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Don Jail

1864 establishments in Canada2014 disestablishments in OntarioBuildings and structures in TorontoDefunct prisons in OntarioExecution sites
Italianate architecture in CanadaWilliam Thomas (architect) buildings
Don Jail building, entrance, winter
Don Jail building, entrance, winter

The Don Jail was a jail in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located to the east of the Don River, on Gerrard Street East in the Riverdale neighbourhood. The original building was completed in 1864 and was reopened in 2013 to serve as the administrative wing of Bridgepoint Active Healthcare, a rehabilitation hospital located adjacent to the jail. Prior to its adaptive reuse as part of a healthcare facility, the building was used as a provincial jail for remanded offenders and was officially known as the Toronto Jail. The jail originally had a capacity of 184 inmates, and it was separated into an east wing for the men and a west wing for the women.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Don Jail (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Don Jail
Jack Layton Way, Toronto

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Wikipedia: Don JailContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 43.66618 ° E -79.353972 °
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Bridgepoint Health Administration

Jack Layton Way
M4M 2B5 Toronto
Ontario, Canada
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Don Jail building, entrance, winter
Don Jail building, entrance, winter
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John Cox Cottage
John Cox Cottage

John Cox Cottage, at 469 Broadview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is the oldest known house in the city still used as a residence, and it still resides on its original site. The property, immediately to the east of what was John Scadding's original lot, was deeded to John Cox by Governor Simcoe in 1796.The first stage of the structure was a small 16 foot (490 cm) × 24 foot (730 cm) log cabin facing due south, and was completed no later than 1807 — making it, arguably, the third oldest structure remaining in the city (and perhaps the second, should the Osterhout Log Cabin prove younger as artifacts appear to bear out).It is older than both the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse, and the various barracks in Fort York. Built originally out of square-cut logs (as is Scadding Cabin), it overlooks what is now Riverdale Park and is aligned in the traditional strict east-west orientation, making it appear somewhat twisted to the north of the Toronto street grid, which was built successively around it. This true east-west orientation allows for the maximum use of daylight hours, to minimize the use of the expensive artificial lighting options of the period. The walls containing the living room - including the external south wall and half the west wall, plus half the internal east wall separating the kitchen and living room - remain concealed original log; while the northern parts where expanded during a very early Victorian renovation (completed by architectural firm Langley, Langley and Burke). Some of the original square cut logs from the east wall, looking remarkably like Scadding cabin, are still visible from inside a recent rear kitchen addition. The kitchen addition itself has kept with the spirit of the house, built using logs from a carefully disassembled "younger" log cabin (circa ~1840): however, the size, cutting and precision of the original logs closely matches those of Scadding Cabin, built by The Queen's York Rangers, and can be differentiated by eye from those of the latter addition. The original attic with its cedar roof still survives under the later Victorian roof and is visible from inside the house.

