Posts in Canada
1908 Otis Fensom Heritage Lift Finds its Former Glory at Ontario Heritage Trust

This is what it feels like when a “working artifact” morphs off the pages of history and into today. This particular artifact is located in the Birkbeck Building at 10 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, a historic 1908 building that houses the headquarters of the Ontario Heritage Trust. Bubelis is the trust’s architect and the man who decided to rebuild the elevator to look and operate as it did in 1908, the year the building opened.

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Canadian Museum for Human Rights Takes Guests on a Skyward Journey

Built on Treaty One territory, in the Forks historic site in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights stands as a monument to Canada’s pursuit of equal human rights for all. Completed in 2014, and designed by Architect Antoine Predock, its spiralling design takes visitors on an upward journey, progressing from ground to sky, dark to light, to a viewing platform and panoramic view of the sky, city and the natural realm beyond.

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The Story of John Fensom | Canada’s Grandfather of Vertical Motion

In 1861, English-born machinist John Fensom first appeared in Toronto city directories. He and Charles Levey set up shop on Colborne Street and began making lathes. By 1864 the Fensom and Levey partnership had dissolved, and John Fensom was in business for himself. He set up shop on Adelaide Street West in 1867. There he remained for 15 years, first as John Fensom Iron Works, then in a venture called Gurney & Co. Central Iron Works from 1874 to 1878.

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Toronto's Earliest Elevators | The Eatons Centre

The first store was only 24 by 60 feet (7.3 m × 18.3 m), with two shop windows, and was located a fair distance from Toronto's then fashionable shopping district of King Street West. In its first year of operation, with Timothy Eaton responsible for buying the goods to stock the store, and a staff of four, expectations were low that a store with a no-credit and no-haggling policy would succeed.

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CanadaJoshua Nelson