Beach Memories: Historic heart of the Beach as reflected at Queen and Lee should be saved

By GENE DOMAGALA

As a person who has tried to save historic sites and preserve Toronto’s, and in particular the Beach’s, history for more than 50 years, I thought my time was done and I would let other “rebel young activists” beat the heritage drum.

The current “heritage site” in the Beach that is in danger of being demolished is at the northwest corner of Queen Street East and Lee Avenue. It is not an imposing structure but it does have character and some architectural qualities, historic and other, that should be noted.

I have given dozens of tours along Queen Street East in the Kew Beach area, and I have always pointed out that particular store to the people. Now I am soon going to be giving an historic tour to some young school children and that building will be included.

That’s what changed my mind to try and continue working to save our Beach history and buildings. It’s not only for the older Beachers, but for the young Beachers growing up.

And that’s why I’ve reversed myself about my time being done on this cause. This is a building that is worth saving, especially for the young people.

The corner of Queen and Lee is the historic heart of the Kew Beach area and possibly the entire Beach community. Though I suppose that could be open to debate.

But that intersection has the historic Kew Gardens park, which was started by Williams family. It also has a modern structure on the southeast corner. On the northeast corner there is a modern building as well. But on the southwest corner, we have a lot of Beach history including the park, the former bank building that is now home to the Coles book store, a three-storey apartment building and then the Beaches Branch Library.

Which leads me to the northwest corner, where the Foodland store is now located. That building is about 120 years old and it has a special metallic ceiling inside along with many other features.

We need to work together to preserve this building as there is a proposal to demolish it and replace it with a six-storey building. Please Beachers, let’s preserve our Beach history.

I will be writing more about this in upcoming issues.

For more on the proposal for the northwest corner of Queen Street East and Lee Avenue, please see the Beach Metro Community News story at https://beachmetro.com/2024/02/02/proposal-for-northwest-corner-of-queen-and-lee-calls-for-six-storey-residential-building-and-new-larger-grocery-store/