In the 90s, I had a live-in painting studio in a building at Niagara and Tecumseth Streets in Toronto. This is in the King and Bathurst area, which today has to a remarkable degree been taken over by new condo buildings. None of us were supposed to live at Niagara St but almost everyone did. One Christmas morning after a few years there, the Super slid an envelope under my door. It was a rent increase notice. I called up the owner of the building and told him if he wanted me to stay he would have to lower my rent. He was having none of that so I moved on. My father was aging and needed more and more support so I moved in with him to provide the support he needed. As it turned out, the landlord had no difficulty at all renting the space after I left. A few years ago I read the building was going to be turned into condos, with new towers skirted by some renovated version of the original building. I decided to gap back and check out the current state.

I returned to the building today and shot some video as part of my Rediscovering My Toronto video series.

When I first moved into 101 Niagara, one of the neighbours in a house just down the street had chickens, which he could often be seen chasing around Niagara St. At one point, a huge remediation project took place involving buildings behind the Casket Factory. Imagine men in space suits holding hoses, washing down the building. There was once a lead smelter there.

The building attracted quite the assortment of interesting characters. There was a lot of art made there and plenty of music too. It was quite a time.

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