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November 22, 2008

Terrific Toronto

Too much to see in just one trip

For reasons that will forever remain unclear to me, Toronto maintains a defensive posture toward other major cities.

Montreal has more nightlife, one resident told me. New York has more culture. Chicago has better architecture. Ignore such naysayers.

Toronto competes favorably in all the above categories. And its pleasures are easily navigable by the casual visitor.

MUCH TO SEE
Three sights are on every tourist's must-see list.

One is the CN Tower, an 1,815-foot-tall spindle at the foot of downtown, right next to the stadium where the Blue Jays play baseball. Another is Casa Loma, a preposterously elegant 98-room castle built around 1912. The third is the Hockey Hall of Fame, where one can learn all about the game then look at the vaunted championship trophy, the Stanley Cup.

You'll have no difficulty getting directions to these attractions when you get to Toronto. If you happen to be staying longer, or you've sampled those icons on previous visits, there's plenty more worth seeing.

The Royal Ontario Museum (Bloor Street West and Avenue Road) is a mecca for study of natural science, anthropology and decorative arts. A widely heralded new glass wing designed by Daniel Liebeskind virtually explodes from the century-old brick building that has long been the museum. The flashy angles of the addition rivet your attention from the street. Then, inside, five stories of soaring walls and exhibit space meld smoothly with the museum's older wings.

I took a one-hour tour of museum highlights with knowledgeable guide Eric Parker. It's well worth following my example — for had I not joined the tour, I probably would have missed such gems as the re-created rooms that give a sense of Europe in various eras. One reflecting Renaissance times included oak wall paneling, Ionic pilasters and a canopied bed, its coverings designed for warmth rather than privacy.

In the Japanese galleries, Eric pointed out a palanquin, essentially a coach suspended from a beam that would have been carried by four to six people. Sliding screen doors gave the occupant privacy, while the gilded interior added an aura of luxury.

Egyptology always proves fascinating. The Royal Ontario Museum has a mummy case from the Temple of Thebes that's still unopened. This museum pioneered the use of X-rays and CT scanning to study mummies; the deceased turns out to have been a young female musician who died from massive infection beginning in an abscessed tooth.

My wife, Marty, and I scrutinized perhaps the best displayed collection of dinosaurs on the continent. The skeleton of a pterosaur, 20 feet long and with a 39-foot wingspan, hovered above us. But the truly awesome specimens were the carnivorous allosaurs and the plant-eating barosaurus. Hypothesized to have been the largest land animal ever, the latter could weigh up to 30,000 pounds on a frame 72 feet long.

DEERSKIN BOOT
Another must is the Bata Shoe Museum (327 Bloor Street West). You may think you know a lot about shoes, and your teenaged daughter may think so as well, but I'm ready to assure the Bata will show how much you've still got to learn.

The permanent two-story exhibit "All About Shoes" can be a source of unending fascination. There's a sample of the earliest known European footwear, a grass-stuffed deerskin boot with bearskin sole that dates back 5,300 years.

Cultural implications are emphasized. Chinese women bound their feet as late as the early 1900s to produce societally favored tiny appendages able to walk in lotus style. Manchu women were forbidden to bind feet; to achieve that same distinctive walk, they wore cumbersome high-heel shoes. It was so important that the feet of Asante rulers in Africa not touch the ground that sandal-bearers always stood nearby with gold-leafed replacements.

Another floor showed how North American native peoples melded function and beauty in remarkable ways. Southwestern Indians decorated with fringing and colors from natural dyes. Northern populations had warmth as their first requirement. Moccasins and boots of caribou or moose hide would nonetheless often be decorated with silk embroidery.

THE SOLDIER'S TRADE
Toronto's history really dates back only to the 1790s, when the British built a log fort to serve as an ancillary to their larger fortifications at Kingston, the original capital of Upper Canada (today's province of Ontario). When the War of 1812 threatened, reinforcements were made to Fort York. American forces led by General Zebulon Pike attacked in April 1813. Though victorious, there were many casualties — including Pike — subsequent to the British decision to blow up the powder magazine.

The fort was quickly rebuilt and was formidable enough to discourage another American incursion in 1814. Seven buildings from this era of Fort York, plus a reconstructed barracks, survive in the midst of a growing metropolitan area as a historic site (100 Garrison Road).

Typical furnishings of officers' and enlisted men's quarters are instructive. The East Magazine features an impressive display of archaeological principles and the excavation of Fort York. In Blockhouse No. 2, "The Soldier's Trade: 1793-1870" gives a comprehensive treatment of military life.

We visited two historic homes. Campbell House (160 Queen Street West), a stately brick mansion moved from its original location in York to the heart of downtown in 1972, was the home of an early chief justice.

Our interest whetted, we walked 10 blocks east to the Mackenzie House (82 Bond St.). There we learned much more about the Rebellion of 1837, a pivotal event in the city's history. William Lyon Mackenzie began publishing his first newspaper, The Colonial Advocate, in 1824. His political activism earned him both respect and hatred, as evidenced by the attack on his business in 1826.

FIRST POST OFFICE
Before our tour of the interior, we enjoyed a demonstration of early printing presses. Alex showed us the intricacies of composing columns of type then locking them together in a frame called a "chase." (If a writer became too wordy, he was told to shorten the piece so that it would fit, i.e.: cut to the chase.) We composed our own entries then operated the levers on the venerable Washington press, a machine capable of printing 200 copies per hour.

Melanie guided us through the 1859 Victorian townhouse, a gift to Mackenzie in 1857 from his many supporters. Interpreted to reflect the 1860s, the home includes large transom windows, an interior plaster arch, pocket doors and gas chandeliers that still work. On the wall of a small study hangs a proclamation offering 1,000 pounds for the capture of Mackenzie, who fled to the United States after his leadership of the unsuccessful Rebellion of 1837.

A brief stop at Toronto's First Post Office (260 Adelaide Street East) provides more flavor of early life in the city. Two back rooms offer history displays, including a diorama of Toronto in 1837.

It's instructive to take quill in hand to write a letter, fold and seal it with wax, as would have been the case two centuries ago. Letters were a luxury, as was the time to go pick them up. Postmasters would put notices in newspapers listing townspeople for whom mail was waiting.

There's so much more to describe, including the St. Lawrence Market (91 Front Street), active since 1803. It bustles especially on Saturdays, when area farmers bring fresh produce and cheeses to sell. Butchers and fishmongers purvey everything imaginable. Don't tell our Labrador retriever Ripken, but one stall offered huge beef bones for a dollar a bag. Further east, in the Distillery District (Mill and Trinity Streets), a 40-building Victorian industrial site is being transformed into a vibrant area of restaurants, clubs, boutiques and a performing arts center. It's quite impressive architecturally.

We'll explore it further on our next visit.

E-mail Richard Frost:
rbforiole@aol.com

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