monument--municipal

 

( memorial legend from the plaque )

potter's field of muddy york

the trustees of the toronto general burying grounds established the potters field on this site in1826 as the areas first non-sectarian cemetery. this group of concerned citizens raised the necessary three hundred dollars to purchase the land, by public subscription, accepting no donations over one dollar.

as the city grew rapidly northwards what had been the south-eastern corner of the woods well outside the town, became yorkville. potters field was closed in 1855. individual monuments and the remains of 6,685 people were moved between 1851 and 1881, many to the resting place of pioneers at the toronto necropolis and mount pleasant cemetery .

erected by toronto trust cemeteries and hammerson canada inc. may 20th 1988.

 

Posted with Blogsy

temple--decastyle

ten column temple facade on the front porch of the canadian life building.

 

Posted with Blogsy

wrong address

... a person returns home to find a letter has been slid under his door, it is addressed to one of the other three tenants who live in the building, and while going up two flights of stairs to slide the letter under the door of the room overlooking the front yard, he recalls an incident he heard in the house two nights before.

... on that night as he was drifting off to sleep he was startled back to wake by someone screaming and yelling in the hallway of the house. the noise was being made by another tenant who lived on the second floor in the unit overlooking the backyard.

... it began with this second tenent yelling up to the tenant in the side room to come down so he can talk to him. there was a pause as he waits for the other tenant to show his face and when that doesn't happen he yells alright im coming up there, it sounds as though he stops half way up the stairs and begins ranting and raging at the other tenant and whapping what sounds like a rolled up newspaper on the wall.

... why did you do it why, how could you he's my best friends son you son of a bitch his voice wrenching with hate, swearing accusations of you couldn't leave him alone you had to drag him into your drug shit you bastard...

... the first tenant could now hear the fourth tenant who's letter he found under his door talking to the raging tenant and telling him to calm down. get back in your room this has nothing to do with you get back in your room and lock your door unless you want some of this too, it's between me and the drug selling shit bag in this room.

... the noises of someone whapping something against a wall or door continue to come down from the second floor between pauses for sobbing and swearing at the tenant he claims got his best friends son hooked on some drug or drugs.

... the second tenent then screams he is calling the police i swear im calling the police you son of a bitch, im dialing right now and as he dials the number he counts it out loud enough the first tenent in the basement room can hear it. their answering he yells and he asks if they can send someone to the house he wants to report a person for providing the son of his best friend with drugs, the person is here in the house and can they send someone as he is afraid he might do something himself. he thanks them.

... he says goodbye hangs up and then there is an ominous silence broken with the sounds of something heavier than a newspaper being smashed against a wall and high pitched yelling how could you do it he's only a kid you son of a bitch how can you live with your self, only a kid hes only a kid, he's my best friends son you bastard you think you'll get away with this, did you hear that they are coming and when I tell them what you have in your room do you hear meeee. a pause to catch his breath and then more raging and smashing. wait till i talk to them wait till i tell them what your doing you wont talk to me youll talk to them youll be going back to prison you son of a bitch bastard..

... there is a cease in the smashing as the tenent who called the police comes down the stairs to the ground floor crosses the hall to the front door and out on to the steps, and then the person in the basement can hear the sound of suppressed laughter drifting in the rooms open window and wonders if the phone call was fake and the other tenant is bluffing.

... the person downstairs is thinking how scripted and like a television show the ranting and sobbing sounds were, as if it had been rehearsed for weeks before this nights performance. the first person lays in bed a while to see if the police show up, after half an hour he begins to think the tenant who was screaming about calling the cops pretended to call them, and as the noise from upstairs had stopped he decided to go back to sleep.

... as the first person is drifting off for the second time he is woken by the sounds of the police radio, he can see a light through the rooms windows as someone walks along the side of the building to the back yard and then come back to the front and the sound of the overwrought tenant greeting the police.

... the tenant who called the police greets the two officers at the front door and one of the officers says they got a call and asked what's wrong the tenent who called explains he feels like a fool now having called them, it was all a mistake he got overwrought over something he really has no business in, and begged their forgiveness for taking up their time. he asks if they can overlook it he's sorry he knows how busy they are. they say it happens all the time its ok, if you change your mind or it happens again dont hesitate to call and they go to their car while he continues to flatter them from the front step.

