Beach Memories: Historic Walking tour along Danforth Avenue set for Saturday, April 27

By GENE DOMAGALA

On Saturday, April 27, I will be leading an Historic Walking Tour on the Danforth.

It will start on the northwest corner of Woodbine and Danforth avenues at 1 p.m., and everyone is welcome to attend.

We will head east on Danforth Avenue and the walk will end at Dawes Road.

The Danforth, contrary to popular belief, was not built by the American road builder Asa Danforth. In fact, Mr. Danforth did build a major road nearly 230 years ago and it was not named after him.

On our walk we will see what actually happened and where the name Danforth Avenue came from.

Danforth Avenue is one of the streets in Toronto for a number of reasons such as the bridge over the Don Valley that connects west part of the city with the eastern section.

Along with learning about Danforth Avenue (and its name) we will also see a number of historical sights and many of the “old” major entertainment spots such as the former movie theatres.

We’ll also see some of the old hotels, watering holes or beverage rooms that some participants might remember.

We’ll note some of the historic houses of worship along the way, and also stop at a spot that used to have a race track for horses. The 1868 Queen’s Plate was held there. It was called Newmarket Race Course and was north of the Danforth in the area of Oak Park and Chisholm avenues.

There will be other historic sights to see and stories on the walk, so I hope to see you there.

Historically yours!