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Toronto Book Awards - 2004 |
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2004 short list:
 Old Toronto Houses
by Tom Cruickshank
photography by John de Visser
published by Firefly Books
Urban skyscrapers and suburban sprawl identify Toronto as a typical modern city. Yet, there exists another Toronto. Rich in character, it's a hidden city of quiet, tree-lined streets, graceful houses and appealing neighborhoods.
Old Toronto Houses features 250 houses and is illustrated with 400 brilliant color photographs that explore the signature styles the signature style ofToronto's urban architecture. It opens with Henry Scadding's rough-hewn log house built in 1794, then progresses through the city's landmark styles: Georgian, Regency, Gothic, Victorian, Greek Revival, Dutch Colonial and art deco.
In all, more than twenty architectural styles are discussed and illustrated. It also explores the houses of ten distinct Toronto neighborhoods including laborers' cottages in Cabbagetown, Yorkville's Second Empire terraces, and St. George Street's Romanesque mansions. Many of these older houses are beautifully restored inside and out, preserving their original character. Each one is an example of a time in Toronto's richly-diverse history.
 Tom Cruickshank
A fan of early Ontario architecture for so long that he can't remember when it all started, Tom Cruickshank has written four other books on the subject: Old Ontario Houses (Firefly, 2000); Rogue's Hollow, which showcases the historic buildings of Newburgh, The Settler's Dream, an expansive journey through Prince Edward County, and Port Hope: A Treasury of Early Homes. He never takes the 401, preferring instead to travel the back roads in search of more of
Ontario's architectural heritage, which is how he found many of the houses presented in this book.
Currently the editor of Harrowsmith Country Life magazine, Cruickshank worked for many years at Century Home magazine. He and his wife live in a little Regency-stye cottage in Cold Springs, north of Cobourg, Ontario.
 John de Visser
One of Canada's most accomplished and celebrated photographers, John de Visser has published books too numerous to list here. Among them are Old Ontario Houses (Firefly 2000); At the Water's Edge, Summer Cottages (Boston Mills Press); Newfoundland and Labrador; This Rock Within the Sea: A Heritage Lost (with Farley Mowat); Canada: A Celebration (with Robert Fulford); and Port Hope: A Treasury of Early Homes (with Tom Cruickshank). He was a contributor to Canada: A Year of the Land and Between Friends/Entre Amis, and his work has been featured in magazines such as Life, Time, Maclean's and National Geographic. De Visser and his wife live in Cobourg, Ontario.
Excerpt from Old Toronto Houses
Introduction
"York is just emerging from the woods, but bid fair to be a flourishing town."
John Bennett, writing about the settlement of York in 1801.
Little could Bennett, or anyone else, have realized the extent to which his prophecy would come true. In 1834, York was renamed Toronto and, with a population of over nine thousand, the woods were already a distant memory.
Almost from the day it was settled, the city on the north shore of Lake Ontario was by far the largest in the province. Every twenty years or so, the population would at least double, and by the 1880s Toronto had emerged as a contender among the great cities of eastern North America. It passed the two hundred thousand mark at the close of the nineteenth century and continued apace into the twentieth. When Metropolitan Toronto (an administrative partnership between the city and its suburbs) was established in 1953, the population stood at just over one million. By 1985, it had surpassed Montreal as the largest city in Canada. Today, with suburbs and city amalgamated under a single umbrella government, every square foot of available land has been developed; beyond its official borders, the suburbs show no sign of slowing down. According to the 2001 census, over four million people call the greater Toronto area home.
In the wake of so much progress, perhaps it is a surprise to learn that Toronto is not one enormous suburb huddled around a random collection of harbourside skyscrapers, as a glance down from an incoming airplane might suggest. Although it has no historic precinct to rival Old Montreal, the city is nevertheless rich in heritage character. The trouble is, old Toronto isn't always easy to find and an exploration of its treasures requires a detour beyond the major thoroughfares. But in several downtown neighbourhoods, the old city still shines. There, the automobile hasn't quite taken over; the streets move at a pedestrian pace, with chestnut trees providing a welcome canopy, and the architecture can be stunning.
From Old Toronto Houses by Tom Cruickshank with photos by John de Visser. Published by Firefly Books. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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