True Davidson Park

 

True Davidson Park (The park beside S. Walter Stewart Library)

Claiming identity in boroughs of the past. Ah, summer. This photo from last year makes me long for warm weather. Today, we are not really in spring, not truly - there are forcasted ice pellets! Come on.

 

 

 

The greenspace surrounding S.Walter Stewart Library is a perhaps little shabby, but it features some sculpture and does its job of complementing the library. The story of the library itself is pretty interesting. Established in 1960 as East York’s main branch, its 2008 renovation turned it into the I loved snagging a spot in the library by the big windows featured in the rotunda design, and watching high school students having their lunch out there.

 

I only wish this had been my crowd – voracious manga-readers, creators of fantasy of worlds and anthropomorphic creature characters, members of the library Youth Advisory Committee. Unfortunately, I’m only appreciating this world now, but these smart girls knowing where its at – the park outside SWS Library.

SWS Library has a good section on East York History, and it is fitting that the small parkette hugging the curves is named for Jane Gertrude (True) Davidson, first mayor of East York.

 

True – what a great name.

True Davidson became to the mayor of the Borough of East York when it was formed from the merged Leaside and East York. She was an opponent of amalgation into Toronto, but a proponent of community developed through relationships, not only through programs and plans.

Apparently, my street is the border line establishing neighbourhoods – the north side of Milverton is East York and the South side Toronto. Really, these neighbourhood boundaries are a bit liquidy, and probably their best use is to give us residents a sense of belonging. But why not? In a city as large and sprawling to Toronto, claiming identity in our ‘hoods gives us a chance to  have a little small town feel too.