Centre Island

Centre Island's tree-lined boulevard once ran along Manitou Road, the island's lost Main Street of hotels, dance halls, and shops serving 1950s day-trippers. The guide follows Toronto's 1956 decision to clear the island for parkland, and the fight of shopkeepers like Percy Miller, who ran a hardware store on that vanished street. Miller asked for thirty-five thousand dollars for his business and told the Toronto Star that the city's offer fell far short.