SEED Alternative School

SEED Alternative School is a small Toronto District School Board alternative high school now located in Toronto's east end. Previous locations include Yonge and College, McCaul St, and Bloor and Spadina, in downtown Toronto. Originally, as a summer program, it was at Dundas St West and Bloor St W (where they cross in Toronto, not in then-Etobicoke). The acronym 'SEED' originally stood for 'Summer of Experience Exploration and Discovery', and when it became year round semestered school it was changed to 'Shared Experience Exploration and Discovery'. Students interested in a particular subject, would gather other students, and together they would find a knowledgeable person to act as a teacher or catalyst, and meet regularly to learn. The groups met at various locations and times, including sometimes evenings and weekends. It was entirely up to the students how many and which subjects they studied, and when and where the groups would meet. A group studying Mass Media, for example, would meet in the evening in the Lowther Avenue home of CBC Radio Broadcasters Betty Tomlinson and Allan Anderson. The Vegan Lifestyles cooking course met and cooked in student homes with parents joining to eat the meals prepared by the students. A Japanese Studies group met at the University of Toronto. A few groups met at SEED's own facilities. SEED was founded by the then Toronto Board of Education as a summer program for high school age students in 1968 during the Pierre Trudeau era, a period that also produced Rochdale College and Theatre Passe Muraille and fostered the growth of Coach House Books and a number of other experimental institutions in Toronto. (SEED was not connected with any of them.) The teachers, or co-ordinators as they were called, in the beginning were Les Birmingham and Murray Shukyn, both of whom came from the elementary school system. While initially a summer only program, the students of the second summer wanted to keep SEED going throughout the year. That fall the students obtained recognition from the University of Toronto, and requested the Board establish it as a high school to obtain core funding (for staff and space) and so that students could obtain high school diplomas. During that fall and winter, students ran SEED without any coordinators, using an office made available free by St Thomas Anglican Church on Huron Street. The Board of Education agreed to make SEED a high school, and in September it was a recognized high school, operating in rented space at what was then the YMHA (at Bloor St W and Spadina) in Toronto. Official enrolment was capped at 100 students, with those 100 eligible to earn high school credits/diplomas. Additional students could also attend but not earn high school credits/diplomas. Grades 9 to 13 were included. Students who had gone to SEED but who were officially under the jurisdiction of a nearby Boards of Education, were included as students. A budget of about $200,000 was approved. Murray Shukyn was the first coordinator. To meet the technical requirement of having a principal, and yet minimize costs, the Superintendent of Secondary Schools A. L. Milloy was appointed Principal, but he was not involved at the school. A small core group of four or five teachers was hired, most of whom were certified to teach in more than one high school subject so that students, if they wished, could still take traditional subjects taught by certified teachers that would qualify for a high school diploma. The students ran the school, often dealing directly with the Board of Education where trustees such as long time trustees Fiona Nelson and Dr. Maurice Lister were supportive. At the time all Ontario high schools, with one exception, followed part B of the Ministry of Education's regulation HS1. Part B outlined the traditional high school program. SEED was only the second school in the province set up under part A. Part A allowed tremendous flexibility. It was now possible to get a high school diploma using many different subjects. The school was influenced by the pedagogical philosophy of A.S. Neill's Summerhill School. It was also known for its catalyst system in which university students, professors, community members and experts-at-large on a variety of fields facilitated classes. Milton van der veen was the catalyst for the SEED newsletter (he is now a volunteer with the charity 'Sleeping Children Around the World'.) Noted late science fiction author Judith Merril ran a weekly science fiction seminar at SEED from 1972–1973. Other notable catalysts included noted social activist June Callwood, CBC Radio broadcaster Allan Anderson, then-architect Colin Vaughan, journalists John Gault and Maggie Siggins, advertising executive Billy Edwards (one of the subjects of Allan King's film A Married Couple), and notable Toronto City Alderman Ying Hope. Several U of T professors, such as Milt Wilson of Trinity College, also taught courses. Notable faculty included poet and visual artist Luciano Iacobelli. The notable impact of SEED, Toronto's first alternative school in the Toronto District School Board system, was that it opened the door to a number of other alternative schools. Among them were Learnxs, Subway Academy One, SOLE, and ACE, which Murray Shukyn, SEED's co-founder and first coordinator, helped to organize. A notable achievement was a short film entitled Life Times Nine made by SEED students that was nominated for an Academy Award in 1973.Notable alumni include blogger, journalist, activist and science fiction author Cory Doctorow; former head of the Ontario Securities Commission and V.P. of the Toronto Stock Exchange, lawyer Edward Waitzer; musician and producer Efrim Menuck; Harvard physics professor and Chair of the Physics Department Melissa Franklin, a co-discover of the top quark; Denina Simmons Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Environmental Biology; visual artists Eli Langer and Michael Lewis; author Claudia Casper; gh3 principal and award-winning landscape architect, Diana Gerrard; intersex activist, researcher and professor of sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University, Morgan Holmes; professor of psychology at Conestoga College, Barry Cull; and photographer Michael McLuhan, son of Marshall McLuhan, notable artist Jesse B. Harris.

Castle Frank Brook
Castle Frank Brook

Castle Frank Brook is a buried creek and south-west flowing tributary of the Don River in central and north-western Toronto, Ontario, originating near the intersection of Lawrence Avenue and Dufferin Street. Residential and industrial development in the former suburban cities of York and North York have obliterated nearly all traces of its original course and topography in the uppermost reaches, but the original stream valley is evident in several older districts bordering the lower reaches. Sections of the lower valley include Cedarvale Park ravine, the Nordheimer Ravine near the intersection of St. Clair Avenue and Spadina Road, and the Rosedale Ravine just above the brook's confluence with the Don. Water still runs in short segments in Cedarvale Park and the Nordheimer Ravine but this is only a collection of surface runoff and ravine slope seepage. The channels are all artificially created and run into a storm sewer that carries the remnants of the brook. The southern section of Vaughan Road roughly parallels the brook's course, bypassing the steep slopes of the Cedarvale ravine. The brook's topographic influence is still evident at Ramsden Park, to the north of the intersection of Avenue Road and Davenport Road, representing the boundary of the densely developed Yorkville district. The Toronto Transit Commission's Spadina subway line follows the path of the creek from Eglinton West station to St. Clair West station, finally deviating southward at Spadina Road. The brook is named for the summer residence of Ontario's first colonial governor, John Graves Simcoe, which in turn was named for Simcoe's son, Francis Gwillim. It was built either on the west side of the Don River near the modern Prince Edward (Bloor) Viaduct, or on the east side of Cabbagetown near the river. The home featured a façade in the Georgian architectural style. It was abandoned when Simcoe returned to England in 1794, and burned down in 1829. Castle Frank subway station takes its name from the former residence. A second home of the same name was built north of this site by Sir Edward Kemp. It was demolished in 1962 for the current Rosedale Heights School of the Arts. The site of the original summer home can be seen from aerial photos as a partially cleared area with a ring-like shape.