St. James town

When I lived in the neighborhood I used to love to go for a walk to the St. James area, in the daylight of course. Parliament Street was named after the government buildings located near front street. The road was built on a trail that Governor John Graves Simcoe made to get to his summer home, fondly nicknamed Castle Frank after his son Francis Gwillim. This area was at the outskirts of the city and the family compact gave the un-favored residents of the city this land because it was uneven and hard to work.

I discovered Howard street when trying to make my way east from Yonge to Parliament. That is the street that is just south of the huge billboard you see when you exit the DVP at Bloor. There are a few large homes and you still get a feeling of what the neighborhood used to look like. As you can see from the images St. James Cemetery has been around for a while (1844), it is one of the oldest ones in Toronto and it is still in operation today. You can see that one of the out buildings (one I think they use for cremations) is still standing today on the south end of the property. It is also interesting to see what Wellesley looked like around 60 years ago. It almost looks a little idyllic in the 40’s, it is a shame now that this neighborhood has more of a sketchy feeling to it .