Mike Filey (born 1941) is a Canadian historian, journalist and author. He was awarded the Jean Hibbert Memorial Award in 2009 for promoting the city of 4 and its history.
Mike Filey (born 1941) is a Canadian historian, journalist and author. He was awarded the Jean Hibbert Memorial Award in 2009 for promoting the city of 4 and its history.
Born in 1941 in Toronto, [1] Filey attended high school at North Toronto Collegiate Institute and earned a degree in chemical technology from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. [2] [3]
As a child Filey's family lived on Bathurst Street, just south of the iconic Honest Ed's. [4]
Filey began his career at what is now the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, working there for nine years. He then worked for five years at the Canadian National Exhibition and four years at Canada's Wonderland. [2]
In 1972, he was an organizer of Heritage Toronto, a citizen's group interested in Toronto's history. [5] Since 1975, he has written the column, The Way We Were for the Toronto Sun. He has written more than two dozen books about the history of Toronto. Among the topics covered are Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), books with old photographs, and nine books of Toronto Sketches. He also has a radio show on New AM 740. [2] His guided walks include topics such as Toronto, Then and Now. [2]
According to his friend Alan Parker, another columnist at the Toronto Sun , Filey is known as "Toronto’s best-known historian". [6]
He and his wife, Yarmila, live in Willowdale, Toronto. [3]
The Arcadian Court is an Art Deco event space in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the eighth floor of the flagship downtown Toronto location of the Canadian department store The Bay at Yonge and Queen Streets. For many years, it was an exclusive restaurant, then an art gallery, then closed and used for storage. It was restored and is now used as an event space.
The Great Fire of Toronto of 1904 was a great fire that destroyed a large section of Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada on April 19, 1904. It was the second such fire for the city in its history.
The Cawthra family of Toronto was famous for its business, social and cultural contributions to the city. It is one of the oldest families in Toronto, and many descendants of the family's founder, Joseph Cawthra, continue to play significant roles in Toronto society.
After the Williams Omnibus Bus Line had become heavily loaded in 1861, the city of Toronto issued a transit franchise for a horse-drawn street railway. The winner was Alexander Easton's Toronto Street Railway which opened the first street railway line in Canada on September 11, 1861, operating from Yorkville Town Hall to the St. Lawrence Market. The second line was on Queen Street. On other routes, the TSR continued to operate omnibuses. By 1868 the railway passed into the hands of the bondholders, and in 1869 the company was sold. In 1873 a new act of incorporation was obtained under the old name.
Eaton Hall is a large house in King City, Ontario, Canada, built in the Norman style for Lady Eaton in 1938-39 on a 700-acre (2.8 km²) parcel of land. Lady Eaton and her husband, Sir John Craig Eaton acquired the land in 1920 and 1922 on recommendation from their friend Sir Henry Pellatt, who owned the nearby Mary Lake property. Lady Eaton moved into Eaton Hall three years after selling her city mansion, Ardwold. The house is adjacent to a body of water named Lake Jonda, and nestled within the temperate forests of King Township. Upon completion, it contained 72 rooms. It became a beloved gathering place for the Eaton Family, owners of the Eaton's department stores based in Toronto.
Wilson Yard is the largest of the Toronto Transit Commission's subway yards and bus garages. The subway yard services subway trains on Line 1 Yonge–University. The facility is located on Transit Rd. north of Wilson Ave, in the former city of North York, between Wilson and Sheppard West stations.
The 512 St. Clair is an east–west streetcar route in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC).
The Sir Isaac Brock Bridge is a steel Warren truss bridge in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It carries four lanes for motor vehicles with Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)'s streetcar tracks along Bathurst Street over the railway tracks south of Front Street.
The Old City Hall Cenotaph is a cenotaph located at the front steps of Old City Hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
This timeline of the history of Toronto documents all events that occurred in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, including historical events in the former cities of East York, Etobicoke, North York, Old Toronto, Scarborough, and York. Events date back to the early-17th century and continue until the present in chronological order. The timeline also includes events taken place in municipalities bordering Toronto.
Armour Heights is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the district of North York. It is bounded by Wilson Avenue to the south, Bathurst Street to the west, and the west branch of the Don River to the north and east. Highway 401 cuts through the centre of the neighbourhood.
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) was a Canadian orchestra based in Toronto, Ontario that was active during the first two decades of the 20th century under the leadership of conductor and pianist Frank Welsman. It was the first professional orchestra that existed for any notable length in the city of Toronto. After 13 seasons of performance, the orchestra folded in 1918 because of problems related to World War I. The current Toronto Symphony Orchestra is unrelated to this one.
Mount Pleasant Road is a major arterial thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street extends from Jarvis Street south of Bloor Street north to Glen Echo Drive. The road is unique as one of the few arterial roads in Toronto to be created after the development of the suburbs which it passes through. These include the wealthy Rosedale, Moore Park and Lawrence Park neighbourhoods. The road also passes through the centre of Mount Pleasant Cemetery, after which it takes its name.
This is a bibliography of works on the military history of Canada.
The Charles A. Reed was the City of Toronto's first official fireboat. She was commissioned in 1923. Previously the privately owned T.J. Clark had provided firefighting capability.
The Toronto Railway Company operated the Toronto Railway Company Belt Line from 1891 until 1921, when its operations were taken over by the Toronto Transportation Commission. The TTC continued operating the line until 1923, when it was broken up into separate routes, the Spadina streetcar line, the Bloor streetcar line, the King streetcar line, and the Sherbourne streetcar line.
The Toronto Transit Commission operated Bloor streetcar lines from its creation from earlier private systems, in 1921, until the line was replaced by the Bloor-Danforth subway line in the mid-1960s. The route ran along Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue, extending at its longest from Jane Street in the west end of the city to Luttrell Avenue in the east.
Beginning operation in 1861, the Yonge streetcar line was the first streetcar line in Toronto and the first in Canada. It started off as a horsecar line and closed in 1954 operating two-unit trains of Peter Witt motors pulling a trailer. Under the Toronto Transportation Commission, the Yonge line was the busiest and most congested streetcar line in the city leading to its replacement in 1954 by the Yonge Subway line, also Toronto's first and the first in Canada.
The McLaughlin Motor Car Showroom was built in 1925 and operated continuously as a car dealership until March 2007 when it was last occupied by Addison on Bay dealership (Cadillac) at 832 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario.
The Toronto Philharmonic Society was one of the first secular music organizations in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Society included both singers and instrumentalists.
However, over 25 years ago now, Mike turned his interests to his true vocation – researching, documenting and speaking about Toronto's history.
No, more than that, because 758 is where I grew up while attending Palmerston Public School, playing in the back laneway that ran between Lennox and Bloor Sts., going to events at the K-Club in the basement of the old church at the corner of Bathurst and Lennox and watching movies at the Metro, Midtown or, most likely, Alhambra theatres.
As a researcher, writer and raconteur, Mike has been chronicling the life and times — past and present —of the beloved city of his birth for four decades. He’s been called "Toronto’s best-known historian" — and deservedly so.
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