Toronto Star

On a cool, cloudy Sunday afternoon, three intrepid explorers gather with Marta O'Brien for a jaunt around New Town, a cross-section of Toronto's west end near Bathurst and Wellington Sts. The name may be unfamiliar, but to O'Brien, 50, an architectural historian, it makes perfect sense: The subject of one of her five neighbourhood tours, it's so called because it became a manufacturing stronghold as the city matured in the late 19th century. Old Town comprises the St. Lawrence Market area. On this day, the group begins at a military graveyard currently being refurbished by the Wellington Place Residents' Association, and weaves its way along streets seemingly frozen in the Victorian era.