In a tucked away corner of Toronto, actually Scarborough (near the bluffs), is a garden. Within this garden are stone sculptures and the remains of the frontages of a few of the buildings that used to grace the downtown core. Mainly these frontages were banks, perhaps all of them were, but they all represent things that used to be, buildings that used to stand ornate and proud. They were built, for the most part I would say, at the end of the 1800's and the beginning of the 1900's, decorated with columns and figures and scrollwork, the style of the age, built before glass and steel took over and created the current canyons of downtown. These facades and this sculpture now sit, for the most part, in the garden behind the shell of an old hotel.
The garden now is a popular place for people to stroll. It has also become a popular site for wedding photography (fees paid to the city). You can even exit through a gate at the back of the property and get a look at Lake Ontario from the top of the bluffs, or continue to wander along the paths that follow the top of the cliff.
The hotel itself, the Guild Inn, was built in at least two stages. There was the original and much smaller structure, and I guess that it was pretty swank at one time, with a popular restaurant and lounge located within, and then a hotel of 7 stories was built alongside it. Both sections have long been closed and boarded up, left to the ministrations of the weather and of the seasons. The city, it turns out, owns the property. I don't know any of the details on how that occurred but at some point in time I may feel the urge to do a little research on the site and see what I can dig up. The important thing to remember here though is that the city is not in the hotel business. The site has been fenced off and closed now for years.
The hotel part will soon be torn down. Workers are already preparing the site.
Located at the rear of the hotel and on the back elevated terrace are more slabs and sculpture and figures. These are being carefully removed before the hotel comes down. Cradles and scaffolding and chain hoists are being set in place for the salvage effort. I was told that eventually the pieces will be transferred to other places within the garden area. I hope they take great care in this endeavor because I'm in love with a number of the female figures that have long stood here, whom I have come to term 'the graces'. I call them that because they have inspired me on numerous occasions to come look at them and to photograph them (which I have done fairly extensively, and printed their images as well). There are six of these figures altogether, life sized, in three main groupings, each group having two of the women on a panel. They are basically crests. The actual names on these crests are Industry, Intelligence and Agriculture. I've seen similar crests in other places, often adorning public buildings (and not just limited to this province, Ontario. I've seen similar figures, but not so detailed, in places like Victoria, British Columbia).
To back up the story a little bit I wanted to say that sometimes there are events which occur that just seem meant to be. Everybody has had them. Whether you think of these times as chance or happenstance, they are, to steal the term, 'meaningful coincidences'. They happen, you derive (and I think it has to be special) meaning from the event. I don't think that they are what was originally intended by the word 'synchronistic', but that does give the flavour of what I'm attempting to convey. In this case there was a string of ordinary events that led up to a special payoff.
The first event, outside of the daily routine, was a telephone call from a long time friend, one that I don't see very much anymore. His name is Walter. It was his suggestion to get together and to go out and revisit the place I had taken him to the last time we got together a month or more earlier. Guess where? This time he would bring his camera gear. And he has nice camera gear. Walter is a representative for a major photographic software company who has published books on it's use and gives seminars across Canada, Europe and the United States.
If it weren't for Walter's urge or whatever to call and to go to the Guild site we might never have seen the 'girls' in situ again.
We spent quite a bit of time photographing around the hotel. I was actually kind of surprised that Walter and I didn't get kicked out of there, where the workmen were constructing the scaffolding and doing other getting ready type of work. Sometimes I think it's an advantage being friendly and up front. We strolled in as if we owned the place, I think we even asked the worker we met if it was okay to be there and he said yes. So we set down our camera bags and started photographing.
An additional benefit of all this attention on the figures was that workmen had cleared the vines and weeds that had grown in and around the figures, and although the growth was one of the charms of the setting for me, particularly the vines, it did have it's benefits. This was the first time that I had seen the entire sets of figures without overgrowth. One set was still in shade from a sumac growing close by but you have to take what you can get sometimes.
In another pleasing coincidence we also happened to meet the woman in charge of the salvage project, named Sandra I believe, who works for the City of Toronto. When the initial introductions were being made she asked if we were professional photographers. I said that I was just the talented amateur and Walter was the professional.Walter and her ended up exchanging cards, I exchanged hello's. It was from her that we learned what was happening.
Sandra is the one who told us that the hotel part of the Guild (at least) is being demolished. Even she was not sure of the fate of the original Guild Inn. I hope the ladies, my graces, don't suffer from the experience of being relocated.
Before deciding to head for home Walter and I also walked and photographed the rest of the garden grounds as well. Back in the old days, before digital photographic technology, I used to take photographs using infrared film. I'm just in the process of checking out how to do something similar with my digital camera and used this occasion to try. I took one archway, which I thought might be a good subject, and ran a test. The results that came about were pretty nice. The exposure was something like f56 at 10 seconds.
Nice day all around.
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