I’m fascinated by the normalcy of it all. These people, just like us, went about their day to day lives. The child in the background would have experienced the most remarkable advances between 1900 and her likely death in the early 60s. This same location, on the south east corner of Broadview at Gerrard, 103 years later:

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In the late 1800s, a house was built at 249 Victoria Street in Toronto. A Macedonian entrepreneur, Robert Angeloff, converted the house into a diner named The Busy Bee Diner. In 1948, George Nicolau renovated the Bee, re-opening it under the name The Senator. Nicolau’s son Nick and nephew Cecil Djambazis purchased the diner in 1964.

With Nick quietly toiling in the kitchen and Cecil cajoling with the customers, the Senator became a downtown landmark, earning accolades for the `best egg sandwich in town’ and coffee to go from the three famous urns still in our front window. – from the menu

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This vintage shot of Lakeshore Boulevard in Toronto courtesy torontoist.com

Thepanel is located in an office just off to the side of the security desk. The three switches indicate barometric pressure (rising, falling, steady), and the four others indicate weather conditions. The wiring for this panel runs all the way up to the electrical room just beneath the beacon itself.

Theweather beacon is so close, you can hear the clattering of the lights going on and off with the relays. Colin, our tour guide, pointed out that for some odd reason the rows of lights aren’t even.

Youcan see several “fingers” that protrude into the centre cylinder of the mechanism. Those are the floors. The fingers make contact with points along the cylinder and tell the elevator to slow down and ultimately stop. In the old days, doors would open mid-floor because one of the fingers became damaged and didn’t fire the signal properly.

Whata day to visit. This day just happened to be one of the half dozen “smog alert” days reported in Toronto, and it was stinkin’ hot, but the cool breeze from this height was a relief. The weather beacon is so close, you can hear the clattering of the lights going on and off with the relays. Colin, our tour guide, pointed out that for some odd reason the rows of lights aren’t even. Check it out for yourself.

Thestaircase leads to the roof. Beneath the stairs is the brain of the weather beacon. Long before the days of high quality transistors, relays were used to snap the power on and off in a specific order. The box has been replaced with a newer unit because the relays would blow on a somewhat regular basis. You’ll find the current elevator lift and control mechanisms locked behind the blue caged section of this room. Beside it is the original unit that handled a high speed elevator system that was state of the art for it’s time — the 1920′s.

Themosaic work on the marble floor is amazing. Here you stand in the lobby, with two directions to travel. The elevator will take you up to the top floor, and the corridor will lead you to the office that houses the panel to control the weather beacon’s lights. A model of the building’s unique peak stands in the middle of the room.

Thistour begins in the lobby of the building, and will take you up the elevator to the top. Along the way, you can get a closer look at the ancient elevator control system that was in use until recently, and the control panel Canada Life uses to change the light pattern for the beacon. The company calls Environment Canada several times throughout the day to get an update.

Begin the virtual tour