The story goes that in the early '60s, Ed Mirvish bought all the houses surrounding his flashy bargain house with the intention of tearing them down to build a parking lot in response to the complaints he was receiving about all the traffic around his store. After he'd managed to purchase virtually all the buildings on the block, the city told him he wasn't permitted to demolish them and should instead preserve the heritage buildings he now owned.
I really liked the way he approached business and he was always giving advice. Every morning he'd walk the street back and forth, check on things. He would ask me if I had any concerns about the street, that kind of thing, and it was a family kind of atmosphere."Years on Markham: 1992 - 2016"The Beguiling is a hub for cartooning, almost anybody who is interested in comics is going to stop through if they find themselves anywhere near Toronto.
It was a gift from Ed Mirvish, and it was a beautiful gift. And what it allowed was for people to do creative things that they would not have been able to otherwise."ARTZONE, Stained glass artOwners Jane and Kathryn Irwin : [There were a lot of] established artists who have never really been able to hit the big time, but they're still legitimate artists and they try to lead a life that's meaningful. They make work that is important and they're not going to be able to afford to continue to live downtown. I don't know where they're going to go.