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There are so many bizarre, funny, and interesting stories about The Ward’s iconic 100 Steps.
I grew up at 87 Elizabeth St. at the foot of the steps in the 1950s and 60s. My dad, Domenico, owned the barbershop beside Sammy Embro’s Restaurant and Variety store at the corner of Elizabeth and Huron Streets. While the Steps were not known for their elegance, grandeur, or even that of an architectural feat, they were special to those who lived in St. Patrick’s Ward.
In the earlier days, I remember some Italians in The Ward lightheartedly comparing them to the renowned Spanish Steps (Scalinata di Trinita dei Monti), in Rome. They are the longest and widest steps in Europe and are an important landmark in Rome. These steps host many events that celebrate and are home to several Italian traditions.
On several trips to Italy, I never missed walking these famous steps that were built in the early 1700s. Each time that I walked the 135 steps and the three different terraces, (referring to the Holy Trinity), I often thought back about the hundreds of times as a young boy that I climbed up and down the old concrete steps that were often referred to as a gateway into the Ward.
The 100 Steps were built in the early 1920s connecting Elizabeth Street to the intersection of Grove and Metcalfe Streets. Today, walking your way up from Elizabeth Street, there are 97 steps and 7 terraces to the pedestrian bridge. From the bridge there are another 36 steps and 4 terraces to Grove Street. There is also a resting platform with a bench halfway up the Steps.
The City of Guelph shut down access to The Steps in November 2017 to replace the foot bridge that crosses over the railway tracks with reinforced steel. The city owns the steps while the bridge is owned and maintained by the railway companies. The Steps were re-opened in December 2020. The estimated cost of replacement was nearly half a million dollars.
As a very young boy, the steps were always a wonder and mystery to me and my friends. I would never go up the steps alone.
I had lots of questions. Why did they call them 100 Steps when I only counted 97? Where did they lead? Was their really trolls living under the pedestrian bridge? Were their ghosts living in the two cabin-like cottages alongside the steps? I could see the steps from my bedroom window. They were so dark and mysterious when the streetlights went out at night on Elizabeth Street, but as I discovered, there are so many legendary stories about them.
In the 40s and 50s, the steps were very often a place to meet friends and just hang out. Sammy Embro’s Restaurant often held dances in a room attached to the restaurant. Before, after, and during the dance, many teens would take their shakes, burgers, and fries and walk across Elizabeth Street to socialize with their friends on the steps.
In the winter months, many kids in the neighbourhood would carry skates, hockey sticks, and pucks up the steps to skate or play hockey at the city made ice rink in St. George’s Park on Metcalfe Street … the only park that was not far from St. Patrick’s Ward. To avoid lacing up their skates in the bitter cold, some kids would even climb the Steps with their skates still on. In the summer, Vikki Sorbara Dupuis remembers running up the steps many times to get to her tennis lessons in the park.
My Zio Giuseppe Tersigni once owned property that ran along the West side of the Steps from the foot of Elizabeth Street to the pedestrian bridge. He raised chickens and grew fabulous fruit trees. During the peach season, I often ventured up the steps to get fresh eggs and peaches for our family from his overflowing fruit trees.
Rick Gazzola and his buddies would climb the steps every fall to get over to St. George’s Park to raid the huge chestnut trees. Kids would tap a fine nail through the centre of the chestnut and then pull a heavy weighted string or shoelace through the hole tying a knot to hold it together. Taking turns, the basic idea of the game is to try and strike your opponents chestnut and knock it off the string. There are no chestnut trees left in St. George’s Park today and very few in Guelph.
It is hard to believe, but there are many stories of daredevil stunts on the Steps. Carley Ferraro remembers Victor Borghese trying to drive his motorcycle up the steps. Victor would make it up a few flights and then turn back before belly flopping or crashing. Some kids would try hanging onto the wooden beams under the pedestrian railway bridge and suspend themselves there while the train passed underneath their feet. Carley says that back then kids would try anything on a dare!
At seven or eight years of age, Dave Kerr will never forget the Yule brothers, Gary, and Ronnie, who often tried to ride their wagon from the top of the Steps all the way down to the bottom at Elizabeth Street. They would make several attempts to see how far they would get before falling off or crashing against the steel side rails. Cuts and bruises were the norm on this daring act.
ln the 1950s, trains like CNR’s Locomotive 6167 located in John Galt Park adjacent to the River Run Centre were steam powered and passed under the bridge several times a day. These trains often spewed out monster clouds of white smoke and steam and the neighbourhood kids loved it. George Carere laughed when he recalled how he and his friends would often lie across the wooden floor of the bridge waiting for trains to leave the Guelph Train Station. When the engines roared under the bridge, smoke and steam poured through the cracks in the wooden panels. George said, “it was like being in a sauna or fog. You couldn’t see a thing and we all got soaking wet. It was so much fun.”
