The Chinese in Early 20th Century Toronto: 1060 Queen Street West
This is what the space is currently occupied as.
Photo taken: 2014.
- Photo taken from Google Maps
Later on developed to be Lighthaus – A gallery for condos.
According to Valerie Mah’s thesis, The Bachelor’ Society, within the bounds of 1060 Queen Street west, there was a single Chinese resident named Sing Lee who lived above an unnamed laundry facility (1). The leaseholder, however, was a man named Tong Ho who was also Chinese but did not live within the space (2). The primary owner of this wooden house lived within the foundations of Trinity College (3). As the number of residents remained at one, Sing Lee continued to be the only resident of 1060 Queen Street west between the years 1899, 1900 and 1901 (4). The house still remained intact between the years 1913-1924 but gradually became a smaller space throughout those years. What stands on that property today is a real estate presentation centre called LightHaus that promotes the growing urbanization in Toronto with the production of condominiums, metropolitan architecture and modernized living spaces (5). In terms of the picture, it was quite impossible to find a before picture of the Laundry.
Work Cited
Assessment Roll: Ward 5 Division 1 1899, Reel 187.
“General Information.” UrbanToronto. Media, n.d. Web. 10 April. 2014.
Toronto: Might’s Directory Co. 1899. Microform. the Toronto city directory for 1899: Vol. XVI. Location no. 2643730-46, Reel 58.
Toronto: Might’s Directory Co. 1901. Microform. the Toronto city directory for 1901: Vol. XII. Location no. 2643730-47, Reel 66.
Mah, Valerie. The bachelor society: a look at Toronto’s early Chinese community from 1878-1924. MA Thesis. 1978. Print.
