Hundreds of people checked out Old City Hall on Saturday amid a growing push by the City of Toronto to transform the historic space into a local museum filled with hidden treasures.
Kathy Grant, who advocates highlighting the stories of Black Canadian veterans, was among those who registered to speak with volunteer experts who were reviewing and assessing historical items. She brought various documents, photographs and copies of Contrast (a publication featuring the perspectives of Black residents).
“There [are] a lot of negative examples I find of our community. We want to show many positive examples,” she told CityNews.
“We want to digitize [the items] and share them with community and share them with schools so that they have examples of our history.”
Kathleen and Mark Henning brought a necklace with a matching broach, a piece of pottery, and an expanding purse from 1879 with a monogram and a silver dollar. The items belonged to Mark’s great aunt and were eventually kept by Kathleen. She said the purse drew a lot of interest from the assessor.
“We’re in the process of downsizing, and so we need to find a home for a lot of these items and decide what we may keep and what we may pass on. They need to be seen by the public, so hopefully we can put (the items) into museums or into their inventory because some of them are pretty precious,” Kathleen said.
“I feel it’s really important to know our history and the beauty that’s out there. We can’t share beauty from the past, and the craftsmen of that era were so talented — it’s a different level of art.”
For City of Toronto museums director Karen Carter, it is these kinds of items that she and members of her team were hoping to come across.
“The thing that’s most exciting is that layer of community cultural practice,” she told CityNews.
“I think some people get into museums because they’re interested in the old things for the dead people. I’m interested in how those things are connected to the people who are alive, who are holding these treasures.”
Dubbed Toronto Treasures, Saturday’s event is part of a ramped-up slate of programming for Old City Hall. The building, which was mostly constructed in the 1890s, will have programming on Fridays until September:
The courtyard will have tables and people are welcomed to stop by for lunch
Public talks hosted by experts
A photography exhibit
“As we know, always something going on every weekend at Nathan Phillips Square, so you might come down for that and then walk over here,” Carter said.
“The Eaton Centre is close by. It really feels like you’d have a good downtown moment if you came into the city.”
The programming comes amid calls to develop a museum within part or all of the building. The museum proposal has been kicking around for several years.
For the first time in nearly 40 years, a wedding was held in the former council chamber (that also served as a courtroom when Old City Hall courts were still operating) and can be booked for similar events in the future. Stunning stained-glass art and old courtrooms are also available for viewing. The former holding cells, however, aren’t accessible to the public yet.
Carter said converting part of the building into a municipal museum with other entities occupying the remaining parts would likely be more of a realistic plan.
“We’re good at those things of how do you put multiple things in beautiful old buildings,” she said.
Coun. Josh Matlow is among those on Toronto city council who has been pushing for the creation of a museum.
“For far too long, because this has been a courthouse, you would have had to commit a crime to be able to see this beautiful building and walk through this courtyard. Today, we’re reopening it back to the public so that the public knows that it’s for them,” he told CityNews.
“We want to animate this space. We want to show people the beauty, the grandeur of this E.J. Lennox (the architect who designed the building) masterpiece inside.”
When asked how realistic it would be to pull off setting up a museum dedicated to Toronto history, Matlow was optimistic.
“It is realistic. We’ve moved motions at council, which have been approved to see a museum of Toronto here at Old City Hall, but now it’s going to take finances, political will and creativity to make it happen,” he said.
“I believe that we put together the right leadership team to make that a reality, and this is a bit of a teaser trailer to come and visit.”
Matlow said it “boggles” his mind that the city doesn’t have such a space already similar to other ones across the world.
“I want the museum of Toronto at Old City Hall to celebrate and share the stories of the many waves of immigration that built this city,” he said.
“There are so many individual stories of communities, but we also have our story and I want to bring that to life and share it with the public.
“We literally have warehouses where we have artifacts of many stories of our city sitting in dusty archives. We need to bring those things out to the public and share them with students, with residents, with visitors alike.”
People CityNews spoke with on Saturday said they agreed with the proposal to create a Toronto museum.
“One hundred per cent, there’s a lot of rich history … as far as the Black community goes, I’d like to go and see more examples here. And it’s a great place, a great location,” Grant said.
“Very important,” Mark said.
“I know someone that … was born in Toronto and raised in Toronto, lived in Toronto, and he’s now 68 years old and he has never been in.”
Meanwhile, if you have a historical item connected to Toronto that might fit into a potential local museum exhibition and/or collection, another event is set to be held at Old City Hall on Aug. 23 between . Click here for more information.
“Add a personal story. It might be a teacup, it might be a shoehorn, it might be a glass — something that is meaningful to you. Bring that object in, and that story will become historical.
