Tours! Walks! Talks!

Parliament Street at a Crossroads

We all know and feel that Parliament Street, our main street, is at a crossroads. For several years, CPA Board Member Gilles Huot has been closely monitoring its transformation, including proposals that could significantly alter Cabbagetown’s character. He’s also collaborated with the Cabbagetown Heritage Conservation District Committee to identify heritage buildings on Parliament Street that deserve protection. Join him on Sunday September 20th (early to deal with minimal traffic noise) for a walk down Parliament Street. This walk will explore the history of our main street, its assets, current challenges, and ongoing preservation efforts.

Date and Time:

• September 20 at 9:30 am

Starting Point: Anniversary Park (parkette at Gerrard and Parliament streets)

Cost: Free! No need to register, just show up.

Notes: The walk will last approximately 1.5 hour. It concludes at Parliament and Wellesley streets

The St. James Cemetery - Tales of the Dead

This year again, we’re partnering with Heritage Toronto to lead a couple of walking tours. An experienced CPA Tour Guide has been matched with a Heritage Toronto Emerging Historian to offer a special tour of Cabbagetown’s St. James Cemetery.

Opened in July 1844, St. James Cemetery (and Crematorium) stands as Toronto’s oldest continuously operating burial ground. This historic site boasts a picturesque, park-like landscape with rolling hills, winding paths, and a dense canopy of mature trees.

Among the cemetery’s winding paths lie politicians, artists, business leaders, architects, scientists, and other prominent Torontonians. On this walk, we’ll uncover tales of murder, suicide, scandal, disease, duels, body snatching, and sacrifice that reveal the darker and more unexpected sides of life, and death, in Toronto. Along the way, we’ll visit the graves of Alice and Nellie Pitezel, two young sisters whose murders became part of the infamous crimes of serial killer H. H. Holmes; John J. McLaughlin, the Toronto pharmacist and chemist who created Canada Dry Ginger Ale; and William and Samuel Jarvis, influential figures in early Toronto whose legacies include political power, allegations of corruption, and the naming of Jarvis Street.

Join us among the tombstones and discover what the dead can tell us about the city of the living.

Tour Dates:

• Sunday, September 27, at 11:00 am (registration is mandatory)

• Saturday, October 24, at 11:00 am (registration is mandatory)

Starting Point: Gates of the cemetery, 635 Parliament Street

Cost: $10.05

• To register and pay your ticket, go HERE (Heritage Toronto website).