TORONTO – Theatregoers in Toronto will soon come face to face with a piece of local history that once represented a new beginning for generations of newcomers to the city.
The glitzy, illuminated sign that once graced the front of the iconic Honest Ed’s department store was being dismantled Tuesday, months after the store itself sold its last bargain-priced item.
The sign will be refurbished and find a new home over an entrance to the Ed Mirvish Theatre, named for the man who founded the discount store on his way to becoming one of the city’s leading impresarios.
The brightly-hued sign, measuring 9.14 metres tall by 18.28 metres wide and comprised of nearly a dozen smaller placards, featured 23,000 bulbs loudly displaying the words “Honest Ed’s.”
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Although the sign was installed in 1984, more than 30 years after Mirvish first opened the store known for its rock-bottom prices and occasional giveaways, it became a prominent and beloved landmark to residents and visitors alike.
Ed’s son David said there was considerable public interest in preserving the sign, adding the new location will both meet that demand and offer an appropriate tribute.
“It is fitting that a sign from the original store that made it possible for my father to become involved in theatre will now grace the venue that is named for him,” David Mirvish said in a statement.
“I’m sure he would be delighted to see two of his great passions — Honest Ed’s, which in many ways was a theatrical setting for a grand parade of humanity, and the theatre world, which he loved — finally be joined together.”
VIDEO: Honest Ed’s closes doors after 68 years of business
The younger Mirvish’s description of the people who frequented his father’s store is hardly an exaggeration, according to local historians.
Camille Begin of Heritage Toronto said Honest Ed’s played a central role in one of the city’s most dynamic and diverse neighbourhoods for decades.
The store itself evolved from Mirvish’s early business venture as operator of a women’s clothing store, she said, adding Honest Ed’s opened its doors near Bloor St. and Bathurst St. in 1948.
Begin said Mirvish was an early pioneer of a tactic now embraced by big box stores, namely purchasing huge quantities of goods and passing savings along to the customer.
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In short order, Begin said the store housed everything from clothes to housewares to plants, all of which could be acquired at dirt cheap prices.
The merchandise was particularly enticing to residents of the centrally located, transit-accessible downtown neighbourhood around the store, she said, adding many of them were either blue-collar workers on a tight budget or new immigrants trying to get established.
“It was a store that was really important for newcomers to the city, newcomers to Canada,” she said.
“You could set up your household by going to Honest Ed’s.”
That pricing structure never changed even as the neighbourhood evolved, Begin said, recalling how she herself equipped her kitchen for less than $30 when she first came to the city as a University of Toronto student in the early 2000s.
Shawn Micallef, author of numerous books on Toronto, said the store’s merchandise also helped connect new immigrants to the cultures they left behind.
Micallef recalled that the store used to sell chocolate bars that he had previously only been able to obtain from his Maltese grandmother, adding that kind of diversity helped cement public perception of, and fondness for, the business.
“This place was connected to this other kind of economy that isn’t the hippest, it’s not the most trendy, but it’s there and it serves a lot of people,” he said. “It had all these behind-the-scenes connections to people’s lives.”
READ MORE: Honest Ed’s, Toronto’s iconic discount store, closes its doors after 68 years
The area around the original location also became integral to the neighbourhood over time, Begin said. Ed Mirvish and his wife Anne began purchasing historic homes on a nearby street, turning some of the area around Honest Ed’s in to an artists’ colony.
Some of those buildings were incorporated into the store itself as it expanded and became a sprawling local maze, Begin said.
The building also became home to annual traditions that enlivened the neighbourhood, she added.
For years, Ed Mirvish himself gave away turkeys shortly before Christmas to families without the means to buy their own.
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He kept up the tradition even after he decreased his focus on the store and began building up the business that now specializes in live theatrical productions.
Mirvish also threw birthday parties for himself at the store, offering free food and additional giveaways.
Over time, due in part to the sign that Micallef described as a “Moulin Rouge-style marquee,” the store became a destination in its own right for tourists seeking an authentic slice of Toronto.
But that destination closed its doors on Dec. 31, 2016, a few years after a developer purchased the store and surrounding land.
READ MORE: End of an era: Honest Ed’s holds final turkey giveaway
Begin said the site will soon be home to many purpose-built rental homes, small-scale retail spaces and a public park that she hopes will maintain the spirit of Ed Mirvish’s community-focused business.
As for the sign, David Mirvish said it will be refurbished while a new steel structure is put in place to receive it at its new home.
There is no word on when the sign will go back up.
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