The Cabbagetowner

Volunteer Eric Morse resumes his treasure-hunting through the 7 News, published in the former Ward 7, Toronto, that included Cabbagetown. Let’s travel back to Nov. 5, 1977.

Much of the social infrastructure of downtown Toronto was getting its start in the 1970s, and some institutions that are now solidly established in the community were still on precarious ground. The November 5, 1977 issue of 7 News had some good news about Nellie’s women’s shelter, following the previous issue’s bad news (“End of the Line for Nellie’s”). Nellie’s, which was about to be evicted by the YMCA from rented premises on Broadview Avenue as the land had been sold to a developer, managed a last-minute purchase of the property for the (now almost trifling) sum of $70,000. There were still hurdles to overcome as funding had to be found for a new fire alarm system and furnace, neither of which was covered by the CMHC loan that made the purchase possible. (The funding was clearly found as Nellie’s is happily still with us 40 years later and just had its 44^th AGM in August – http://www.nellies.org/ )

The Letters column reproduced in full a letter protesting Nellie’s closure, which had run (somewhat bowdlerized) in the Globe.

Seniors’ activism was getting a start in Toronto. The issue notes the expansion of Toronto chapters of Canadian Pensioners Concerned advocacy group (accompanied by a somewhat unsympathetic cartoon).

In 1977, eight years before the Air India bombing of 1985, the old City of Toronto had a comparatively small South Asian population and they were finding it hard to gain acceptance. A spokesperson for the community noted that the Ontario school system “ignores half the world.”

A quarter-page ad by Premier Bill Davis and Culture and Recreation Minister Robert Welch extolled the virtues of the brand new Metro Public Library (now the Reference Library and a venerated public space) at 789 Yonge.

Contrast, a black community newspaper, noted that an inmate gang at the Don Jail calling itself “The OHIP Gang” (because it gave OHIP so many customers), had been attacking attacking other prisoners of colour. MPP Ed Ziemba called on prison authorities to preserve law and order “inside and outside of prison.” 

And finally, with the onset of serious Autumn, Bonnie Sartori (“Bonita’s Eats”) has a soup recipe that “should last longer than most marriages do these days.” And it’s adaptable for vegetarian tastes. Feeds a battalion.

Keith Lawrance contributes this week’s Throwback Thursday.

This story is about an area slightly outside of our boundaries but the story is entertaining enough that we thought you might enjoy it.

As you probably know, Regent Park was the original Cabbagetown and there are many stories there from days gone by. 

At the south-east corner of Sumach and Shuter Streets (google.com/maps) is a small parkette officially (although not creatively) called the Sumach-Shuter Parkette. The parkette was the former site of the Coulter Brass building until the early 1960s. On the southwest corner today is a small, but popular coffee shop called Sumach Espresso – but in the early 1960s it was a corner store run by an older gentleman. Children of the time used to buy bulk candy there, but the owner was notoriously impatient and the kids complained that the store had a peculiar odour. 

According to an account posted on the Cabbagetown Regent Park Museum website, one day the proprietor ejected a few of the kids and after one of the kids yelled “This place smells like you let off forty beer farts”, the children ran across the street to the parkette and colloquially named it “Stinky’s Park,” which caught on more widely in the area. It’s not clear if it was the source of the odour but, when new owners purchased the store, they found cash stuffed into the walls and floorboards – which must have taken the sting out of living next to Stinky’s Park somewhat. 

The original version of this story (crpmuseum.com) appears on the Cabbagetown Regent Park Museum website. The CRPM is currently raising funds(gofundme.com) to create a new website and can be followed on facebook.com also.

This week’s look back in time is to our neighbourhood in 1876 as sketched by P.A. Gross (oldtorontomaps.blogspot.ca). In a remarkable feat of stamina over 3 years, Mr. Gross walked every street and laneway in Toronto while drawing 14,000 private and public buildings. His illustrations were then combined to create a “birds eye view” map that is 5 ft x 3 ft in size showing the city as it was at that time.

This section of the map shows the Toronto General Hospital on Gerrard St. E. between Sumach and Pine St. (now Sackville St.), and a much sparser housing landscape than we have today.

See the entire map at Historical Maps of Toronto (oldtorontomaps.blogspot.ca).

Note: If you look at the lower right side of the full map in the section showing individual buildings, you will also see an image of the Nasmith Bakery which we have written about in a past feature.