One of the lessons travel has taught me is to not only get to know the beauty of the foreign places, but to appreciate the uniqueness of home. The more I travel, the more I have fallen in love with my chosen home town, Toronto, a city that offers a myriad of possibilities for travelers and residents alike.
In this spirit I have embarked on a path towards beauty store near me a series of articles and photo exhibitions to explore and celebrate my chosen home town. A batch of recent visitors from Europe has confirmed to me that Toronto is a great city, as each one of my visitors have ended up falling in love with this city, intending to come back and to get to know the Big Smoke better.
One of my visitors' and my own personal favourites is Toronto's Beaches neighbourhood, or, as most local residents call it "The Beach". It is a beautiful neighbourhood, located - you guessed it - right on the shores of Lake Ontario, and it has the feel of an ocean-front resort community combined with the ambience of a small town from yesteryear, with its dozens of individually owned stores, galleries and restaurants.
But what makes any neighbourhood special is not just its physical characteristics, its buildings and its architecture - it's the people that make the difference. Every community has its key personalities, its human pillars, and my mission has been to search out the individuals that stand out through their commitment to the community. Often these are the unsung heroes who dedicate so much of their personal time to help others while shunning the limelight.
My quest for community heroes began with a meeting with local representatives and experts on the Beaches, which included Deborah Etsten from the Beach Business Improvement Association, and Michael Prue, the Provincial Member of Parliament representing the Beaches/East York neighbourhoods. Both of these experts pointed to Gene Domagala as one of the key people in the Beach community.
On one of the first really wintery days in Toronto, just a few days before New Years, I met Gene at a real local landmark: the Toronto Beaches Library. We met near the checkout counter where Gene introduced me to Barbara Weissman, the head librarian, who would later help me with some of my research by compiling relevant materials about the Beach.
Gene's charitable spirit immediately became obvious as we stepped out of the library when he promised to get a cup of coffee for a local homeless man in a wheelchair who had set himself up just outside the library. Gene regularly helps out in local drop-in centres who open their doors to the homeless on different days of the week.
After dropping off the coffee Gene introduced me to one of Toronto's most beloved outdoor spaces: Kew Gardens, originally created by one of the first settlers in this area. Joseph Williams and his wife Jane bought a four acre property in 1853 to turn it into farmland. Joseph, originally from London, England, always had fond memories of Kew Gardens, the Royal Botanical Gardens in London, and in this spirit he named his property "Kew Farms". In 1879 he opened a twenty acre pleasure ground, suitable for camping and picknicking which he named "The Canadian Kew Gardens". Gene explained that as a teetotaler, Joseph Williams would serve meals and refreshments, but definitely no alcoholic beverages.
A well-used bandstand anchors the park and Gene pointed out a dedication to a lifelong resident of East Toronto, Alex Christie (1917 - 1992) whose actions improving the community received permanent appreciation in the plaque adorning the bandstand.
A few steps eastwards is the Dr. William D. Young Memorial, a Renaissance style drinking fountain which was erected in 1920 to commemorate a local doctor who had dedicated himself to public service, and in particular, to the wellbeing of children in the area. Gene pointed out that when Dr. Young passed away in 1919, he was almost penniless.
We strolled south on Lee Avenue, the main north-south artery in the Beach, and Gene pointed out a former hotel with 13 rooms, today a private residence. For well over a hundred years, the Beach has been a popular recreation area, and from the late 1800s onwards, people used to come from downtown Toronto in steamers to enjoy the serenity and outdoor opportunities offered by the Beach.
By the late 1800s the Williams family had subdivided their plot and built an entire subdivision of homes in parts of today's Kew Gardens. Joseph and Jane Williams' son, Kew Williams, had built a house adjoining Lee Avenue for his own family. According to Gene, the grey stone was brought in by barge from Kingston, Ontario. To the Williams family's dismay, the City of Toronto expropriated their property in 1907 to create a large park.
All of the residences built in the park were demolished with the exception of the Kew Williams House, which today is also referred to as the Gardener's cottage, the only residential building west of Lee Avenue still standing in Kew Gardens. Gene mentioned that one of Kew Williams' daughters never set foot inside of the house until about 12 years ago, in memory of the traumatic experience that her family had gone through.
From the foot of Lee Avenue we went southwards where Gene pointed out that years ago, the waterfront at the beach was composed of a sandy barrier island with a stretch of water flowing just inland. This inland river was later filled in. More than 100 years ago, the waterfront would have been full of cottages and houses. Today this area is a large public park with a wide sandy beach. Gene's extensive history knowledge (he has written more than 300 articles for the local beauty store near me Beach Metro Community News) touched on the Kew Beach Club which existed here from 1903 and was demolished around 1930. The activities at the club included bowling, tennis and water sports. Numerous photos of the era show hundreds of canoes in the water and thousands of people partaking of various water sports. Three major amusement parks also adorned the Beaches at different times, all of which were demolished long ago. Landowners more than 120 years ago recognized the potential of this waterfront area for entertainment.
Throughout its history, the Beach has also been a centre of physical recreation. Even today there are facilities for lawn bowling, tennis, a big public swimming pool, a boathouse for canoes, hundreds of permanently anchored wooden posts for beach volleyball, the boardwalk and the Martin Goodman all-purpose recreational trail which are widely used by joggers, cyclists and rollerbladers. For about a century now, the Balmy Beach Club has been a recreational institution at the east end of the neighbourhood. Kite-flying on blustery spring and fall days is also a popular practice along the long sandy beach. Dog lovers flock to this area as well due to its extensive off-leash areas where they can let their furry friends run free.