Riverdale Historical Society—since 1999

  Honouring Toronto's First Black Councillor And Deputy Mayor William Peyton Hubbard, the son of American slaves who in 1837 fled Virginia via the Underground Railroad to take up farming in Canada, was Toronto's first black elected city councillor, representing one of the city's wealthiest and whitest wards and often presiding over council as acting mayor. by Elizabeth Abbott.  Published on Huffington Post,  Oct. 25, 2016.      William Peyton Hubbard, the son of American slaves who in 1837 fled Virginia via the Underground Railroad to take up farming in Canada, was Toronto's first black elected city councillor, representing one of the city's wealthiest and whitest wards and often presiding over council as acting mayor. Recently, as dignitaries including Mayor John Tory, Dub Poet Lillian Allen and Hubbard's descendants gathered to name an elegant park in his honour, the strongest message was that Hubbard's most enduring legacy was not that he broke the colou...

  Father Time Watches Over the Physical Plant Fourth in a series focusing on Toronto Old Don Jail   By Elizabeth Abbott             Father Time Peers over the Entryway to the Old Don Jail             In certain ways there were two Don Jails. The first was the complex of cellblocks, Day Rooms and chapel that constituted the inmates’ world. The second was made up of the offices, reception rooms and other public spaces designed for the Don’s large service and administrative staff. The Don’s first residents were admitted in 1864. They entered through a narrow, barred wooden portal and were herded through stairways to where they were stripped, bathed and deloused, a humbling ritual that reminded them that their bodies were no longer truly their own. Even habitual criminals must have been intimidated by their new digs. Everywhere they looked, forbidding images gri...

  CHANGING IDEALS: REFORMATION AND PUNISHMENT Third in a series about the Old Don Jail By Elizabeth Abbott                                                                    View from Necropolis             Construction of the new jail was dogged by one crisis after another. The decision taken to begin by building the central block and two wings. The site of the new Don Jail was also chosen, city land across the Don River from the Necropolis, which would “afford the greatest advantages to the city in point of access and economy.” [1]             Construction began and with it, one crisis after another. The Police Board was demanding, meeting on the work site and issuing unauthorized orders on th...

  CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN  UPPER CANADA  PRE 1865          First in an Old Don Jail series                                                          by Elizabeth Abbott                                                                                                                            The Old Don Jail is much more than an imposing heritage site looming over  Gerrard Street  just west of the Riverdale Library at  Broadview Avenue . It is also an architectural tri...