Ghosts among us…
When one thinks of ghosts, generally we think of the souls of the dead coming back to haunt the living. Rarely do we think of buildings. In Unbuilt Toronto Mark Osbaldeston argues that “ghosts come in many forms [and] the most ephemeral are the ghosts of things that never were, the buildings that were themselves dreams” (Osbaldeston, Mark. Unbuilt Toronto: A history of a city that might have been. Dundurn Press: Toronto. 2008).
The Queen Street subway line…
Forty-six feet below Queen station lays the remains of Lower Queen. The space itself is massive, stretching 288 feet long by 52 feet wide. The Queen line was to have a total of fifteen stops including one at City Hall, Trinity Bellwoods park and Logan Avenue in the city’s east end.
A map displaying the purposed route of the Queen Street subway line.
For a variety of reasons (rapid population growth in midtown Toronto, increasing reliance on the automobile) the Queen line began to make less sense to city planners and politicians. Serious consideration of a Queen line lingered on for many years, but finally died in 1970s. The last official mention of the plan occurred in the 1980s when the notion of downtown relieft line was briefly considered.
The spooky and unfinished remains of City Hall station. It is rumored that a scene in Nightmare on Elm Street was filmed in Lower Queen.
With Osbaldeston’s insight in mind, this Halloween we should not only honour the ghouls, ghosts and other supernatural entities that haunt our city, but the memories of a Toronto that never was. If you find yourself wondering more about Toronto’s unfinished past make sure to borrow a copy of Unbuilt Toronto and keep an eye out for the Osbaldeston’s lastest Unbuilt Toronto 2: More of a city that might have been.
Suggested Resources
Unbuilt Toronto: a history of a city that might have been
Unbuilt Toronto 2: more of the city that might have been
Lost Toronto: images from the city's past
Toronto observed: its architecture, patrons, and history
Concrete Toronto: a guide to concrete architecture from the fifties to the seventies
The TTC story: the first seventy-five years
Related Links
Toronto's Lost Subway Stations
City of Toronto Book Awards - Unbuilt Toronto
BlogTO: The top 10 unbuilt projects in Toronto
BlogTO: Unbuilt Toronto gets a worthy sequel
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