A Snowy Horse on Cherry Street in 1909 (Plus: Termites & Streetcars!)

This year's rather wintry winter weather inspired me to spend some time searching online through winter photos on the Toronto Archives website over the holidays. Here's one of my favourites. It's a shot of a horse ploughing along Cherry Street during the winter of 1909.

I have very little else to say about it, but here's a fun fact thanks to Wikipedia and The Canadian Entomologist: Cherry Street was the site of the very first termite infestation in the history of Ontario. They probably arrived from the United States and first made their presence known on a dock along the southern stretch of Cherry — the part that's now in the Portlands. I suspect that's the bit of the street where this photo was taken, too. Though, the termites didn't arrive until 30 years later.

Cherry Street is currently in the process of getting its own tiny streetcar line as part of the development of the waterfront. It'll be three stops long and run along its own separated lanes through the heart of the Canary District (the new neighbourhood being built north of the Portlands, next to the already-open Corktown Common, which will start out as the Athletes Village for the Pan Am Games). Hopefully, when the Portlands are developed the Cherry streetcar will run further south, too.