Just before I made the big, scary move to Hamilton, I lived at 100 Bain Avenue in Toronto. The Bain has quite the history! Humour me, if you will:
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this property, ‘the Bain’ is a cooperatively run townhouse complex that is both the pride and scourge of the upper middle class Riverdale neighbourhood. On one hand it is a gorgeous heritage property; on the other, the buldings are home to tenants from all walks of life (i.e., low income riff-raff, retired hippies, and young families who can’t afford to buy a home in the area). You can guess which category I might fall into. Originally called the Cottage Flats at Riverdale Courts, the 260-dwelling complex was built in 1913 by Toronto Housing Authority and was Canada’s first experiment in social housing. Each block of townhouses surround courtyards, providing as much green space as possible in such a densely populated complex. The architect, William James, also built the Spruce Courts apartments in Cabbagetown and the two are often mistaken for one another.
The property passed through several owners until the early 1970s when the last owner let the buildings fall into disrepair. In 1977, after an incredibly successful lobby by tenants, the property was converted into a cooperative housing project (i.e. it is now ‘owned’ by tenant members) with a mortgage granted by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Today, the Bain Co-op is a vibrant, member managed co-operative. If you want to learn more about the Bain, look here and here.
Your mission: There are several stunning photographs of the Bain held at the City of Toronto Archives in the William James family fonds. I want you to find the digital surrogates of these photographs available online at the City of Toronto Archives website. Throughout your search, pay careful attention to the organization of the finding aid. Do descriptions comply with RAD? Are there any surprises? Any additional information not prescribed in RAD? How would a novice researcher navigate the finding aids to search for these photographs? Do you have to understand multi-level description to do research online? Can you actually find the photographs? How are they described?
The City of Toronto Archives website is here.
Try to find the William James family fond on your own first. If you need a little extra help, look here.
For those of you who want a challenge: how have archivists addressed the problem that the Spruce Courts and the Riverdale Courts are frequently mistaken for one another?
2 comments:
The thing that surprised me most about searching through the Will James Fonds was that the whole finding aid was not posted in a single document online. I attempted to search for the photographs (and I assume they are there) but in order to access them you have to go to a separate search page that only allows you to go through 50 of the images at a time. This is incredibly time consuming considering that that there are over 4000 images in that fond that are available online. I mean kudos for making all that material available but does it have to take as long for me to find an image as it did for you to scan all 4000+?
That being said, I don't think that a researcher needs to know archival levels of description to approach this fond. I usually use the good old control F find function when approaching a finding aid. I find that as a researcher it allows you to immediately access what you are looking for. Of course this only works if you know what you are looking for. I also don't think that the researcher should have to know multi-level description to research. Isn't that the point of creating points of access?
Hi Rebecka,
my name is haley zhou and i am 3rd year in the university of waterloo's architecture student. We are doing a quick case study on the bain (short assignment of only two weeks) I have visited the building over the weekend and was given a short tour by a staff there (heather)
I am wondering if you can share your wisdom on how you found some the pictures such as in your post.
Thank you
Post a Comment