Friday, July 16, 2004  
Help save the Coach House!

:: Posted by max @ 7/16/2004 07:40:00 PM
For almost 40 years, the Coach House at 401 Huron Street (rear) has been producing a steady stream of beautifully designed and printed books, containing work by many of Canada's finest authors. Coach House Press alumni have received nearly every literary laurel on offer, including the Booker Prize, the Governor General's award, the Griffin Prize, the Trillium award, and the first Poet Laureateship of Canada. Young and old, famous and obscure, the hundreds of authors who began and are continuing their literary careers at Coach House constitute an important ongoing chapter in Canadian history and culture.



But, as Coach House prepares to celebrate its fortieth year of publishing, its home is under threat. The building is owned by Campus Co-op Residences, a co-operative of 300 students. Under the direction of a new general manager, the Co-op has undertaken a revitalization plan that would see in its first phase the demolition of Coach House to make way for more student rooms. This would leave the printing part of the business without adequate space to house its operations.



Coach House is a living museum of the literary and printing history in Canada. It is one of only three Canadian publishers to print its books in-house. Acclaimed Canadian authors like Michael Ondaatje, Ann-Marie MacDonald and Anne Michaels all published their first books with Coach House; in fact, many of those first books were typeset on the Linotype machine in the front doorway. History continues to be made there; Coach House publishes 16 new works of fiction and poetry every year, and more than 200 books are printed annually for other Canadian publishers.



Coach House is looking for assistance in saving its home. If you are interested in helping in any way, or if you’d like more information, please contact Stan Bevington or Alana Wilcox at 416 979 2217.  You can sign a web base petition here online, it'll only take a minut.



My two cents on the subject

An argument for inclusive planning for the future.



I grew up in downtown Toronto. My father, Lionel Douglas, who was an alumni of Rochdale, had some of his poetry and photography published by Coach House Press. My mother, Arna Selznick, also a Rochdalite and student at OCA, contributed art to the pages of their books from time to time. I was raised in part in Kensington market and then later in the Queen Est and Beaches areas. My Toronto was a city with a living history, of which I was part. It integrated me, and I integrated it in our respective communities. And the Coach House was a significant part of that shared landscape.



All the time I grew up in Kensington market and the beaches I heard city officials and community leaders talk about Toronto’s aspirations for the city to be a “cosmopolitan” place. Bigger better and faster was the mantra. The force of this dream steamrolled over all others.



But at what price?



In 1997 thanks to that mantra I was forced to find more affordable living arrangements in the then still cheep ghettos of Montréal. The city core of Toronto is NO longer a place friendly to creative people. This is already a fact. They survive their still but only by living a life on the fringes of the city, taking on a ‘day job’, or worse, selling their raw skills, or their personal work short, for capital gain.



I have always since been aware of the uprooting of my own sense of personal continuity after moving. Each time I go back to Toronto I find that more of the city’s physical history is being erased in favour of bigger ‘better’ developments. History is being wiped out in favour of flash and commodity.



How many people on the streets of Toronto still feel tied to their landscape by heritage and history? How many will in 50 years?



How often have we visited a landmark in local history somewhere and heard people talk about how wonderful it is that this was saved for the benefit of future generations?



Whom ever is responsible for making these decisions, have some vision and find a way to include history, intact, whole, alive and thriving, in your plans for the student residents.



Use the presence of a historical continuity to make the gradates of tomorrow feel tied to the those of the past, and to a cultural legacy that has done more than it’s share for the community.



How hard can it be to include an old coach house in you plans after all?

    
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