Pedestrian Sundays back in 2008
A car-free celebration of community, culture, and ecology

Mirvish Village is excited to bring together our community with a celebration of local talent, and express our community's diverse ethnicity, age and interests. Joining forces with PS Kensington and PS Baldwin Village, we will host our second season of car-free sundays. Join us for music, dance, art, food andperformance. If you have never played giant street scrabble, this is your chance!

P.S. Mirvish will be held on the second Sunday of June, July & August from noon until 9pm.

•  June 8th will focus on music, in conjunction with the soundaXis festival.
  
•  July 13th will be a celebration of historic Mirvish Village and the celebration of the anniversaries of several local businesses.
  
•   August 10th shall highlight the visual arts and the community artists who call Mirvish Village home.

Join us for car-free sundays this summer!

See also: Mirvish Village goes (briefly) car-free (National Post, July 5, 2007)

Happy New Year!

The new year has brought us a 5 percent GST, along with a lot of snow. Attila Szanyi, an artist from Mirvish Village, snapped this winter scene during December's big snowstorm.

Local florist decorates the village

The Mirvish Village BIA members wish to send a special thank you to Karina Lemke of Posies on Markham Street.

As you may have noticed, the planters on Markham Street have sprouted stunning greenery displays, and the lamp posts are decorated with beautiful wraps of cedar. This was all made possible by Karina and her very generous donation.

Thank you to Posies for bringing this festive adornment to celebrate the holiday season!

Mirvish Village Named One of Canada's Top Shopping Areas

The regional editors of Where.ca have named Mirvish Village as one of the "Best Shopping Areas" in Canada.

They write:

Markham Street’s tiny enclave is an enduring tribute to the chutzpah of a legendary Toronto businessman and theatre impresario—the late Ed Mirvish.

The Mirvish Village BIA thanks the editors at Where.ca for their kind words, and we invite their readers to stop by to see for themselves what makes Mirvish Village so special!

Halloween in Mirvish Village

Our first annual Mirvish Village Pumpkin Carving Contest and Costume Parade went "screamingly" well thanks to the creative team from the Burrow Art Centre! The halloween celebration, held on October 28, gave local children the chance to carve a pumpkin and parade down Markham Street in their costumes. All activities were free of charge.

The Lion, the Witch and the Missing Wardrobe: Oscar & Deirdre at the 1st Annual Mirvish Village Pumpkin Carving Contest

Thousands Attend Honest Ed Celebration
from CityNews.ca

He was a great man, and even though Honest Ed Mirvish died last month at the age of 92, everyone that knows Toronto knows his legacy was destined to remain.

And the power of that legacy was demonstrated in rainy weather Sunday, as a huge crowd hit Ed's strip of Bloor between Bathurst and Markham Streets for a celebration of the man and his store.

Everyone from Mayor David Miller to Police Chief Bill Blair was on hand, and several celebrities also mingled with the crowd outside Honest Ed's, the wild, brilliantly lit mega store that sits at the centre of his memory. And the police and politicians weren't the only attendees of note. Some of Ed's oldest and most loyal supporters wouldn't have missed it for the world.

"I've known him for 68 years," said longtime friend and employee Mickey. "I was his delivery boy when he had a small grocery store at Markham and Dundas."

Mirvish's son David also spoke to the large crowd, asking everyone to join in in some bubble blowing, something his father was fond of doing in times of hapiness.

"He used to advertise the successes not the failures," David Mirvish said. "And he'd move on."

The celebrations wrapped up around 7pm, though Bloor was closed between Bathurst and Markham Street until 11.

"Honest Ed" Mirvish, 1914-2007
from Torontoist.com

Toronto legend Edwin "Honest Ed" Mirvish has died. He was 92.

The philanthropic businessman was a crucial part of Toronto's reputation as a world-renowned theatre centre, and had been mostly out of the public eye after contracting a severe case of pneumonia in 2003 and experiencing deteriorating health ever since. Mirvish died at St. Michael's Hospital at 1:30 a.m.

Mirvish was born in Virginia on July 25, 1914 to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. His introduction to the entertainment industry came early, as he claimed his bris was performed by the Rabbi father of Al Jolson.

In the 1920s, the Mirvish family moved from Washington, D.C. to Toronto, where Ed's father opened a grocery store on Dundas Street. Following his father's death, Ed opened a dry cleaning shop and worked as a buyer for Loblaws founder Leon Weinstein. Mirvish married Anne Macklin, a Hamilton singer, in 1941—a union which begat only son David.

The infamous Honest Ed's bargain store at Bloor and Bathurst opened in 1948, and the emporium soon became known for its rock-bottom prices and quirky hand-painted signage, which featured pithy slogans and groan-worthy puns, like Don't faint at our low prices; there's no place to lie down! Mirvish was also a master of publicity, incorporating odd stunts like picketing his own store over its dress code to giving away free turkeys. The store would eventually expand to cover the entire block, and the saloon-style illuminated marquee would become a local landmark.

Where Mirvish made his most significant contribution to the city was in the live theatre industry. Mirvish bought the 1907 Edwardian Royal Alexandra Theatre in 1962, saving it from demolition and making it a classy and viable venue for touring and permanent productions. 1982 saw the purchase and renovation of London's 1918 Old Vic theatre (now sold), and in 1993, the Princess of Wales Theatre was built to house Miss Saigon. At the time, the facility was the only privately-financed North American theatre built in three decades. Mirvish has also been credited with the development of much of the King Street Entertainment District by opening an entire block of restaurants on the formerly decrepit strip.

Today, Ed's theatre legacy is maintained by his son David. Mirvish Productions stages and produces major productions like The Lion King, Mamma Mia! and Hairspray, and the company manages the Canon (formerly Pantages) Theatre across from the Eaton Centre.

Mirvish was also named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is also the recipient of more than 250 prestigious awards.

Ed Mirvish's annual birthday celebrations have been a tradition ever since he turned 75, and always included free food and family entertainment for crowds numbering in the tens of thousands. Last July, he celebrated his 92nd birthday with his traditional lavish street party outside Honest Ed's, where many items were available for 92 cents. It is expected that this year's planned birthday celebration will proceed as a celebration of Mirvish's life and contribution to our city.

"Canada has allowed me the freedom to work, express myself and develop," he has said. "In spite of little formal education and very limited or practically no financial base, it has been possible for me to go from Dundas Street to Buckingham Palace, and it has been a nice trip all the way."

Top photo courtesy of the Mirvish family