Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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'Deeds Speak' Sculptural Reliefs

Photo by contributor Rick Mason - Posted February, 2012

Photo by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted February, 2012

In front of the parking garage of the building on the east side of Berti Street just north of Richmond Street East, is this 2010 Heritage Toronto plaque. Here's what it says:

Coordinates: 43.652402 -79.376349

The adjacent York County Coat of Arms and the female figure inside the entrance once adorned the York County Registry Office, formerly located on this site. Commissioned by the County in 1941, the sculptural reliefs were created by Jacobine Jones, a leader in the field of architectural sculpture, who later became the Director of Sculpture at the Ontario College of Art. These sculptures remained with the building when the County left this site in the mid-1960s. Before demolition of the old building in 2008, the sculptures were removed. They were reinstalled on the present building in 2010.

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> Posted February 6, 2012
The "female figure inside the entrance" is located around the corner from the plaque, inside the main entrance to 60 Richmond St. East. She holds a two-storey building in her left hand, and a scroll in her right, with either a seal or a pocket watch dangling beneath it. At her feet is a smaller version of what I presume to be the York County crest, found at a larger scale next to the plaque. Interestingly, not a single graphic element is identical on either crest: the buck, tree, wheat sheaf, and steamboat are each completely different! So is the style of crown surmounting it. The "Deeds Speak" motto, at bottom, remains the same. -Wayne

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