... the police drive off and after a pause similar to the one when he came in earlier the second person can be heard laughing out loud upstairs in the hallway, he yell's up to the tenant in the room over the side yard, see what I can do to you, laughing that insane laugh of his similar to a little child that has told a lie about someone else and is believed, pounding his fist on the floor because it's so funny he can call the cops and threaten the other tenant over what's in all likelihood a lie. laughing about how he got them there had them eating excuses from his hand and then got them to leave with out talking to the other person.

... recalling this as he climbed the stairs to the second floor the tenant who found the letter under his door gets to the top of the second floor stairs and to slide the letter under the door he has to go past the door of the room overlooking the side yard, as he does he notices it has had its knob and deadbolt smashed in and the fire extinguisher from the wall is laying on the floor with a rolled up newspaper beside the door of the room overlooking the back yard.

 

Posted with Blogsy

monument--rustic

(legend from the monument in the photo)

the resting place of pioneers

in this area of the cemetery lie buried many of the inhabitants of the early town of "muddy york":

they were originally buried in the potters field. a plot of six acres in yorkville at what is now the north-west corner of bloor and yonge streets. during the period 1826 to 1850 as a cemetery it was obliged to close because of steady municipal growth. the remains of 364 persons were removed to this location and some 934 others were removed to the toronto necropolis between the years 1851 and 1881. the individual monuments were also moved, but being made of soft stone, most of them became illegible from erosion and have been laid flat on the plots.

"the original purchase price in 1825 of the potters field was seventy-five pound currency, or $300.00. the whole being raised by subscriptions, in sums in no case exceeding one dollar."

Posted with Blogsy

moulding--concave

cavetto-scotia moulding from part of a stone ornament on the grounds of the alexander muir memorial garden.

 

Posted with Blogsy

sunshine lurkers

security at toronto reference library: www.federalsecurityagency.ca

one afternoon a person in the library thinks to take a break from reading. he turns a chair toward the west windows as he has done before and sitting facing the sun closes his eyes for a while to meditate on something other than what he was reading.
maybe five or ten minutes later a security guard interrupts his meditation tapping him on the left shoulder and asks if he is alright, the person in the chair says yeahs I'm fine and goes back to his meditation break but the guard dosnt leave and this time says the person in the chair will have to leave if he doesn't stop sitting there with his eyes closed they have an argument and the person in the chair goes to make a complaint at the security desk where he is given a form he can write his feedback on.
leaving the library he goes to a nearby cafe to compose his complaint, and while he's writing it out he recalls how around or about a month before this incident an event somewhat similar to the one in the library played out here in the cafe, sitting in the same chair by the window in the sun, the following incident happened.
he was sitting in the same chair by the door and facing the window enjoying the sun and had finished his coffee. the sun was already descending to the west though it was not below the skyline of the buildings across the street.
he leaned forward to put the empty cup in the garbage bin the staff placed by the door next to the chair across from where he was sitting and the door swung open and almost hit him in left shoulder. someone presumably the person who threw the door open runs into the cafe and to the back of the cafe.
not bothering to check who almost hit him in the side of the shoulder he slumps back into the chair and looks out the window. across the street opposite the cafe door he can see a man with a grin on his face who seems to be looking at him, he seems to have seen what happened and he crosses street and enters into the cafe walks past the person in the chair
when the man from across the street is in the cafe the person in the chiar can hear him talking to someone else who says "did you see that from across the street? the guy in that chair tried to grab me as I opened the door". and then the person in the chair can hear another voice saying "no he didn't".
after recalling that incident the person in the chair ponders the similarity of the two incidents and then goes back to the library security desk to hand in his complaint.
over the next few weeks when the first person is sitting in different places downtown he begins to note people walking along and then stopping between him and the sun for maybe five or ten seconds while they turn their head and look over their left shoulder before moving on.

 

Posted with Blogsy

moulding--baluster

modern baluster

"a wall low enough to lean upon is called a parapet, ... in modern times the openings in parapets are generally filled with a sort of colonnade of dwarfed columns called balusters. ... a balustrade, like a parapet, is intended to lean upon, and should not be more than 3 or 4 feet high. ... balusters are often made square in section, like piers, instead of round, like columns."

william r. ware, the american vignola.