Doors Open Toronto - 2013

Spadina Museum.

I went to Doors Open Toronto this past weekend. After helping my sister and mother set up their garage sale in the morning I headed downtown.

My first stop was the Elephant & Castle bar on Yonge and Gerrard. I arrived there at around 11:00 a.m. Built in 1929 it used to be The Dominion Bank in a former life. John Lyle, the architect, also designed Union Station.

My next stop was the Mattamy Athletic Centre. It occupies the top few floors at the repurposed Maple Leaf Gardens. The athletic centre is used by the students of Ryerson University. Also calling the former Gardens home is Loblaws grocery store which uses the lower levels of the building.

Now I had intended in going to four places in total. The Elephant & Castle, the Mattamy Athletic Centre (at Maple Leaf Gardens), MaRS Discovery District and the Spadina Museum. But, after finishing The Elephant & Castle and Mattamy Athletic Centre so early (by 12:30) I thought I'd tack on some more buildings. So I decided to head down to the Distillery District. That was a bad idea.

I visited the Stone Distillery in the Distillery District. It was so-so. Unfortunately most of the old buildings there have already been repurposed. Not much of the original equipment and other things remain. So that was pretty disappointing.

To make matters worse, the trek down there took longer than I anticipated. I pretty much ran out of time to see anything else after because I had planned on meeting one of my friends to go to a barbeque later in the day. So that ended up being my last stop of the day.

Luckily for me I was able to visit the Spadina Museum just before closing on Sunday after my boarding homes visit. It's a nice building. It was built by Toronto financier James Austin and his wife, Susan, in 1866. It's located on Spadina Road right by Casa Loma.