Bloor-Dufferin in Pictures

Bloor and Dufferin is not a glamorous corner. It's not the places that get written about in books about Toronto's culture, like the Annex or Rosedale or Kensington. It is, and has always been, a working neighbourhood.

The Denison family owned the land as an estate in the early 1800s, cleared what was nearly impenetrable forest, and built their own little dynasty on the western edge of the city. By the time the photographs in this book were taken, all of that was replaced by the brick semis, the corner stores, and the institutions of everyday Toronto life.

This book exists because the Toronto Public Library Board thought the ordinary deserved a record. They were right. The city's character doesn't live in its famous corners. It lives in the places that just kept going, season after season, without anyone paying particular attention.