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2017/06/30

The Market Gallery - Settling in Toronto

A couple weeks ago, Mom and I went to The Market Gallery at St. Lawrence Market. There is an exhibition on about Settling in Toronto: The Quest for Freedom, Opportunity and Identity. 

Yesterday, we returned so we could spend a little more time with the Exhibit. 
(It is on until July 15.)

It is all about people who have come to Toronto and the things they may have experienced.
William Peyton Hubbard was the first African American elected to Politics. He was a City of Toronto Alderman from 1894 - 1914. His parents escaped slavery in Virginia and sought refuge in Toronto. 


John George Howard came to Toronto from England in 1832. He and his wife, Jemima (below) settled in the Town of York. He was a Drawing Instructor at Upper Canada College; he was the first City Surveyor, the first City Engineer and an Architect.
We just visited Colborne Lodge earlier this week and I did a blog post about the visit.


It wasn't always easy for Immigrants. If Canada was at war with the country they were from, they might have been interred because their loyalty was questioned. There were also racial tensions which have resulted in riots such as the Anti-Greek riots in 1918 and the anti-Semitic Christie Pitts Riots in 1933 



Laws have changed throughout the years reflecting changing attitudes towards Immigration:


Immigrants themselves have challenged injustices:

Here are some pieces of art that I found interesting:

 Scarborough Village by Yasmine Louis


Dorset Park by Yasmine Louis

The Market
Aba Bayefsky

Portrait of the Son of Laurent Quetton St. George
Artist unknown
Laurent Quetton St. George fled France and arrived in Upper Canada in 1799 and became a leading merchant in the town of York.


I don't know if this is intentional or not, but from The Market Gallery you can see the work on the site for the North Market and the St. Lawrence Hall which opened in 1851 with a anti-Slavery lecture. That same year, Frederick Douglass spoke at the Hall.

My favourite part of the exhibit was the recipe wall.
One of the ways that people express their culture is through food. My Mom is Jamaican but she loves her Indian food... One of her Grandfathers was Indian.
We eat a lot of Jamaican, Chinese, Indian and Scottish food. :-)

Of course, we shared a recipe, but you'll have to visit The Market Gallery to get it.

There was a video about "The World In Ten Blocks" from Lost Time Media and it got Mom talking to me about her experience migrating to Canada. It took her a long time to have Canada feel like home, and that it is really the people around that helped her feel like she belongs. Even just while we were out, she saw someone from her choir, ran into an old friend on the subway and pointed out that we even recognize some of the strangers walking on the street. When she goes back to Jamaica, it doesn't feel like 'home' anymore, she has changed and things have changed.

When we were leaving we looked at some of the books they had. This one reminded us about how much more we have to learn about Dad's family's experience when they moved to Canada. Dad's paternal grandparents came from China and his maternal grandparents came from Scotland. 


2017/06/29

Weekday Eucharist at ASK

I have been going to All Saints Kingsway for their weekday Eucharist since about September last year.

I have met some really nice people there and I was also baptized there in December.

There have been lots of changes throughout the year.

We were fortunate to have The Very Reverend James Merrett as our Interim Priest-in-Charge, since about December. The first time Mom and I met him, he played the piano for the weekday Eucharist. It was my first time seeing a Priest play the piano for the Service he was presiding over but I thought it was cool.

For the last few months, I have been helping out as an Altar Server. Mom took pictures today, even before we realized that it would be my last time serving with him since I will be away next week.






It was really great having Rev. James around... I didn't bombard him with questions like I did with Fr. Jason van Veghel-Wood, but I know that I have grown in my faith.

Mom and I will miss Rev. James, and we hope to see him again soon!









2017/06/27

Colborne Lodge at High Park

Today, Mom and I went to the "Never stop learning; Start of Summer Homeschoolers Pic-nic" at High Park.

It was kind of cold and rainy, so we decided to head over to Colborne Lodge. A City of Toronto Museum. The last time I went was in 2013!
It was my Mom's first time visiting.

We started off by exploring a little outside.

We saw the grave of John and Jemima Howard who lived at Colborne Lodge and donated the property and the surrounding land to the City of Toronto to be used as a public park. He made an agreement with the City so he could stay in his house with a generous pension until the time of his passing and his servants were able to stay on as long as they liked afterwards.


Some of the land remains in its natural state but some of it is nicely manicured.









They have a nice, little vegetable & herb garden.




I was surprised to find a cannon in the yard.
It would have been looking out towards the lake but the landscape has changed quite a bit and now it is facing trees.


I am happy that my Mom takes lots of pictures.... In this blog post I am going to focus mainly on the art that we saw in the house.

John Howard was an architect and surveyor and he was very interested in painting scenes from Toronto and his designs. His art gives us a good idea of what Toronto was like when he was alive.
The curators have included many of his original paintings in the house.

A View of the Lake in front of Colborne Lodge (1870)


A View of the Lake in front of Colborne Lodge (1870)


Here, you can see the same view.

The corner of York Street, looking down King - The British Coffee House in the Chewett Building




King at Church - Old Gaol, Fire Hall and St. James Cathedral in 1835

Proposed design for King's College 

Parliament Buildings and Emigrant Sheds





Jemima Howard


John Howard

I can't remember what this one was, and we couldn't find it online. 

On top of the cabinet is a model of a bridge that John Howard designed. The bridge was built in Oakville.


He kept meticulous records and his journals include lots of information about his daily activities.


He also painted scenes he had seen in prints.



John Howard taught at Upper Canada College.
He did this painting  of The Dejeuner at Upper Canada College when the school was still at King and Simcoe.

When I saw this painting, I remembered something I read in "The Organs of Toronto" by Alan Jackson and James Bailey. The intersection at King and Simcoe was known for "Education, Legislation, Salvation and Damnation" because in each corner there was:
  • Education at Upper Canada College
  • Legislation at the mansion of the Lieutenant Governor
  • Salvation at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church
  • & Damnation at the saloon on the remaining corner.
Only St. Andrews remains at that intersection now.



This painting was not done by Howard, but he and his wife carried it with them when they came to Canada

The pomander on the mantle had a nice smell.



I believe this painting was done by John Howard of a scene in Quebec


They are doing work on the indoor bathroom, but you can compare how it looked a few years ago.

It is the oldest surviving indoor bathroom in Toronto.


The master bedroom was designed with high ceilings to help keep them cool in the summer.
 

We got a quick look inside the shaving set on the dressing table.







This piece was very dramatic

John Howard witnessed this ship going down, and called Thomas Tinning, a rower and a lifeguard to help the crew. 



Here are some other pictures from our visit:







Jemima Howard also painted and it seems that she was better at doing faces than her husband.





Both of the Howard's kitchens had water sources inside



Here you get to see inside of the ice box in the summer kitchen. Ice would be put in the top part to keep the items in the lower part cool.

Here is a picture of the Potting Room.


John Howard used to display his art in the next building. It is not climate controlled so they no longer use it as a gallery.

This is in the winter kitchen






Thank you to Karen for the wonderful tour, and thanks to all of the staff and volunteers at Colborne Lodge!