By GENE DOMAGALA I was in Kew Gardens watching and listening to the breeze whistling through the trees; watching people walk and play and enjoy the park all through the day. I often wondered did they know the origin of these parks and recreation areas in our city, and how they began and grew? So […]
By GENE DOMAGALA We will soon be starting walks again this year, and the first one will take place on Saturday, April 15. It will take place along Kingston Road, starting at 1 p.m. at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church, 794 Kingston Rd. The walk will then head west to St. John’s Norway Anglican Church […]
By GENE DOMAGALA The history of our area here in the east end is sorely neglected. Our political area used to be called the Town of East Toronto from the years 1888 to 1908. It was a separate town from the City of Toronto during that time. It was, however, annexed to the City of […]
By GENE DOMAGALA I am writing this article after Remembrance Day for a very special reason. I was standing at the memorial at Kew Gardens and was reading the inscriptions. They are: On The Top Wall — In Honour of Those Who Served – 1914-1918, 1939-1945. On The East Wall – 1899-1902, 1950-1953, Peacekeeping, 2001-2014. […]
By GENE DOMAGALA On Saturday, Oct. 29, at 1 p.m. I will be hosting the second half of the Queen Street East historic walk. The portion of the walk will cover the area between Lee Avenue and the R. C. Harris Water Treatment plant at the far east end of Queen Street East. For those […]
By GENE DOMAGALA In my last column, I wrote about the controversy regarding the name of this part of our city and should it be called Beach or Beaches or some other name. I knew there would be discussions and some pro and con feelings about this subject. Our esteemed editor commented on this in […]
By GENE DOMAGALA About 150 years ago the area in the present east end of Toronto, from Coxwell to Victoria Park avenues, was what we could call a tourist area. There were many amusement parks, picnic grounds, carnivals, and a race track. Because of the beauty of the area with its proximity to Lake Ontario, […]
By GENE DOMAGALA On Saturday, May 21, I will be leading an historic walk starting at the northwest corner of Woodbine and Danforth avenues. The walk will begin at 1 p.m. Even though I have been leading historic walks on the Danforth for more than four decades, the area still intrigues me. It is one […]
By GENE DOMAGALA There have been many articles written by fine sports people about baseball who are far more knowledgeable than I about the game. But baseball in the East End did not originate down in the Beach! The original East Toronto baseball teams started up in the present area of Ted Reeve Arena, about […]
By GENE DOMAGALA The Beach Metro Community News (which published its first edition on March 1, 1972 as Ward 9 Community News) is celebrating its 50th anniversary. In my humble opinion, each of these 50 years have been a reflection of great historic and journalistic prose. This is what we mean by Freedom of the […]
