Events
From our great Speaker's Nights featuring experts on local and national history to specialty event programming, our goal is to entertain and educate. Here is a sample of some of the events being held in the coming months. Come join us!
NOTE: OUR SPEAKER's NIGHT SERIES IS AN EXCLUSIVE EVENT FOR MEMBERS OF THE ETOBICOKE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BECOMING A MEMBER, PLEASE CLICK HERE.
NOTE: OUR SPEAKER's NIGHT SERIES IS AN EXCLUSIVE EVENT FOR MEMBERS OF THE ETOBICOKE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BECOMING A MEMBER, PLEASE CLICK HERE.
Hybrid Speaker's Nights at Montgomery's Inn
Our Speaker's Nights returned to meeting in-person in the Community Room at Montgomery's Inn in February 2023. All meetings are now presented as hybrid meetings - the Speaker is present in-person at the Inn while simultaneously being broadcast live over Zoom webinar. So you can choose to either attend in-person at the Inn or stay home and join virtually online.
All EHS members will receive an email before each event with information for the option to attend online. To become a member and receive an invite, please CLICK HERE.
Our Speaker's Nights returned to meeting in-person in the Community Room at Montgomery's Inn in February 2023. All meetings are now presented as hybrid meetings - the Speaker is present in-person at the Inn while simultaneously being broadcast live over Zoom webinar. So you can choose to either attend in-person at the Inn or stay home and join virtually online.
All EHS members will receive an email before each event with information for the option to attend online. To become a member and receive an invite, please CLICK HERE.
Thursday, September 19, 2024 - Speaker's Night: Yonge Street's Incredible Music and Pop Culture History
Did you know...
That Gordon Lightfoot once sang for $25 a day at a Yonge Street dinner theatre?
That a chance meeting in Toronto determined the direction of The Beatles greatest album?
That the most decisive event in Rock N Roll history occurred at Yonge and Dundas? (In what is now a drugstore)
Yonge Street's connection to music, theatre and pop culture is literally second to none. Having been described as a musical/theatre mecca equal or better than Times Square or Hollywood Blvd. From Jazz and Motown to Hip Hop. Rock N Roll and Metal to Alternative. This 40 minute talk will show you a side of "The Strip" you never knew existed.
If you are a music fan, local history buff or if you just like hearing great stories then this is an introduction to the City's musical past that you just don't want to miss.
Mark Vendramini is a Toronto native that spent nearly every free moment of his teens and his twenties on the Yonge Street Strip. He is a self-taught Yonge Street pop culture historian and the founder of the 5500 member strong Memories Of the Yonge St Strip Facebook page. His Yonge Street tours have been featured on BlogTO, CBC Radio and Boom 97.3 Radio.
Location: Montgomery's Inn, 4709 Dundas St W, Etobicoke, ON M9A 1A8
Start Time: 7:30pm (Refreshments served from 7pm onwards)
Did you know...
That Gordon Lightfoot once sang for $25 a day at a Yonge Street dinner theatre?
That a chance meeting in Toronto determined the direction of The Beatles greatest album?
That the most decisive event in Rock N Roll history occurred at Yonge and Dundas? (In what is now a drugstore)
Yonge Street's connection to music, theatre and pop culture is literally second to none. Having been described as a musical/theatre mecca equal or better than Times Square or Hollywood Blvd. From Jazz and Motown to Hip Hop. Rock N Roll and Metal to Alternative. This 40 minute talk will show you a side of "The Strip" you never knew existed.
If you are a music fan, local history buff or if you just like hearing great stories then this is an introduction to the City's musical past that you just don't want to miss.
Mark Vendramini is a Toronto native that spent nearly every free moment of his teens and his twenties on the Yonge Street Strip. He is a self-taught Yonge Street pop culture historian and the founder of the 5500 member strong Memories Of the Yonge St Strip Facebook page. His Yonge Street tours have been featured on BlogTO, CBC Radio and Boom 97.3 Radio.
Location: Montgomery's Inn, 4709 Dundas St W, Etobicoke, ON M9A 1A8
Start Time: 7:30pm (Refreshments served from 7pm onwards)
Thursday, October 17, 2024 - Speaker's Night: The Queen's Plate - Canada's Oldest Sporting Event
With Queen Victoria's approval, the first Queen's Plate was held in the West Toronto Junction in 1860 and has become Canada's oldest sporting event, as well the oldest continuously run race in North America. It has been alternately called the King's Plate as it is now in the present reign of King Charles III. John Beram will discuss the importance of the horse in mid-19th century Toronto, the evolution of thoroughbred racing in Canada and the people who brought the Queen's Plate to Canada.
