Almost every day, I walk past two spots of historical interest on King Street, here in Toronto. They are only a block apart, but they represent the moral nadir and zenith of the city’s history.
The first is only a dusty bronze plaque mounted on the side of an old office building. It marks the place where, in 1798, Toronto’s first jail was built. Since it was known as the “old log jail”, we can guess the kind of public structures that graced the streets of what was then known as “Muddy York,” and reclaimed its Iroquoian name of Toronto only in 1834. The plaque makes note of the fact that the first execution took place on October 11th, 1798, when one John Sullivan was hung by the neck until dead, for the crime of stealing a note worth approximately one dollar. Read more »
