At the corner of Church and Alexander stands an two-and-a-half-metre-tall bronze statue of Alexander Wood, the early Canadian merchant who owned much of the surrounding land that has since become the Church-Wellesley Village.

There is no known image of Wood, except for a vague Georgian silhouette portrait, and the absence of any definitive likeness freed sculptor Del Newbigging to take some creative liberties with the monument. Newbigging’s version of Wood casts him as a dandy, and he appears quite debonair: in his left hand he clutches a top hat and leather gloves, and in his right he carries a walking stick. His coat billows out behind him dramatically. “I have worked from the silhouette and researched the period for clothing styles,” Newbigging told Xtra when the statue was unveiled in 2005. “And I have added a gay flair which I am convinced he would have had.”

Newbigging is not the only one convinced of Wood’s gay bent. The plaque beneath the statue hails Wood as a “gay pioneer,” and at the unveiling ceremony, the president of the Church-Wellesley Village BIA praised Wood as “a great, gay citizen active in politics and community.”

The passage of time has cemented Wood’s connection with Toronto’s present-day gay community: in the neighbourhood around the statue, there is Wood Street, Alexander Street, and Alexander Place. Yet there is vanishingly little direct historical evidence that indicates Wood’s sexual orientation, and lingering, problematic questions about the 1810 sex scandal that came to define him in popular imagination. To read more, see http://torontoist.com/2016/06/meet-alexander-wood-the-pioneer-of-torontos-gay-village/.

EXIF Data

Camera Type: Canon PowerShot A610
Lens: 7.3-29.2mm f/0
Date Taken: 6/11/08
Aperture: f/4.0
Shutter Speed: 1/125
ISO: 50
Exposure Mode: Automatic
Focal Length: 21.7 mm
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Evaluative
Light Source (In Camera): N/A
Flash: Auto mode
Light Source (External): Overcast weather
Size: 317 KB
Location: Church and Alexander, Toronto, Canada
Latitude: 43,39.4924N
Longitude: 79,22.4834W
Elevation: 105.30 m