The West Toronto Junction Historical Society (W.T.J.H.S.) would like to thank Heritage Toronto for awarding its 2012 Community Heritage Award to our Society and to thank members of Heritage Toronto who voted us their 2012 Member’s Choice Award.  The ceremonies were held October 9 at Koerner Hall in the Royal Conservatory of Music, in conjunction with the William Kilbourn Memorial Lecture.

Host Mary Ito spoke of the West Toronto Junction Historical Society’s “impressive, diligent, and rigourous documenting of the built and cultural history of its neighbourhood in a sustained way over many years.” She said “The jury commended the Society’s approach to leveraging and sharing resources as a model for others to emulate.”

W.T.J.H.S. would like to thank our volunteers who help us staff an extensive archives, and provide monthly meetings with a guest speaker, an award winning historical quarterly, heritage activism, two Junction books, renowned walking tours, a historical talk show, a four part graphic novel series, a  web site about Junction architecture, and an upcoming documentary on the Heintzman Piano factory.

Thursday, October 4th, Annette Library, Lower Level, Committee Room 1:

7:30 PM – Business Meeting

8:30 PM –Imagining Toronto

Imagining Toronto is a study of how the city has been described and revealed in and through literature.  Author Amy Lavender Harris, who teaches in the Department of Geography at York University, discusses the study.  Imagining Toronto (Mansfield Presss, 2010) was shortlisted for the Gabrielle Roy Prize in Canadian Literary Criticism and won the Award of Merit, the highest honour given to a book at the 2011 Heritage Toronto Awards.  More about Imagining Toronto here.

Thursday, September 6, Annette Library, Lower Level, Committee Room 1:

7:30 PM – Business Meeting

8:00 PM – Buster Keaton Double Bill:  Bring your own popcorn! (note early start)

The Railrodder is a 1965 short comedy film released by the National Film Board of Canada,  starring Buster Keaton in one of his final film roles.  A 25 minute comedic travelogue of Canada, it was also his last silent film as it contains no dialogue and all sound effects are overdubbed.  Concurrent with the production of this film, the National Film Board produced a documentary entitled Buster Keaton Rides Again which combines behind-the-scenes footage of the making of The Railrodder, including sequences showing Keaton and the director discussing (and occasionally arguing over) gags in the film, with retrospective footage of Keaton’s Hollywood career.  Running time of 55 minutes.

On a hot and sunny Sunday, June 10,  the inaugural James Ellis Heritage Toronto Walk took place in the Junction.  Three guides, including the Society’s Neil Ross and David Wencer,  along with architectural enthusiast Christopher Sears, led sections of the large crowd.  Highlights included our Annette Library, and  the Junction Shul, Congregation Knesseth Israel, both designed by Junction architect James Ellis.  Starting at Keele and Dundas, the guides spent a couple of hours illuminating Junction public and domestic architecture of the 1800s and 1900s on Annette, High Park and Dundas, ending with an inside tour of the Junction Shul.  See more pictures and tour information on the Ellis Tour Webpage.