Lost Road and Bridge: Lawrence Avenue

[Lone Primate]

I've been meaning to post this for a while here. I took this photo somewhere in the vicinity of Norwich, I think, a couple of years ago. This is very much what the Lawrence Avenue East bridge over the East Don would have looked like prior to about 1962, including the turn to the right on the far side (though it would have been more abrupt).

 

[Lone Primate]

A few years ago I was looking at my aerial shots from the City Archives and I noticed a house... the last house on Woodbine Avenue south of York Mills, at the very end of Woodbine. Woodbine, of course, didn't actually connect to Lawrence then. They didn't think it was worth it connecting it down the hill, even though they could have deked the road east and avoided the Don. I don't understand why... but anyway, there it was, all by itself. And I remember thinking, aw, what a shame... must have been hauled down when they built the DVP.

But then I looked at photos of when they were building the DVP and nope, they didn't pull it down. It's still there! It went from being this house out in the middle of nowhere on a dead-end street to just another house surrounded by hundreds of others on a 1960s suburban loop. I couldn't believe it. But this is it, seen here in the centre of this view. And this is what it looks like from the street level. It's kind of amusing when you think that circa 1960, you'd be trespassing in their back yard. Their driveway came in off Woodbine. Then, for a while, it connected through the parking lot immediately to the north, if I've understood the photos correctly. Finally, all the other houses moved in around it, and it wound up on Geraldine Court, where it still looks like the most prestigious home today, built-on since it stood alone over the bluffs at the end of Woodbine Avenue. What a story the folks who lived there then could tell.

 

[Goldie]

A few years ago I was looking at my aerial shots from the City Archives and I noticed a house... the last house on Woodbine Avenue south of York Mills, at the very end of Woodbine. Woodbine, of course, didn't actually connect to Lawrence then. They didn't think it was worth it connecting it down the hill, even though they could have deked the road east and avoided the Don. I don't understand why... but anyway, there it was, all by itself. And I remember thinking, aw, what a shame... must have been hauled down when they built the DVP.

But then I looked at photos of when they were building the DVP and nope, they didn't pull it down. It's still there!

I'd love to see that old aerial shot that shows the location of the house.
Do you still have that image, Mr. Primate?

 

[Lone Primate]

I'd love to see that old aerial shot that shows the location of the house.
Do you still have that image, Mr. Primate?

Heya, Goldie! Yeah, I know I do... I know I do. I was hoping I'd put it up on my blog when I mentioned this around a year ago but I guess I couldn't be arsed to get my ducks in a row and put it up, which leaves it to future me (now present me) to find it. But I know for sure I do have shots of it. I just need to drill down through all the shots I've taken with umpteen cameras now. I'm as eager to put it up and share it as you are to see it.

What I can't figure out, when I look at the topographic maps on Google, is why they stopped where they did. They took Woodbine south across the more substantial valley around where Brookbanks is now, but then stopped at the top of a less challenging one. If they'd crossed that, half a mile along the heights and across a minor dip would have brought Woodbine down to Lawrence Avenue pretty much where Old Lawrence Avenue climbed up the hill and headed east. I really don't get why they didn't close a fairly minor gap in the road system like that.

 

[Goldie]

Heya, Goldie! Yeah, I know I do... I know I do. I was hoping I'd put it up on my blog when I mentioned this around a year ago but I guess I couldn't be arsed to get my ducks in a row and put it up, which leaves it to future me (now present me) to find it. But I know for sure I do have shots of it. I just need to drill down through all the shots I've taken with umpteen cameras now. I'm as eager to put it up and share it as you are to see it.

What I can't figure out, when I look at the topographic maps on Google, is why they stopped where they did. They took Woodbine south across the more substantial valley around where Brookbanks is now, but then stopped at the top of a less challenging one. If they'd crossed that, half a mile along the heights and across a minor dip would have brought Woodbine down to Lawrence Avenue pretty much where Old Lawrence Avenue climbed up the hill and headed east. I really don't get why they didn't close a fairly minor gap in the road system like that.

View attachment 11464

It this (attached) the aerial to which you refer?
I can't identify the house in this image.
Woodbine appears to go only a short distance below York Mills in this 1947 view.
Quite a long distance further to meet up with Lawrence.
There's another road at the top of this photo which appears to go over to Victoria Park.
Maybe that was considered the main route to the east in those days.

 

[Anna]

...What I can't figure out, when I look at the topographic maps on Google, is why they stopped where they did. They took Woodbine south across the more substantial valley around where Brookbanks is now, but then stopped at the top of a less challenging one. If they'd crossed that, half a mile along the heights and across a minor dip would have brought Woodbine down to Lawrence Avenue pretty much where Old Lawrence Avenue climbed up the hill and headed east. I really don't get why they didn't close a fairly minor gap in the road system like that.

