The Globe and Mail

A long time ago, my brother gave me a brick from the "Bayview ghost," which I proudly displayed on a shelf in my bedroom. The infamous building (real name: the Hampton Park apartments) at the northern tip of the Bayview Extension was halted -- mid-construction -- in 1959 because of a dispute between the developer and the Township of East York, but it didn't meet the wrecker's ball until 22 years later. It wasn't the "ghostly" aspect of the building that made me keep that dusty old brick for so many years, but rather the loss of something I like to call an "unintentional landmark." I felt a void when it was gone, I guess, and needed a way to deal with that loss.