I love Toronto’s old buildings and as I walk I pay close attention to them. For those of you who’ve not been around the Victorian era buildings of Toronto for a while, you might be interested to know that the original sandstone column at 441 Queen Street West is now on life support. Time to say good bye!
Over the years I’ve watched the column at this very busy pedestrian intersection erode and rightly so it has to go. Every time I passed, I imagined the building owner was holding on the the past to keep it there as long as possible and was glad someone had the notion to allow us to witness this slow crumbling over so many years. It took on a bit a bit of a mythical status for me – kind of like Toronto’s Blarney Stone I imagined. Though I never touched it for fear of precipitating collapse, I always wondered if it had any magic in it! I mean somebody was rubbing this thing like a goat with a serious itch while no one was looking!