The Jewish Family Who Built Toronto's Most Beloved Store — Then They Tore It Down

How did a fifteen-year-old running a bankrupt Dundas Street grocery end up saving two of the most famous theatres in Toronto and London — and why did the store that paid for them come down? Ed Mirvish, born in Virginia to Jewish immigrants, reached Toronto in 1923; in 1948 he piled fire-sale stock on orange crates at Bloor and Bathurst. This video tells the full story: where Anne's $212 insurance policy really went; the Markham Street houses Ed tried to bulldoze; the 1962 Royal Alexandra rescue; the 72-hour Old Vic bid of 1982; nearly three decades of free Christmas turkeys; the 2016 closing and the empty vault door. It ends where the story stands now — Mirvish Village's nearly 900 rental homes and Honest Ed's Park, opened July 2026. — SOURCES: "Ed (Edwin) Mirvish" — The Canadian Encyclopedia https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mirvish-edwin "Toronto Feature: Honest Ed's" — The Canadian Encyclopedia https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/article/toronto-feature-honest-eds/ "How I Became an Overnight Success in Seventy-Five Years" — Empire Club of Canada https://speeches.empireclub.org/61214/data "It Takes a Village: How The Jewish Grocery, Garment Worker, and Real Estate Communities in Toronto Built Ed Mirvish" — Ontario Jewish Archives https://ontariojewisharchives.org/cms_uploads/pdf/McMahan_-_It_Takes_a_Village.pdf "Honest Ed's Park" — City of Toronto https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/construction-new-facilities/new-parks-facilities/honest-eds-park/ "Memories of Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes & Peas" — Mirvish Productions https://cms.mirvish.com/meanwhile/issue-34/memories-of-roast-beef-mashed-potatoes-peas "The Princess of Wales Theatre is 30" — Mirvish Productions https://www.mirvish.com/news/the-princess-of-wales-theatre-is-30 "Old Vic saviour Mirvish dies" — Official London Theatre https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/old-vic-saviour-mirvish-dies-72062/ "The end of an era: Toronto bids farewell to iconic Honest Ed's store" — The Globe and Mail https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/the-end-of-an-era-toronto-bids-farewell-to-iconic-honest-edsstore/article33461752/ "Anne Mirvish, widow of 'Honest' Ed Mirvish, dies at 94" — The Globe and Mail https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/anne-mirvish-widow-of-honest-ed-mirvish-dies-at-94/article14442961/ "Hundreds gather for final free turkeys at Honest Ed's" — CBC News https://www.cbc.ca/1.3363153 "History Happens Here: The Riot at Christie Pits" — Facing History & Ourselves https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/history-happens-here-riot-christie-pits "How to Build an Empire on an Orange Crate" (Key Porter Books, 1993), Ed Mirvish — his memoir of Dundas Street, the store and the theatres "Honest Ed's Story: The Crazy Rags to Riches Story of Ed Mirvish" (Doubleday Canada, 1972), Jack Batten — the earliest full biography