CAN YOU BELIEVE HOW QUICKLY JULY WENT BY?
HAPPY SIMCOE DAY WEEKEND (AUGUST 1-3) EVERYONE!
OUR OPEN SUNDAY IS AUGUST 9 from 1-4 pm
PHOTO ABOVE: Thank you to the Christie Gardens Retirement Community on Melita Crescent for hosting three of our docents this month who introduced residents to the Tollkeeper's Cottage by means of a lively talk and PowerPoint presentation. And after the presentation, a group of residents decided to visit for a tour and tea. We received hearty compliments for what we are doing in keeping this heritage house alive for the public. Do you know a seniors residence that might be interested in finding out about us? We'd be happy to spread the word to others!
CYANOTYPE WORKSHOP SOLD OUT!
SATURDAY AUGUST 8 FROM 10 AM-2 PM FEE: $25.
Photographer Terence Reeves will guide up to 12 participants (age 13 years +) through a day of botanical printmaking at the Tollkeepers' Cottage. Due to Terence's fine marketing efforts, his recent outreach on Eventbrite has filled the workshop. Since the interest is so great, we will consider sponsoring other workshops like this in the future.
Cyanotype is very early form of photography discovered by John Herschell in 1844, making it one of the earliest forms of photography invented. Anna Atkins, a family friend of Herschell's, established a tradition of botanical printmaking when she travelled around the British coastline documenting seaweed.
The process fell out of use, due to a misconception that cyanotype was only suitable for line drawings. Eventually, it became ubiquitous as a method for quickly reproducing building plans and schematics, which is why these are often called "blueprints" today. Once blueprinting was made obsolete by modern photocopiers, artists began to experiment with the process and discovered it was a more capable photographic medium than anyone had previously realized.
WE'RE HOPING FOR A POSTCARD PLAQUE THAT MENTIONS THE COTTAGE!
You're familiar with the Heritage Plaques program that has placed many plaques around the city. One of these is right near the Cottage and describes the history of Davenport Road. Project Bookmark is a unique, non-profit initiative that sponsors a series of site-specific literary exhibits using text from imagined stories that take place in the location where they are placed. Perhaps you recall Catherine Little whose several presentations with us introduced us to her children's books. Her latest is Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill, a story that imagines a visit by Lucy Maud Montgomery to a library on the very Bathurst Street hillside that crosses Davenport Road and refers to our beloved Tollkeeper's Cottage in its park nearby. The aim is to use an excerpt from the book on the plaque.
Project Bookmark is proceeding with the process to request approval for this plaque from the City of Toronto. We'll let you know what happens!
REQUEST FOR VOLUNTEERS: TALKS AND WORKSHOPS
We are so pleased that we have connected with Brianna Davies, a museum graduate from the University of Toronto, who will be reviewing how to deal with our many oral histories taped many years ago and filled with interesting stories of the old Ward 5 neighbourhood.
Are you a craftsperson interested in working with children or adults to help with skills, especially those that might soon be lost? Or perhaps you could give a Talk about a topic that resonates with our interests at the Cottage? We will be on hand to give you a lot of support! We are still in need of a person interested in history who could assist the docent while on tours and in the Cottage, doing a variety of tasks. Let us know at
tollkeeperscottage@gmail.com.
Historic Tidbit for this issue: The mystery of the knee-wall around the Tollkeeper's Cottage.
- The knee-wall around the Cottage once defined a streetcar turnaround called the "Davenport Loop"
- This loop was also frequently used by the TTC to photograph their new buses
- On January 1, 1941 it began to serve buses rather than streetcars as the turning point and terminus for the old 24 Davenport bus route. The bus used this loop to reverse direction before heading back westward along Davenport. It closed on March 28, 1958
- The loop, when no longer in use by the TTC, became overgrown and filled with garbage. A tree, just to the east of the Cottage, took root and is thriving
- In July 2002 the Cottage left its temporary site at the TTC streetcar barns site at Wychwood and was moved to the northwest corner of Bathurst Street and Davenport Road
- In 2003 the Tollkeeper's Cottage was given heritage designation by the City of Toronto
- The Community History Project has given new life to the turnaround. In addition to the Cottage itself, we have restored wild plants and a garden on this property that we lease from the city
