In 2005, the Church and Wellesley Business Association erected what at first glance looks like a monument to stylish dandyism at Church and Alexander streets. Closer inspection reveals it’s a statue of Alexander Wood, a Scottish merchant and magistrate who caused a scandal in 1810 when he closely inspected the genitals of suspects in a rape case. His farm at Yonge and Carlton was derisively nicknamed “Molly Wood’s Bush” — and later his name was given to Alexander and Wood streets. Today, less scandalous touching continues, as the bare buttocks of a figure depicted on one of the monument’s plaques has been continuously rubbed and polished by passersby.

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