![]() The tower has survived almost 150 years by hiding in plain sight. It was also the alleyways, stairwells, basement and four walls that had been witness to so much history - and not always the type of history that we like to remember. The clock tower at 484-488 Yonge, with its heritage designation, would be absorbed by the complex and refurbished with art, but renderings still had it dwarfed by the large, antiseptic tower.īut to me, the magic of the space was so much more than just the wooden clock tower itself. Much of the building was slated for demolition, to be replaced by a massive condominium not unlike the others that had sprung up along the strip. I had gained permission from property management to document the space as part of a film project. I would try to conjure up the generations of citizens who had passed through some version of this building each day, Toronto transforming around them. I would look out the tiny windows of the tower at the street below, imagining those performers summoning up the courage to stand before the hostile crowds. And in a strange way, seated on those dusty floorboards, I felt a part of those experiences, decades after they had ended. It stood high above Yonge, a relic of a previous time, but also evidence that an important space had existed - one of communal trauma and joy, a shared lineage that went back well before me. I’m not sure why I was so drawn to that tower, but it became like a beacon, guiding me to it night after night. ![]() But the clock tower remained and many nights throughout the fall of 2017 - including Halloween - I would sit inside of it and try to connect to history.
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