Sunnyside is a lakefront district along Toronto's waterfront on Humber Bay. The site of a massive waterfront reclamation project in 1910, Sunnyside is most famously known for its Amusement Park - which was the heart of Toronto's recreation scene from 1922 to 1955.
An aboriginal settlement is known to have been present at the Baby Point area on the Hymber River to the north. From approximately the area of today's Sunnyside Pavilion, an ancient trail, known as the "Toronto Carrying Place" trail went north to the Lake Simcoe area. Part of the trail is presumed to be along the route of today's "Indian Road", to the east of High Park.
The area is also notably famous for being the place where Marilyn Bell finally touched shore near the Boulevard Club after her epic swim across Lake Ontario in 1954.
A featured landmark in Dorothy Ellen Palmer's When Fenelon Falls, Sunnyside still offers glimpses of its former self - though it is far more subdued today.
Along the Shore examines the Toronto waterfront, past and present, through the lens of four lakefront communities and districts ? the Scarborough shore (including the Bluffs), the Beach, the Island, and the Lakeshore (New Toronto, Mimico, Humber Bay, and Long Branch). Each retains a direct and immediate connection with Lake Ontario and the natural world.
A spaceship hurtles towards the moon, hippies gather at Woodstock, Charles Manson leads a cult into murder and a Kennedy drives off a Chappaquiddick dock: it?s the summer of 1969. And as mankind takes its giant leap, Jordan May March, disabled bastard and genius, age fourteen, limps and schemes her way towards adulthood. Trapped at the March family?s cottage, she spends her days memorizing Top 40 lists, avoiding her adoptive cousins, catching frogs and plotting to save Yogi, the bullied, buttertart-eating bear caged at the top of March Road.
Tours featuring this location.
We continue our By The Book tour series, with Dororthy Ellen Palmer's When Fenelon Falls. In the novel, we find ourselves in the vivid imagination of Jorday May March - a fourteen year old disabled girl stuck at adopted family's summer cottage.
