March 2020 Like most cities, Toronto has a spotted history of preserving buildings and structures from the past. Most times, old buildings and structures are torn down to make room for new ones, all in the name of progress. In some cases, it’s simply too expensive to repair them, but especially in the case of …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/buried-bridges-of-toronto/
March 2020 When the Ontario government of George Stewart Henry began the process of expanding and converting the Middle Road into a new Toronto to Hamilton highway in 1931, it was originally conceived as a work relief project during the Great Depression. Originally a dusty, rural concession road, the Middle Road, which ran parallel to …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/qew-monument-commemorates-ontarios-first-super-highway/
March 2020 For centuries, going back to the days of ancient Rome, lighthouses have lined shorelines around the world to serve as a navigational aid and to warn boats of dangerous areas; like a traffic sign on the sea. The Queen’s Wharf Lighthouse is a wooden, 36-foot octagonal lighthouse, sitting on a small plot of …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/shining-a-light-on-the-past-queens-wharf-lighthouse/
February 2020 On Elgin County Road 4, south of St. Thomas, Ontario, sits a complex of vacant, inter-connected Queenston Limestone, Art Deco buildings, done in a Pavilion Plan style, on a 650-acre property. This is the former St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital. Opened in April 1939 as the Ontario Hospital – St. Thomas, the facility already …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/ghosts-of-the-past-the-st-thomas-psychiatric-hospital/
February 2020 In the early part of the 20th century, the railway ruled the Toronto waterfront. Locally known as the “Railway Lands,” was once the home to a large railway switching yard, featuring two large roundhouses, the Canadian National Railways (CNR) Spadina Roundhouse, built in 1928, and the Canadian Pacific Railways (CPR) John Street Roundhouse, …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/old-cpr-roundhouse-the-centrepiece-of-torontos-railway-themed-park-and-museum/
January 2020 Major-General F.F. Worthington Memorial Park, also referred to as the “Tank Park”, serves multiple functions at Camp Borden, a military training base north of Toronto. As a part of the Base Borden Military Museum complex, it serves as an armoured vehicle museum, with armoured vehicles and artillery pieces from Canada, United States, England …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/worthington-park-a-tribute-to-a-man-and-his-legacy/
January 2020 During World War II, supply lines from North America to the United Kingdom and Europe were vital to the ultimate victory for the Allies. To accomplish this task, Canada formed the Canadian Merchant Navy, as did other Commonwealth countries. Civilian cargo ships were pressed into service to transport supplies for the war effort, …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/monument-pay-tribute-to-merchant-marine-sailors-from-quebec-who-died-in-wwii/
January 2020 The Town of Port Burwell in southern Ontario has a unique military museum featuring a Cold War relic as the centrepiece. HMCS Ojibwa was an Oberon-class submarine that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1965 until it was decommissioned in 1998. Powered by a two shaft diesel-electric system, equipped with two ASR …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/retired-royal-canadian-navy-submarine-now-a-tourist-attraction-in-port-burwell/
January 2020 On 23 April 2010, a memorial plaque was unveiled outside the Greater Binghamton Transportation Center bus terminal in Binghamton, New York, in honour of a mostly forgotten civil rights and mental health advocate who was murdered on that day 47 years prior. William Lewis Moore, born in Binghamton on 28 April 1927, was …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/william-l-moore-a-forgotten-advocate-for-civil-rights-and-mental-health-issues/
January 2020 In the south-east corner of the Parkwood Institute Mental Health Care property in London, Ontario, sits a cluster of four buildings; three that are still in use and one boarded up and deteriorating, along with a small, dilapidated guard shack. This is the remains of the Western Counties Health and Occupational Centre. Formerly …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/a-small-cluster-of-buildings-once-played-a-role-in-the-treatment-of-war-veterans/
