ETCC
One of the surprising things about the June 24th Community Consultation meeting on the 1327 Queen St E development proposal was that the heritage aspect of the site wasn't discussed, especially in light of the fact that one of the conclusions of Toronto and East York Community Council's preliminary study was that a heritage review of the site was in order. The buildings at 1327 -1339 Queen Street East are in the middle of a pink area that denotes an archeologically sensitive "hot spot" on Toronto Heritage's map of the city.
Toronto Heritage Service City Map
The first buildings on the site, semi-detached 1327 and 1329 Queen Street East, were built some time before 1907 by John Coatsworth Graham, born in Caledonia, Grand River, Upper Canada in the year 1847. His parents were English emigrants Francis and Jane Graham. He became the biggest ice-dealer in Toronto, gathering tons of ice from Ashbridges Bay and Lake Simcoe, and storing the ice in several vast warehouses. One of these ice houses: 110 X 50 feet wide and 18 feet high, holding two thousand, two hundred tons of ice was located at the bottom of Lake Street, now Knox Avenue, where Lake Street met Ashbridges Bay. John C. Graham was an athlete of note who won the Championship of America in rowing. As a track star he won numerous medals and prizes including several Mayors' Cups. He ran for city alderman in 1907, nominated by Daniel Lamb. One of his sons, Emerson was elected and served as a city alderman. The Graham family owned and occupied 1327 and 1329 Queen Street East until 1953.
One of John C. Graham's daughters, Ella Maud, was married to John Raphael Price in 1911. During that same year the four-plexes on Queen Street were in the process of being built. Ella Maud and John Price lived at 240 Greenwood Avenue. The majestic house at 100 Greenwood Avenue also belonged to the Price family. The Price family were brickyard owners and Price Brothers were house builders.
Price Bros. built the Heritage Listed fourplexes at 18 - 36 Wineva Avenue in the 1920s for which the fourplexes at 1333 - 1339 Queen Street East are likely a much earlier prototype.
Discovering the history of these centenarian buildings at 1327 - 1329 Queen Street East and the story of the early inhabitants of Leslieville opens up a many-layered appreciation of the place where we live. If we're to be enriched by our collective experience, it's important to protect these valuable and fragile architectural testaments to the origin of our city and especially of Leslieville for future generations.
2014/07/02
mh
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ReplyDeleteThere is no evidence of any relationship between John Raphael Price and the house-building Price brothers, J. Leslie Price and Earl Stanley Price. They were the sons of Joseph Price, a self- made man who started as a sign painter, made a name in bill posting and billboard advertising, and then turned to real estate development. Family lore is that Joseph was an orphan or an abandoned child. The Price brothers were my great uncles. Their sister, Helen, was my grandmother.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your information, Paul. Right from the source! This was the first article I wrote and at the time I wrote it there were many unanswered questions. There still are some unanswered questions but not nearly so many. Since I'm not a historian I decided to write these articles in such a way as to include the reader in my voyage of discovery as it happened, so I included the unanswered questions that I had at the time. Once I had the opportunity of researching the lineage of the Price families online I found no connection between them. The connection I found that was a total surprise was between John Raphael's mother, Annie Simpson Price and Henry Simpson, the architect who designed what may be the first four-plexes in Toronto in King Street West, built in 1903. Annie Simpson Price and Henry Simpson appear to have been sister and brother. The building permit for the Queen Street East four-plexes only mentions William Booth, the owner of the land and almost certainly the builder, but it doesn't state who the architect was if there was an architect. It does seem quite a coincidence and will be interesting to see if I can find a connection between Henry Simpson and our four-plexes. Henry Simpson was an important architect in the early part of the twentieth century and a few of his buildings that have survived are designated heritage properties.
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