Hungarian-Canadians remember the magic of Hungarian House
Hungarian-Canadians remember the magic of Hungarian House
Published on Friday August 31, 2012
Photo courtesy Klára Szöcs Diners enjoy the Hungarian Festival in June 2011 at Hungarian House, which has been sold and
will be demolished soon.
Jacques Gallant - Staff Reporter
When thinking about the past four decades spent at Hungarian House, one thing Mike Koszo remembers is the food.
“You would have to wait over an hour to get in, but it was something you looked forward to during the week, because you knew it was one of the only places for Hungarian food in the area,” said Koszo, 74.
For Anna Szakaly, it was the Hungarian classes on Saturday mornings, where she met some of her closest friends.
“I can remember how big the place was, with all its back staircases and secret hallways. We loved to play hide-and-seek during recess, but of course we would get in trouble for it,” said Szakaly, 43, whose son later attended the same classes.
Szakaly’s and Koszo’s memories represent only a few among innumerable stories about the immense yellow-brick building on St. Clair Ave. W. near Winona Dr., which is set to vanish from the landscape in the very near future.
For nearly 40 years, Hungarian House served as the focal point for Toronto’s Hungarian community. It was the largest cultural centre outside of Hungary.
But as the number of paying members continued to dwindle (it currently boasts about 450 members), and with maintenance fees continuing to climb, the Hungarian Canadian Cultural Centre decided to sell the building last year. Listed in January 2011 for $5.7 million, the building was sold to condominium-builder Urbancorp last December.
As the executive pursues its search for a smaller facility, demolition signs have gone up on St. Clair W. Urbancorp confirmed the building will come down in the next two to three weeks. Although some would have liked for the building to be declared a historical site, a request was never put forward.
Councillor Joe Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul’s) met with the developer recently and told the Star they’re looking at building a mixed-use residential and commercial structure, but the planning is still in the early stages.
“St. Clair is an important and changing street,” he said. “Now it’s about, how do we make sure what replaces [Hungarian House] fits in well with the community.”
The building’s imminent disappearance has naturally brought sadness to members of the community. But it has also made them reflect back on a bygone age, when the house’s membership was well over 700, it was entirely run by volunteers, and a good proportion of those who attended the balls and dinners only spoke Hungarian.
That’s no longer the case today, as the centre’s executive faces a major cultural challenge when it comes to recruiting younger members.
“It’s difficult to cater to the younger generation because many older people still have difficulty with the English language, and the younger ones just have different interests,” said Koszo, the centre’s vice-president, who is responsible for finding a new Hungarian House.
Toronto’s Hungarian population surged after thousands fled their homeland as refugees following a Soviet crackdown on a nationwide revolution in 1956. (Those who left around that time, including Koszo, are known as “56ers.”)
The influx eventually led the Hungarian Canadian Cultural Centre’s executive to move from a smaller meeting place in the College and Spadina area to the St. Clair Ave. W. location in the early ’70s.
The site had previously been a synagogue and was where former Toronto mayor Mel Lastman married his wife, Marilyn, in 1953.
“There was this need for the Hungarian community to stick together while they settled in, a place to make friends,” said Erika Endes, whose late husband, Leslie, was the centre’s president at the time of the building’s purchase.
There were also darker times for the house. On Oct. 8, 2007, following a dance competition organized by an external party who had rented the facility, 18-year-old Keegan Allen
was shot on the dance floor and later died from his injuries.
Hungarian House also sparked controversy in 1988 when its museum commemorated the Hungarian police force, who, under Nazi orders during World War II, participated in the deportation of Jews to death camps. That part of its history was not mentioned in the exhibit, which drew the ire of Jews within the Hungarian community.
Endes said it was never the intention of her husband to offend anyone.
“My husband never in his life wanted to create this feeling of being anti-Semitic. I guess my husband was trying to protect some of the Hungarians who were under fire themselves, by the Nazis,” she said.
The cultural centre’s current president, Klara Szocs, said there was always an impression that it might be demolished by whoever purchased it. But that doesn’t mean the loss of the building and a major chunk of Hungarian-Canadian history has not come as a shock, she said.
“We had a great location on St. Clair and I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to find something like that again.”
Forrás:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/art...nadians-remember-the-magic-of-hungarian-house