Mustapha
Senior Member
Hi Jimbo,
What a privilege and a pleasure to have you make your introduction in this way.
There isn't an instance when I don't visualize the Muir Park Hotel when I'm out for a walk on that stretch of Yonge Street.
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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now
- Thread starter Mustapha
- Start date
Hi Jimbo,
What a privilege and a pleasure to have you make your introduction in this way.
There isn't an instance when I don't visualize the Muir Park Hotel when I'm out for a walk on that stretch of Yonge Street.
Mustapha
Senior Member
Mustapha
Senior Member
Hi Rudy,
I wonder what it is about the allure, pull, or attraction of abandoned roads and their old remnants or alignments on our psyches? Certainly there is the historical aspect, but it's much much deeper than that. Your online article certainly satisfies.
If one stops to think about it, the section of Pottery Road on the east side of the Don Valley is basically an intact 19th century road built for foot travel and horse and buggy that is definitely not sympathetic to modern cars in a hurry.While I'm at it, Winchester Street, where it descends into the Don Valley from Riverdale Farm, is another great stretch of abandoned road. The canopy of trees makes for a natural cathedral where one can contemplate all that has passed before this present generation of Torontonians.
Mustapha
Senior Member
I don't have these kind of dreams
but I do have moments late at night in front of the PC when I remember the exact click of a door or the bark of a dog coming through the wall of a place where I lived once; or the small voice of one of my toddler children speaking to me from the past, from the apartment that we took them home to from the hospital.
Mustapha
Senior Member
Then and Now for Dec 5.
Then. 415 Queen West. c1899. Thanks to wwwebster for sourcing this picture.
Now. The Steve's Music store sign bears some damage from having a police car burning in close proximity to it (G20 ruckus).
wwwebster gave me the address as well as the picture. I wonder if anything is amiss here. These buildings seem to predate 1899. or, perhaps the picture is misdated.
Conversation ensues.
Then. 415 Queen West. c1899. Thanks to wwwebster for sourcing this picture.
Now. The Steve's Music store sign bears some damage from having a police car burning in close proximity to it (G20 ruckus).
wwwebster gave me the address as well as the picture. I wonder if anything is amiss here. These buildings seem to predate 1899. or, perhaps the picture is misdated.
Conversation ensues.
BeeRich
Active Member
LOL...um, ya. Ever go down that stretch before it's been treated by the snow crew? The trajectory, from (let's call it) v2.0 Pottery Road, goes right into a concrete Hydro pole. Several have met that fate, and they simply refuse to replace this post anywhere else. It's the most magical pole in the City.
The next time you (anybody reading this) heads down that hill, do the "feeling" physics on the descent and see where your car would end up if it lost traction down below. Fantasy Farm my arse.
wwwebster
Active Member
My mistake. The 1913 Goad’s shows the address as 415, but the 1924 numbers it 423.
BeeRich
Active Member
Well I just had to.
Sorry, they're a little big. If you want them reduced, let me know. The forum won't let me upload them, as I think they're too big. 
r937
Active Member
they look okay to meWell I just had to.
i would just like to pass on a caution to anyone going down there in the summer, there's a huge patch of poison ivy in there, which i did not know about until it was too late
you used to be able just to walk down the old road bed and onto the current pottery road shoulder, but with the recent redevelopment, which included a new retaining wall, i expect it's closed off now
did you happen to notice?
There's a similar plaque at the south west corner of Yonge and Eglinton.
BeeRich
Active Member
they look okay to me
i would just like to pass on a caution to anyone going down there in the summer, there's a huge patch of poison ivy in there, which i did not know about until it was too late
you used to be able just to walk down the old road bed and onto the current pottery road shoulder, but with the recent redevelopment, which included a new retaining wall, i expect it's closed off now
did you happen to notice?
No I didn't go too far. It was wet, and a face full of leaves, rocks and mud wasn't a Monday morning thing to do. It seemed like there was a foundation of some sort in the last picture there, but no evidence of a road, at least to my untrained eye. But, I do have a recent video that might help (at 0:19 perhaps?):
[video=youtube;991k2Wx7gxM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=991k2Wx7gxM[/video]
denman
New Member
64 colgate ave
Colgate demolished the building starting in October 1994. The building was completely gone by the next fall and it stands vacant to this day. Funny how I called it back then that such a building (7 storey + basement) would be in demand within a decade - stupid how they demolish such a building only to build a similar building in its place!
Colgate demolished the building starting in October 1994. The building was completely gone by the next fall and it stands vacant to this day. Funny how I called it back then that such a building (7 storey + basement) would be in demand within a decade - stupid how they demolish such a building only to build a similar building in its place!
Then and Now for Oct. 21.
Then. Colgate Ave. N side opposite Verral Ave. c1918. 'Factory of Palmolive Company of Canada.' wwwebster sourced this picture for us.
Now. May 2011. I wonder if building is going on now on this vacant lot that I saw early in the summer. I wonder when the old factory was demolished...
r937
Active Member
what a splendid video!
yes, between 00:19 and 00:23, the old road bed merges in from the right, you could still walk down from the charles sauriol parkette
it looks, though, as if the recent construction has really obliterated the formerly obvious junction
in your last picture, you can see wooden steps going down from the footpath to the roadbed on the left
BeeRich
Active Member
Yeah I was thinking the recent work has expired it a bit more. I wonder if workers realize how historical that stuff is, or if they even know at all. For that matter, I wonder what the largest REAL remnants there are in the City, without me knowing it. Things I often encounter. If you showed me those wooden stairs, I would have said "oh, some City Works instalment in the 70's that wasn't done very well. They should have used steel." But then in City Parks, many of the original barriers that have been painted with that 'park green', then chipped, then painted, then chipped, then painted...are still there.
Today's video is very inexpensive, high quality (this is HD), and tells a much greater story than pictures alone. Imagine riding through Toronto in 1880 with an HD camera capturing everything from your handlebars. Anyway, seeing the changes to the City, it's a great time to be driving/biking around grabbing as much future-historical footage as I can.
Goldie
Senior Member
Thanks for that great video, BeeRich.
It's certainly a wonderful way to illustrate the point.
This single frame, I assume, shows the approximate path of the old road (attached):