My two cents?
Because Don Mills Rd was there? The main road out of the east end of the city was up Don Mills to where it ended at York Mills, across York Mills to Woodbine, and then north all the way to Lake Simcoe.*
http://www.torontomuseumproject.ca/Stories/Details.aspx?ID=93

You can see it reflected as a slightly thicker red line here
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/maps/counties/yorkbig.aspx

Although it was a minor gap, Lawrence was really a minor road, as your photos have shown. And there wasn't anything further south to connect it to, because Woodbine ends at O'Connor. And anything that would have diverted from the original Woodbine concession road allowance may have been on private property, and maybe the owner didn't want a connection.

*This photo from the archives is described as 'Highway 7 at Don Mills' - but it's Woodbine & 7 - so maybe the Don Mills name was used north of York Mills.

 

[Lone Primate]

No, the house didn't exist in 1947. The road you're talking about running east and west was private property back then. Today it's been largely the course of Cassandra Blvd.

Actually, Woodbine went most of the way down to Lawrence (as indicated on my map in red). It stopped short of Lawrence by only about two thousand feet or so. It covered most of the distance between York Mills and Lawrence and it just seems to me an unaccountable oversight in the road grid that could have been rectified easily without ever having to bridge the Don. But as far as I can tell, until they started building the DVP, they never did.

 

[adma]

Well, again, a lot of these corridors might have been deemed "minor" at the time...and that goes for Woodbine south of York Mills, which might have been more of a public concession serving as a de facto private drive, and which is why it only went "so far"...

 

[Anna]

Road construction, York Mills Road and Woodbine Avenue 196-?

 

[Chip?]

It's too bad most of the ravine north of Donaree was filled in. It's interesting to see that there was also ravine land in the northern part of Railside--considering how industrial the area became.

What is that property west of the O'Connor Mansion?

 

[Lone Primate]

Road construction, York Mills Road and Woodbine Avenue 196-? View attachment 11494

Seen that one. It took me a long time to work out where that is; if it were Underpass Gate, York Mills, or Brookbanks. That photo's of where they put Brookbanks through, and faces south. The view matches the power lines in overhead and other surface shots and they were on the south side; shadow cues also suggest this looks south. York Mills would also have much more substantial work visible for the access ramps that Underpass Gate and Brookbanks completely lack. So it's just possible that the house I mentioned is visible in the distance in this shot, but unfortunately the resolution's not sufficient to be sure.

Here's Brookbanks...

Here's York Mills... You can see there are no overhead lines, and the bridge is much, much more substantial.

And just for good measure, here's Underpass Gate. Its overhead lines are on the north side.

P.S. One of the things I find interesting in these early shots is the gap between the northbound and westbound spans of these bridges. I've noticed you can still see where they cemented that up later on in the Underpass Gate spans; it all appears like just one bridge now.

 

[Lone Primate]

I finally tracked down the shots of the house in question. I'm not sure when it was built, but I do know it was there, all alone, in 1960...

This is an interesting comparison of views before and after the DVP went through; 1960 and 1968, respectively. You can see that the house is about to be on Geraldine Court, which is being built, but it still alone on that street. It also appears its driveway, cut off from the vanished Woodbine Avenue, connected for a while to the adjacent new property to the north. And now it's just another house on the court with all the others, and who'd ever guess?

 

[Anna]

Seen that one. It took me a long time to work out where that is; if it were Underpass Gate, York Mills, or Brookbanks. That photo's of where they put Brookbanks through, and faces south. The view matches the power lines in overhead and other surface shots and they were on the south side; shadow cues also suggest this looks south. York Mills would also have much more substantial work visible for the access ramps that Underpass Gate and Brookbanks completely lack. So it's just possible that the house I mentioned is visible in the distance in this shot, but unfortunately the resolution's not sufficient to be sure.

I thought it was looking south towards the Brookbanks/Three Valleys underpass as well. It's odd that it is described as York Mills and Woodbine construction not DVP and York Mills construction - but I have seen a photo recently (here?) of the DVP & Lawrence with a sign that says 'Woodbine continues north of Lawrence' or something like that, which surprised me because I remember as a kid having to get off the parkway at Lawrence even though we were headed further north.

There is an 'I grew up in Don Mills' facebook page with some early photos of the Three Valleys area and someone mentions that there used to be a traffic light at Three Valleys & Woodbine.

 

[Anna]

It's too bad most of the ravine north of Donaree was filled in. It's interesting to see that there was also ravine land in the northern part of Railside--considering how industrial the area became.

What is that property west of the O'Connor Mansion?

Early Doonaree drive

 

[Goldie]

I finally tracked down the shots of the house in question. I'm not sure when it was built, but I do know it was there, all alone, in 1960...

View attachment 11500

This is an interesting comparison of views before and after the DVP went through; 1960 and 1968, respectively. You can see that the house is about to be on Geraldine Court, which is being built, but it still alone on that street. It also appears its driveway, cut off from the vanished Woodbine Avenue, connected for a while to the adjacent new property to the north. And now it's just another house on the court with all the others, and who'd ever guess?

View attachment 11501

Those photos provide a wonderful record of an amazing piece of Don Mills history - thanks Mr. Primate.
So interesting to find that 'lone' house at the end of Woodbine.
A fine research project would involve identifying the owner/builder and recording the life-style of his/her pioneering days.