto Star, March 20, 1964) #TOHistory
August 17, 2025 at 3:00 AM
jbcurio.bsky.social
An oldie but goodie: how did people in Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe react to Orson Welles's infamous 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds? #TOHistory #halloween

jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com/2021/10/30/t...
The War of the Welles
Originally published as a “Historicist” column on Torontoist on October 26, 2013. Orson Welles and unidentified man, before 1950. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1257, Series 1057, Item…
jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:13 PM
rudydotca.bsky.social
#OTD April 19 1904, the (second) Great Toronto Fire

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_F...

note the large areas on the map marked "all gone"

#TOhistory
Goad fire insurance map showing the extent of the 1904 fire in downtown Toronto... the map centres on Bay Street, from King south to Esplanade, showing all the destroyed buildings inside an area outlined by a thick red line... a small X marks the spot northeast of Bay and Wellington where the fire started
April 19, 2025 at 11:19 PM
rudydotca.bsky.social
#OTD July 1 2014, a shirtless jogger unloads on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who had inserted himself into East York's Canada Day parade to do some campaigning

#TOhistory
a Canadian Heritage Moment meme, featuring the East York shirtless jogger
July 1, 2025 at 1:18 PM
rudydotca.bsky.social
#TOhistory
torontojourney416.bsky.social TorontoJourney416 @torontojourney416.bsky.social · Jul 23
✨Ghost Signs in #Toronto: Part 8 – Ghost signs are the remnants of ads on building exteriors for products and services, many of which are now forgotten.

👉Explore the history and location of these and many other Toronto #ghostsigns at www.torontojourney416.com/toronto-ghos...

#torontohistory
July 23, 2025 at 3:19 PM
rudydotca.bsky.social
#OTD April 12 1838, Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews were publicly hanged in Toronto for their roles in the Rebellion of 1837... they had 22 children between them

richly detailed story here -- uppercanadahistory.ca/tt/tt10.html

#TOhistory
Early Canada Historical Narratives -- SAMUEL LOUNT AND PETER MATTHEWS
uppercanadahistory.ca
April 12, 2025 at 12:05 PM