We had to go into Toronto, not really downtown but into the city. After our business was complete we went for a walk on a trail by the Don River, and we saw this old kiln. I've been trying to do some research on it but so far I'm not finding much. The kiln is marked as a point of interest or whatever on Google maps, where it's called The Great Honey Kiln of 1800, but it looks very much (to my completely non-expert eye!) like it's built with a construction technique that was used along Lake Ontario starting around 1840.
Stonehookers went out on the lakes in boats, with grappling hooks, and pulled up shale from the lake bed which was used as construction material. Stonehooking was used until the early 1900s when the shale was largely replaced by concrete. You don't see much stonehooked construction around today and when you do it's often just visible in the foundations of old houses, so this was an interesting thing to see! I wish I could find more info about it!
