York Patriot
January 31, 1834

A contemporary account of the first meeting of the Society of Artists & Amateurs appeared in the January 31st, 1834, issue of the York Patriot. The author, “Instigator”, argued that attention to the sciences and arts should not be confined to the other side of the Atlantic or Lake Ontario, and urged Toronto’s citizens to rise to the challenge of becoming a cultured city:

Catalogue of the First Exhibition of the Society of Artists & Amateurs of Toronto, 1834.
708.19 S57 \B BR
title page, p.10

The Society mounted an exhibition in 1834 displaying the works of their thirteen members as well as the paintings of eleven amateurs or honorary exhibitors. This exhibition is significant for displaying the works of Paul Kane before he found fame as a painter of portraits and scenes of native life.

York commercial directory, street guide and register, 1833-4.
York, U.C., 1833.
910.7135 Y59 \B BR
title page, pp. 18-19

City directories of the era provide us with insight into how the city was laid out. Influential citizens often lived in the same neighbourhoods as grocers, carpenters and labourers. For example, Thomas Carfrae, appointed Collector of Customs in 1835, lived at 46 Hospital Street (which ran west of Yonge St. to Peter St. and is now part of Richmond St. West), a block away from the residence of Chief Justice Sir John Beverley Robinson, and just down the street from the hospital located at the northwest corner of King and John Streets.