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Toronto Transit Commission

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Lower Bay Station

1240 Bay Street

Open: Saturday, May 28, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Last admittance: 4:30 p.m.

Year: 1959 to 1966
Style: Post-modern

This site is a place that you’ve likely seen before, but not as a TTC passenger. The TTC has closed Lower Bay to the public since 1966 but has been used many times as a major “Hollywood North” prop, dressed to look like United Station subway station. When the TTC officially opened Line 2 Bloor - Danforth in 1966, Lower Bay was in full use. Alternate trains used a “wye” connection, which allowed passenger to travel from Line 1 to Line 2 without changing trains. The TTC tested this system for six months and also tested the two separate subway lines for six months. After testing, the TTC decided that two separate lines worked best and Bay Lower was closed.

Although it has been off limits to the public for years, the TTC is throwing open the doors and inviting visitors to experience this historic landmark as well as the TTC’s photographic history as the public enters Bay station and walks along Bay Lower’s historic platform. Selfie spots and a brief history of the station will round out your tour. Selfie spots and a brief history of the station round out the underground tour. You can photograph the interior without a tripod.

You’ll have to use stairs or an escalator to access the mezzanine of Bay station from the street and from the mezzanine to the in-service platform. You can only access Lower Bay by staircase.

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Getting there by public transit:

• TTC Line 2 Bloor - Danforth subway to Bay Station.
• TTC 19 Bay buses to the subway station entrance just north of Bloor Street West.

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From the Transit Toronto archives, read:

• “A History of Subways on Bloor and Queen Streets” by James Bow, here.
• “Toronto’s Lost Subway Stations” by James Bow, here.
• “The Truth Behind the Interlining Trial” by James Bow, here.

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Other transportation-related sites

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Artscape Wychwood Barns

601 Christie Street

Open — Saturday, May 28: from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. Last admittance: 12:55 p.m. Sunday, May 29: from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Last admittance: 4 p.m.

An excellent example of early 20th century industrial architecture, the City of Toronto built the former Wychwood streetcar barns between 1913 and 1921. The barns were the hub of the City-owned Toronto Civic Railway. From 1921 to 1978, it was one of the TTC’s seven carhouses. Since 2001, Artscape, in partnership with the City, has redeveloped the facility into the Artscape Wychwood Barns - a multifaceted community centre that brings together arts and culture, environmental leadership, heritage preservation, urban agriculture and affordable housing.

Open since 2008, Artscape Wychwood Barns is a community cultural hub. The tenants of the Artscape Wychwood Barns represent a dynamic mix of artistic practices, community services and cultural interests, infusing the facility’s spaces with activity and creative energy on a daily basis. The large courtyard space in Barn 2 regularly hosts art and craft fairs, community-focused special events, and more. Many people know this place through the Stop Community Food Centre’s popular Farmers’ Market.

Getting there by public transit

• TTC buses operating along the 126 Christie route from Christie or St Clair West Stations to Benson Avenue. Walk west one block.
• TTC streetcars operating along the 512 St. Clair route from St Clair or St Clair West Stations to Wychwood Avenue. Walk three blocks south.

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From the Transit Toronto archives, read:

• St. Clair (Wychwood) Carhouse by Aaron Adel and James Bow, here.

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Lambton House

4066 Old Dundas Street

Open — Saturday, May 28: from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Last admittance: 4:30 p.m. Sunday, May 29: from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Last admittance: 4:30 p.m.

Year: 1860
Style: Victorian

Originally a stagecoach stop on the old Toronto-to-Dundas Highway (the Weller Stage Coach would pull up to it to deliver the Royal Mail), the hotel also has a public transit association. Streetcars on the former Toronto Suburban Railway Company’s Lambton carline ended their trips near the hotel in Lambton Park. From 1917 until 1935, they could also wait in the hotel for the next interurban radial streetcar to Guelph.

A mid-Victorian two-story red brick hotel with yellow coins and diamond inserts, Lambton House has a two-story wooden veranda with white trillage. The interior has the original hall and stairs, built for Sir William P. Howland, a Father of Confederation and later Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. To the right of the entrance is the entrance to the men’s beverage room with its two fireplaces and to the left is the entry to the smaller parlour room heated with a single fireplace. Most of the doors to the travellers’ rooms on the second floor are original, as is the exposed pine floor in one room. The second floor hall is offset with three front rooms to the east and one to the west of the door opening onto the upper veranda. A door gives access to this feature. This is the last remaining public building from Lambton Mills, and also from the historic milling period on the lower Humber River.

A classic William Tyrrell design, it was originally an L-shaped centre plan, two-storey red brick building with white coins and decorative diamond inserts. The floor of the first level veranda extends on either side of the entrance steps, providing two small and convenient roadside platforms at stirrup height for mounting a horse or bicycle. A course of saw-tooth brick work is a Tyrrell trademark feature easily viewed from the second floor wooden veranda covering the front of the building. The drive shed roof line is visible on the east wall.

Main floor is accessible via the rear entrance ramp. All other floors are stair-access only.

Getting there by public transit:

• East- and westbound buses operating along the 40 Junction - Dundas West route to Dundas Street West and Humber Hill Avenue walk south to Old Dundas Street and then west two blocks.
• Northbound buses operating along the 55 Warren Park route to Lundy Avenue at Warren Crescent. Walk one block north along Lundy to Old Dundas, then west.

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From the “Old Time Trains” site:

• A history of radial and streetcar lines in the Junction, including a history of the Toronto Suburban Railway and its Lambton and Guelph lines, by Raymond L. Kennedy, here.

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Toronto Railway Museum

255 Bremner Boulevard.

Open: Saturday, May 28, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Last admittance to building: 4:30 p.m. Sunday, May 29, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Last admittance to building: 5 p.m.

The Toronto Railway Historical Association operates **The Toronto Railway Museum in the former Canadian Pacific Railway John Street Roundhouse and in Roundhouse Park. The Museum displays locomotives, rolling stock and artifacts. The association has refurbished three stalls so that it can repair locomotives and cars.

The museum tells the stories of Toronto’s railways. The John Street Roundhouse is the best example of a surviving roundhouse in Canada, where CP housed maintenance work on locomotives for over 50 years. This National Historic Site also features the longest turntable in Canada.

Getting there by public transit

• TTC subway trains operating along the 1 Yonge - University line or GO Transit trains and buses to Union Station. Walk south along Bay or York Street and then west along Bremner Boulevard.

or

• TTC streetcars operating along the 509 Harbourfront or 510 **Spadina routes to Lower Simcoe Street. Walk north to Bremner Boulevard.