Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Goldie]

In 160 years our current modern digital file will not look so crisp anymore either lol
If anyone can even open the files anymore

I've preached this message before but it needs repeating:
If anyone wants a digital photograph to be available for future generations, then have a 'paper print' made!
History has taught us that paper will last (and no electronic device is needed for viewing), while bits & bytes will most likely evaporate into cyberspace.

 

[Mustapha]

This is probably the VERY FIRST photograph of an urban street scene (Paris in 1838).

Aug. 19 was celebrated as "World Photography Day" because on that day in 1839 France made the official announcement of the invention of photography by Louis Daguerre.

This is also the VERY FIRST photograph of a PERSON!

I read somewhere that the man's image was caught only because he stopped long enough for a show shine.

 

[Mustapha]

Blatchford Shoes was on Yonge Street around the corner from our street, St Germain. We would go there when we didn't want to go downtown (which took an hour by streetcar). I found the Blatchford family selling shoes in both the 1861 and in the 1901 Toronto censuses.

Another part of Toronto with a number of Afro Canadian families in the 1860s was St John's Ward (Queen Street West to Bloor Street, Yonge over to University for those who aren't familiar with the old ward names). Many of them worked as waiters in downtown hotels. Others had barber shops. I met Karen Smardz Frost in May and she knew of this community as well.

Eaton's Annex tunnel. I remember the soft ice cream and also the smell of paint that always permeated the place.

Yes, the tunnel was also the paint department.

 

[Mustapha]

I've preached this message before but it needs repeating:
If anyone wants a digital photograph to be available for future generations, then have a 'paper print' made!
History has taught us that paper will last (and no electronic device is needed for viewing), while bits & bytes will most likely evaporate into cyberspace.

Agree completely. My daughter's collection of many thousands of digital photos evaporated when the external harddrive died. This after I told her she needed backups to backups.

 

[Mustapha]

Madeira ran east off Parliament between Oak and Gerrard. Lima ran east off Parliament just south of Queen, opposite the old Presbyterian church which still stands on the west side.

Thanks wwwebster!



Then. Madeira Place.

Now. General area of Madeira Place. August 20, 2010.

Then. Lima Place.

Now. Genaral area of Lima Place. August 20, 2010.

 

[Mustapha]

Lovatt Place was a dead-end street heading east from Sumach Street, the next intersection north of Wascana Ave, roughly where the post-Regent Park-recompassed Shuter intersects Sumach. Williamson Place is harder to figure out, except it was in the vicinity of 124-126 Eastern Ave, placing it iin the vicinity of the intersection of Eastern and the "old" stretch of Sumach Street (the one cut off by the raised sections of Adelaide and Richmond streets). Both are long gone from the city grid.

Haven't figured out Lima and Madeira Place.

Wonderful, and thank you DJankowski. I'll try to get photos of the general areas. For those who need their "fix" now, there is always Google streetview.

 

[Goldie]

I read somewhere that the man's image was caught only because he stopped long enough for a show shine.

Yes, quite correct. In the earliest days of photography, the exposure times were often 10 minutes!
That man stood still while dozens of other citizens kept moving and thereby lost their moment of fame.

 

[Mustapha]

Lovatt Place was a dead-end street heading east from Sumach Street, the next intersection north of Wascana Ave, roughly where the post-Regent Park-recompassed Shuter intersects Sumach...

Now. General area of Lovatt Place. August 21, 2010.

 

[DSC]

A resource I have not seen noted here is the digitised Canadian Architect and Builder from 1888 to 1908 at McGill. It's at http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/cab/

 

[thecharioteer]

A resource I have not seen noted here is the digitised Canadian Architect and Builder from 1888 to 1908 at McGill. It's at http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/cab/

And thanks to this resource, the mystery is now solved as to the "backward" pics of the Cawthra House on Bay and King. According to the attached article, the door was moved from Bay to King when it was converted to the Sterling Bank:

Another pic:

 

[Goldie]

And thanks to this resource, the mystery is now solved as to the "backward" pics of the Cawthra House on Bay and King. According to the attached article, the door was moved from Bay to King when it was converted to the Sterling Bank:

Indeed, that's most interesting.
It certainly puts to rest my mistaken impression that some images had been flopped in reproduction.
Thanks for the fine research!

 

[Goldie]

A resource I have not seen noted here is the digitised Canadian Architect and Builder from 1888 to 1908 at McGill. It's at http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/cab/

Thanks to that useful link, I found this illustration of Toronto's first Union Station.
I've never see a photograph that shows the whole complex as well as this sketch.
Does such a photo exist?

 

[adma]

I've never see a photograph that shows the whole complex as well as this sketch.
Does such a photo exist?

Well, if the Rotunda and Walker House already existed by the time the Romanesque N Block of Union Station was built (instead of the treed space in the foreground), such a photo might have been technically impossible...

 

[Goldie]

Well, if the Rotunda and Walker House already existed by the time the Romanesque N Block of Union Station was built (instead of the treed space in the foreground), such a photo might have been technically impossible...

Of course, adma. I should have remembered those two buildings - especially the huge Cyclorama!

 

[Mustapha]

I walked by an archeological dig at the northwest corner of Eastern and Sackville on Saturday. It's on the Inglenook school grounds. According to the Toronto District School Board Facebook page, there used to be a candle factory on the site.

It's fenced off of course so I couldn't go inside, nor would I dare, but through the magic of a super telephoto lens I was able to take pictures of some of the artifacts from outside the fence.