The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood

A diverse group of contributors, including historians, journalists and architects, revisits the forgotten world of St. John's Ward, a neighborhood in downtown Toronto, and shows how much%E2%80%94and how little%E2%80%94has changed in urban life over 200 years. During the mid-1800s, "the Ward" was known for the African-Americans who migrated there; later on, Italian, Eastern European, and Chinese immigrants arrived. In the 1950s, the Ward virtually disappeared. Its residents were forced out when their homes and businesses were expropriated and demolished during a redevelopment of the downtown core. The Ward's contradictions%E2%80%94it was denigrated as a slum full of lazy foreigners, though it teemed with industrious individuals%E2%80%94are explored in essays, anecdotes and other reportage. Archival photographs offer unforgettable glimpses of daily life, including unemployed men at the local poor house, circa 1900, who are shown breaking up rocks in order to qualify for relief aid. Today, the poor house is gone; however, as this thought-provoking book makes clear, the discrimination and disenfranchisement experienced by the Ward's have-not residents still haunt Toronto to this day. (Aug.)