John Valeriote remembers kids on the pedestrian bridge trying to throw small stones and rocks into the smokestack of the steam engines as they passed underneath. They would also put rocks on the railway tracks just to hear the train wheels crush them to smithereens.
Nine or 10 years old at the time, George Carere, Ronnie Gallagher, Paul Hingston, and Donnie Brown would run up the steps, climb down the embankment under the bridge and lay pennies on the railway tracks. They would wait for a train to come by and flatten their pennies to a very smooth piece of copper. Some pennies would turn out smoother than others and that would be the winner. On weekends, these young boys from The Ward would often just sit on the bridge platform for hours watching for trains and people going in and out of Sammy Embro’s Restaurant and Variety Store.
In the late 1940s and into the early 50s, my brother, Ralph, remembers two elderly gentlemen, (bachelors), who lived in two cottage-like cabins on the east side of the Steps. One cabin was halfway up and the second cabin at the base of the bridge. Oddly enough, the two men valued their privacy, but always gave out candy on Halloween night.
When there was a heavy snowfall, my brother Dominic, Gary Ryder and Dave Croft would have a race trying to ski down the snow-covered slope on the east side the steps. They would cut pieces of wood from an old wine barrel, shape them into mini skis and shellack them with wax or Vaseline. Strapping the pieces of wood to their boots with rope, they would slip and slide down the slope trying to avoid crashing into the rails alongside the Steps and most importantly, to see who could make it to the bottom at Elizabeth Street first.
Many other kids who grew up in The Ward, like Pacifico Valeriote, Joe Fennell, Carley Ferraro, and Evo Parisotto would toboggan down the East side of the Steps in the winter. Again, like other kids who enjoyed the snow that piled up along the steps, they would always try to hit the brakes before hitting Elizabeth Street. There was not a lot of traffic as many in the Ward did not have cars in the 40s and 50s, so tobogganing and skiing alongside the steps was great fun and not too dangerous.
When in trouble, the 100 Steps could sometimes be used as an escape route.
In the winter of 1963, my cousin Tony vividly remembers the steps saving him from an irate parent. Tony and a friend had just finished playing hockey in the Sacred Heart School yard when on the way home a piece of ice they were stickhandling went crashing through a house window on Huron Street. A screaming, very angry father came running out of the house, got into his car, and started chasing Tony and his friend.
Very young and very scared, the two boys headed up the 100 Steps. Just as they got to the top of the steps, they saw that the furious homeowner had driven around to meet them at the top of the steps at Grove Street. The boys frantically turned around and ran back down the steps to their homes.
As a young teenager growing up in the Ward, Fr. Don Sanvido never forgot one terrifying incident he experienced on the steps.
One night after playing in St. George’s Park, he and Billy Bernardi were heading down the steps when they were confronted by a gang of older kids who were looking for money and threatened to beat them up. Quick thinking, Don told the gang that he was the son of a very ‘prominent’ family on Alice Street in The Ward. When he mentioned the family name, it seemed to resonate fear within the gang, and they left Don and Billy unharmed and quickly took off.
The steps have always been a thoroughfare and an important pedestrian connection for many Catholic families who lived on Grove Street, Metcalfe Street, and the St. George’s Park neighbourhood. The Steps were used to get to Sacred Heart Catholic Elementary School on Huron Street and Sacred Heart Church on Alice Street.
Rose Finora Raso grew up on Grove Street and has never forgotten climbing the Steps four times a day to get to Sacred Heart School and back home again for lunch. Rose loved to slide down the steel railings and then count the Steps on her way back home. She remembers the piles of snow in winter and the Steps being very icy and slippery.
Joe Glaab and his family took the Steps to attend Sunday Mass at Sacred Heart Church. On Sunday nights, the Glaab’s would use the Steps once again to attend the Sunday Benediction service. Joe’s sister, Mary Glaab, walked up and down the Steps every day to attend Mass.
Aside from giving you an interesting view of the Ward, the 100 Steps have today become a sought-after spot for pedestrians, joggers, athletes, and anyone looking for exercise or trying to get a demanding workout. The Diabetes Care Guelph team has used the Steps for their “100 Challenge for the Sun Life Walk to Cure Diabetes.”
Guelph boxer Carolyn Redmond often uses the steps to train. I saw Carolyn working out on the steps this past March. The 33-year-old boxing star was running non-stop - EIGHT times - up and down the steps from Elizabeth Street to Grove Street, (133 steps, 11 terraces in total). What a cardio workout! I also met Guelph resident 69-year-old Stephen Elderkin who was walking up and down the steps trying to get in shape for the upcoming canoe season. There were many pedestrians coming and going on the steps too.
For many kids who grew up in the early days of St. Patrick’s Ward, the 100 Steps will forever be remembered as a pathway to St. George’s Park and their own exclusive and very special space for meeting friends, having fun, and attempting dare devil stunts.
One thing is for sure - there are many more untold stories about life in St. Patrick’s Ward. As for the 100 Steps…if only they could talk!
