Is Old City Hall Falling Apart?
A few days ago one of my colleagues at work who lives downtown commented on the Old City Hall saying that it seems to be falling apart. The window framing is old, rusty and are cracking at the edges. Not being downtown very often makes it difficult for me to comment on the state of the building. The one thing I could say is, don’t tell that to Fredrick Workman. Fredrick Workman? Who’s Fredrick Workman?
According to the 1911 Census Fredrick Workman was the live in caretaker at Toronto’s third City Hall. Yes that’s right, there was a family calling City Hall their home. Fredrick lived in the building along with his wife, two kids and a cousin. Guess what the city paid him to take care of the cities most important building? Well, in the 12 months prior to the 1911 Census he worked 60 hours per week with the annual income of $800. Which was really good considering he probably did not have to pay rent to live there.
Click HERE to view the Fredrick Workman’s original 1911 Census enumeration record.
If you get a Error downloading data from server error click ok and click MrSid format at top right hand corner. That should work
Photo by Ride My Pony from Flickr
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Wasn’t the exterior just recently restored? Sometimes it seems like you guys are totally out of touch with Toronto.
She was “restored” a bit, but every time I pass by the old girl, she still looks like she could use a bit of loving. Here’s what they did to improve her http://www.cliffordrestoration.com/p6.html
She could definitely use some of Fredrick’s loving.
Thanks Arv, I agree. She could use a lot more help! It’s like getting a car wash. Do we want a basic wash or the ultra wash? If you settle for the basic, you car is clean but not as clean as you would want it to be. Was the exterior recently restored or was it touched up? If it was restored we would see new state of the art windows not 100 year old glass panes. Out of touch with Toronto? Frederick is lol! :)