This plaque hangs in Rose Avenue School, 675 Ontario Street, (south of Bloor Street East, between Parliament and Sherbourne Streets) in Toronto’s St. James Town. Chilton Street does not appear on current maps of Toronto. There is a Chilton Road in East York, but it is several kilometres northeast of Rose Avenue School. Did Chilton Street disappear when the neighbourhood’s Victorian buildings were replaced by densely-packed high rises in the 1960s?
“For King and Country” comes across many “vanished” schools (which we hope to have on our website soon) but Chilton Street School has not shown up in sources consulted so far. Was it a private school, a Sunday school—note the “In God we Trust” reference—an early “special needs” school, or a school outside Toronto’s boundaries? It’s tempting to scour even more Toronto Board annual reports to solve this mystery, but memorials and school histories are waiting to be finished…
So, dear readers—put on your deerstalkers and track this down for us—and perhaps find out a bit about “Mr. & Mrs. Jason Smith” as well.
Rose Avenue School opened in 1884 and will soon be on our website.
