Canadian Philatelist Philatéliste canadien - The Royal Philatelic ...

TOURING TORONTO
By Kimber A. Wald
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
I usually visit Toronto at least once
a year. As a collector of Canadian
postal history I particularly enjoy
attractive and interesting corner card
covers. Of equal interest is seeing the
buildings to which these covers went
and occasionally from where they
were mailed.
Until I disposed of them, two
collections that I enjoyed were a
specialized study of Canadian Special
Delivery stamps and the 1927 Canadian
Historical and Confederation issues.
Every chance that I had I took photos
of the recipient buildings, not only in
Toronto but also in other cities where
these covers journeyed.
My favourite was an OHMS special
delivery cover sent in 1909 to 123 Simcoe
Street in Toronto. Coincidentally,
many times I stayed at the Toronto
Hilton and often looked out of its
windows at a large parking lot with a
vacant building on one of its corners.
One day I walked past the building
and realized it was the recipient of my
favourite cover (Fig. 1)! Where is my
camera? Locating this building was
what sparked my interest in finding
these structures.
Fortunately, some government
bureaucrats receive lots of mail. One of
those people in 1928 was J.J. Kelso who
was based in the Toronto Parliament
Buildings (Figs. 2-3). It was even
possible to track down the location of
his office due to one cover’s inscription
which broadened my photography (Fig.
3). Government agencies also moved
out of the Parliament Buildings and it
is possible to find out where they went
with the help of reference sections of
public libraries. Thanks to the Toronto
Public Library, I tracked down the
1927 location of the Agricultural
Development Board (Fig. 4).
290 • the CP / le PC • SO06