Beach Memories: Join me for historic walk in the Balmy Beach area on Saturday, July 27

By GENE DOMAGALA

On Saturday, July 27, we will be meeting in front of the Beaches Branch Library on Queen Street East, just west of Lee Avenue, at 1 p.m. to begin an historic walk of the Balmy Beach area.

I try my best to get the best historic facts and issues for my walks about the East End and the Beach in particular.

This Balmy Beach/Queen Street East area is of personal interest to me because of one of our more historic sites – the Fox Theatre.

Recently in the media there has been a great controversy about a theatre building on Roncesvalles Avenue called the Revue Cinema. It is in danger of being closed for different reasons.

While watching and reading about this particular motion picture theatre an historic thought came into my mind. While there are and were many motion picture houses being built prior to the Second World War, the only “motion picture theatre” continuously in operation is the Fox Theatre, located on Queen Street East just east of Beech Avenue. It has been continuously running since 1914.

Originally it’s name was the Prince Edward but due to the coronation controversy in London, England and the abdication of Prince (King) Edward, the name was changed to the Fox Theatre in 1937 and has been called that to this day.

This photo shows the Fox Theatre on Queen Street East in the 1950s.

There have been other motion picture theatres built in Toronto prior to our Fox Theatre, but most of them have stopped in that role of showing movies and some have been demolished.

I stand to be corrected on this issue, but since the Fox Theatre is on my historic walk on July 27 and is of particular interest to the residents of the Beach, I will continue to say it is the oldest continuous motion picture theatre in the city.

There will be many other historic sites and topics on the July 27 walk.

We will see our historic houses of worship, and also the site of the first motion picture theatre building (still standing) that was built in 1908 and was called the Coliseum.

We will also see the site of the first Beach public library and the sites of the old Scarboro Beach Amusement Park, Munro Park and Victoria Park.

On the walk we will note the location of the first Great War Veterans Association, the Bell building, the St. Michael Catholic School site, the Tamblyn drug store and more.

Former farm sites to be featured on walk

However, on this walk I also will be noting something new that you may not know about the Queen Street East and Balmy Beach area. It will be about farms. Yes, I wrote farms. That’s because, dear readers, there were once quite a number of farms located on Queen Street East.

Some of them were huge and some were small. In the 1880s and 1890s some of these farms were also called Market Gardens.

Mr. Collins on the south side of Queen Street East near Leuty Avenue ran one, and there was also a larger more traditional Kew Beach Farm owned by the Williams family.

Did you know one of the largest farms, about 180 acres or so, was called Glen Duart? You may know it by a different name. The Glen Duart farm had a head of 30 cattle imported from England, pheasants, geese and other animals. At one time on this property in the 1890s, 700 boys camped there under the direction of Sir Henry Pellat of Casa Loma fame. Pellat was a noted supporter of the Boy Scouts.

There were other farms in the area including one under the direction of Justice Dunn. There was also a 20-acre duck farm under the direction of Terry O’Neil. He had horses, cows, a barn and the trappings needed for a farm.

In those days, dear readers, there were no streetcars. Everything had to be done by horse and carriage, and the roads were not paved.

Many of our older Beachers always think of the Ames property on a certain section of Queen Street East, but this was properly called the Bandenburry property on the north side of Queen. This is I know something new to some Beachers, but it is and was part of the history of the Beach prior to the many present day houses and buildings that have been built there.

Another former farm site to be mentioned will be the O’Connor farm that in the 1890s became the Sisters of St. Joseph Providence Farm. That farm provided food for the poor and those who had no place to live. The House of Providence in the East End has been serving in one form or another for close to 200 years, and is now located in what is Providence Healthcare in the Warden and St. Clair avenues area of Scarborough.

Our walk will also have some information about John McPherson Ross, one of the mainstays of the Balmy Beach Club. He was an arborist who planted hundreds of trees in the Beach. His house is still standing.

Another stop on the walk will be the site of the Kim Wong Bakery and Confectionary shop.

There’s always something new to learn about Balmy Beach. Historically yours!