Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[k10ery]

Then and Now Dundas looking W from Centre, c1914-ish.



Would you call that a 'Cow-catcher' on the front of the streetcar?

Could it be 1912? Variety records Sam Howe's Lovemakers as performing at the Toronto Gayety Theatre in November of that year.

Here's the Gayety in 1911 (G. W. Gouinlock architect), just to the left of the Temple Building in foreground.

Not the same streetcar, unfortunately!

 

[Goldie]

Original Iola theatre became the Ace c.1945 (Danforth/Gough SE corner)
Then a fruit market and clothing store.
August, 2013 - the Canadian Tire Express.

 

[enelemcee]

I miss the way the lights went out when the third rail was cut out! Great video and thanks to the poster of the video!

 

[Goldie]

Stores on Pape at Lipton, 1927

IT's now the site of renovations to Pape subway station, Aug. 2013

 

[M II A II R II K]

Ghost City: The evolution of an intersection

http://www.thegridto.com/city/places/ghost-city-the-evolution-of-an-intersection/

 

[Mustapha]

Gerrard Street east of Yonge evolved as an upper-end residential neighbourhood, across the street from one of Toronto's most significant 19thC institutions, the Normal and Model Schools in St. James Square, now the site of the main campus of Ryerson University. Two of the more interesting Victorian buildings on the north side of Gerrard were St. James Square Presbyterian Church and the Ontario College of Pharmacy. St. James was probably demolished in the 1960's and is now the site of the 1970's high-rise 40 Gerrard (designed by Tampold and Wells Architects) and the Pharmacy Building still exists (sans the Victorian façade) behind a sober white moderne façade.

thecharioteer,

I walked around the old Pharmacy Building and evidence of the past isn't hard to find.

Below.. the foundations of the original building are visible. How strange that they weren't parged as part of the mid century make-over.

 

[thecharioteer]

The hidden Victorian building is also quite clear on Google Earth:

And it looks like the Victorian front was already gone by 1942:



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/TorontoGardenDistrictAerial1942.jpg

 

[Koolgreen]

Here are a couple of shots from my dad's old slides.
Not sure when or from what vantage point???

 

[Anna]

from Bank of Commerce Building observation deck?

 

[adma]

When? Probably circa 1960. The Royal York already had its addition (and the 2 Carlton building already existed); yet the Gardiner didn't exist yet, and New City Hall still seems parking lot rather than construction site...

 

[jaborandi]

from Bank of Commerce Building observation deck?

I'm thinking that perhaps it doesn't seem high enough for the observation deck. Looks to be about the 25th floor judging by the roof of the nearby Sterling Tower.

 

[HamiltonTransitHistory]

Would you call that a 'Cow-catcher' on the front of the streetcar?

It's a pedestrian safety fender, designed to catch pedestrians who walk in front of streetcars

It's hard for us to imagine now, but the introduction of the electric streetcar was completely revolutionary in several ways. One of those was the increase in danger to pedestrians. See, for hundreds, if not thousands of years, the only thing that could run you down on the street was a horse. And the amount of noise a horse made relative to it's speed was high enough that if it got loud enough for you to notice it, you still had plenty of time to get out of its way. Also, traffic levels were much lower.

For these reasons, nobody did what we today would consider crucial: look both ways before crossing the street

The coming of the electric streetcar in the 1890s changed all that. For the first time ever, there was something on the streets that moved fast enough and quiet enough that by the time you heard it, you were dead. The street railways and city halls tried to solve this problem by installing these fenders. The horizontal bar in front would hit you in the ankles, knocking you down into the safety net in front of the streetcar. You'd be bruised, but alive

By the 1910s auto traffic had risen to the point that it was too dangerous to cross without looking, and most fenders were removed after WWI as they were unnecessary.

 

[Mustapha]

Thank you HamiltonTransitHistory. That was succinct and thorough.






Then and Now for Aug 11, 2013.





Then. David Birrel's Hotel. 1915 pencil drawing. Later known as the Jolly Miller; now known simply as The Miller Tavern.

Now. July 2013. It was late evening when I was walking by; I hope no one minds that it's not a daytime picture.

Heya, c1906 aerial pictures taken from a, kite, of all things. Stunning.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...took-images-1900s-cameras-attached-kites.html



.

 

[Goldie]

Magnificent 1906 aerials, Mustapha!
Thanks for that link.
Some of those are better than what we have of Toronto today.

 

[HamiltonTransitHistory]

Heya, c1906 aerial pictures taken from a, kite, of all things. Stunning.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...took-images-1900s-cameras-attached-kites.html

So THAT's how it was done. One of Lawrence's photos was this one of the Hamilton Steel works
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/pan.6a23357/

I thought that this was too early for aerial photography by a few years. I thought it was a 1917 photo, with a typo in the date. Never thought of a kite.