Toronto – Reservoir Park

Toronto – Scenes in High Park (~1913)

Toronto – Bathurst Street at College, showing King Edward School (~1910)

To: Mrs. Jacob Christine – Shaefferstown

As we don not hear from one an other, I make a start to write. I know we are glad to hear from you every weeek as well as you would be to hear from us. But time seems so scarce that it is now onder the apostle Paul tell so not to be to much overcharged with the cares of this world. Well have you read your book and how do you like it? Our baby girl is ten days old today… With Christian Love Debbie.

The construction started in 1931, at the mouth of the Humber River, in the Township of Etobicoke, when Arthur Meighen, former Canadian prime minister, laid the cornerstone of the first building, the ballroom. However, the final result, after years of litigation, was much smaller than the original grand plan and came to include only the ballroom. It was only three hundred meters, a far cry from that envisioned third of a mile. It opened in the spring of 1941 as a roller rink, and not a dance hall, named Strathcona Palace Pier. Later, it was also known as the Queensway Ballroom and after that, the Humber Pier Ballroom. The heyday of the landmark was its days as a dance hall, going back to its original name, Palace Pier, holding big band dances, until it burned down in a fire set by an arsonist on January 7, 1963. (Text by Agatha Barc, http://www.blogto.com). Today 40+ storey condominium complex.

http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/12/nostalgia_tripping_glory_days_at_the_palace_pier/