Former Toronto Argonaut John Beram is a retired autoworker, historic researcher and football coach. He has a passion for horses and an interest in Canadian military and industrial history. He has given many historic talks and walks on the automobile and meat-packing industries.
Location: Montgomery's Inn, 4709 Dundas St W, Etobicoke, ON M9A 1A8
Start Time: 7:30pm (Refreshments served from 7pm onwards)
With Queen Victoria's approval, the first Queen's Plate was held in the West Toronto Junction in 1860 and has become Canada's oldest sporting event, as well the oldest continuously run race in North America. It has been alternately called the King's Plate as it is now in the present reign of King Charles III. John Beram will discuss the importance of the horse in mid-19th century Toronto, the evolution of thoroughbred racing in Canada and the people who brought the Queen's Plate to Canada.
Former Toronto Argonaut John Beram is a retired autoworker, historic researcher and football coach. He has a passion for horses and an interest in Canadian military and industrial history. He has given many historic talks and walks on the automobile and meat-packing industries.
Location: Montgomery's Inn, 4709 Dundas St W, Etobicoke, ON M9A 1A8
Start Time: 7:30pm (Refreshments served from 7pm onwards)
Thursday, November 21, 2024 - Speaker's Night: West End Blues - The Notorious Gangsters of the 1930's
Uncensored and off the record! The shocking murder of a police officer on Scarlett Road sparks the largest manhunt in the city's history. Two brothers play a dangerous game of one-upmanship as they terrorized the roadhouses along the Lakeshore Highway to see who could out-do the other in criminal capacity; the contest would end only when one betrayed the other. Toronto's most notorious gangster slithers free from an airtight murder rap, but one final score puts an end to his criminal career. Join us as we parse the particulars of three crimes that characterized the destructive decade known as the Dirty Thirties.
Nicole Mair and Bryan Ho are the authors of Mississauga Confidential, a true-crime history of the City of Mississauga published by Heritage Mississauga. Nicole is an historian and costume designer and Bryan is a teacher and filmmaker. Together they share a long-held love of film noir and pulp fiction from the mid-20th century.
Location: Montgomery's Inn, 4709 Dundas St W, Etobicoke, ON M9A 1A8
Start Time: 7:30pm (Refreshments served from 7pm onwards)
Thursday, February 20, 2025 - Speaker's Night: The Letters - Postmark Prejudice in Black and White
Author Sheila White will present her novel, The Letters: Postmark Prejudice in Black and White, a biographical novel about the courtship and marriage of her white mother and black father in 1947.
Set in Nova Scotia and Toronto, the novel references characters and events significant in Canadian history, among them The Halifax Explosion; No. 2 Construction Battalion and its chaplain, Rev. Captain Dr. William Andrew White, who was the author's grandfather; internationally acclaimed classical singer Portia White, and civil rights icon Viola Desmond.
Vivian Keeler is an intelligent, attractive and determined white woman from a traditional Nova Scotia family who risks it all by falling in love with a Black man. Billy White is a charismatic and gifted member of a prominent Black family; he’s the brother of celebrated classical singer Portia White and the son of a renowned Black minister who garnered fame as an officer during the First World War. The Letters: Postmark Prejudice in Black and White chronicles a passion that transcends deeply rooted taboos and sparks an orchestrated campaign to persuade Vivian “not to marry outside her race.” As the pressure mounts, Vivian and Billy find strength in their shared affection. But will it be enough to overcome their own doubts about the viability of a future together?
Sheila White was awarded the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Medal on September 27, 2022. Sheila was also the Chair of the Communications and Community Engagement Subcommittee of the National Apology Advisory Committee leading up to the Prime Minister's July 9, 2022, apology for the systemic anti-black racism faced by members of the segregated, all black No. 2 Construction Battalion during the First World War. Sheila is a talented musician, community champion, skilled politico, environmentalist and lay chaplain, now adds author to her impressive list of accomplishments.
Location: Montgomery's Inn, 4709 Dundas St W, Etobicoke, ON M9A 1A8
Start Time: 7:30pm (Refreshments served from 7pm onwards)