[LINK] "Toronto for Tourists, 1979"

[rfmcdonald]

Over the weekend at Torontoist, Historicist Jamie Bradburn posted excerpts from the The Traveller’s Encyclopedia of Ontario, a late 1970s guide that had all of 13 pages advertising the joys of Ontario's provincial capital. Some attractions remain the same, others not so much.

Among the highlighted attractions that no longer exist is China Court, which merited the following description: “Constructed and decorated by craftsmen brought in from Hong Kong, this sparkling assortment of authentic oriental pagodas, gardens and Chinese boutiques makes a new focal point for the Chinese community in Toronto. China Court is located on Spadina Avenue, south of Dundas Street.” Opened with great fanfare in August 1976, the three-million-dollar attraction had a fleeting existence. Within five years, operator Manbro Holdings was planning to replace the “modest restaurant and boutique mall” with a massive condo/retail complex that formed part of a grand plan by developer Tim Man to revitalize Spadina. By 1986, the pagodas and gardens were razed to make way for the grey concrete of Chinatown Centre.

China Court demonstrates one of the most interesting things about reading old tourist literature: seeing how temporary must-see attractions can be, even if they are classified as "cultural assets" alongside enduring institutions (AGO, ROM, etc.) and mothballed venues (McLaughlin Planetarium). In the end, the mix of expected and surprising city highlights while flipping through the encyclopaedia leaves a modern reader with one promise fulfilled—you will view Toronto as different, but with a familiar feeling.

Go to this 2008 link of mine to compare this to a Margaret Atwood Toronto travelogue originally published in the New York Times in the mid-1980s.