thecharioteer
Senior Member
I agree. The old pics show how truncated the central tower is today (and out of proportion). Another two views:
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More Lost Toronto in colour
- Thread starter LowPolygon
- Start date
I agree. The old pics show how truncated the central tower is today (and out of proportion). Another two views:
Dilla
Senior Member
It now looks downright flaccid.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
I agree. The old pics show how truncated the central tower is today (and out of proportion). Another two views:
What an instructive postcard - not just for showing the grand, original look of the Confederation Life building, but for revealing how effectively rows of similar, polite red brick buildings on streets such as Lombard ( ? ) once defined the character of the city. A fairly modest existing form was expanded, creating continuity and a strong presence for the city as a whole, and jarring discontinuity was apparently considered bad form.
Mustapha
Senior Member
That central tower is a confection really and could only have been removed for structural/maintenance rather than aesthetic reasons imho. I'm imagining the ladder and trapdoor that opened up into it. What a great place it must have been to smoke cigars and talk about the Boer war.
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adma
Superstar
Somehow, I'm under the impression that it all may have been truncated as early as the 1930s--by which time aesthetics might well have acted in concert with structural/maintenance requirements. Victorian excess, you know.
LowPolygon
Senior Member
Yonge north of Queen:
Victoria College 1895:
Normal School:
Bloor and Avenue Road:
fantastic ephemera!
also, thanks for posting those hand painted images--really extraordinary. are they printed on glass? they look kind of translucent...
thecharioteer
Senior Member
Not sure. I got them all off of Wikimedia Commons and most of them are from the McCord Museum in Montreal (some are from the New Brunswick Museum). Here are a few more from the 1890's and 1900's:
The Harbour:
Queen's Park:
By the Exhibition Grounds:
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adma
Superstar
Not sure. I got them all off of Wikimedia Commons and most of them are from the McCord Museum in Montreal (some are from the New Brunswick Museum). Here are a few more from the 1890's and 1900's:
The Harbour:
Is the Royal Bank building under construction in that picture? (And its presence at all would make the shot post-1910.)
thecharioteer
Senior Member
Well, it's in the section on Wilikedia Commons called "Toronto in the 1900's", but when you click on the file number of the photo it dates it as "1900 to 1920". However the Royal York opened in 1929, so the picture may be labelled incorrectly in the museum (if it is the Royal York under construction).
I do have an answer to a previous question from deepend: they are listed in the museum catelogue as "hand-painted lantern slides" so they are literally translucent. Good eye!
I do have an answer to a previous question from deepend: they are listed in the museum catelogue as "hand-painted lantern slides" so they are literally translucent. Good eye!
Conrad Black
Senior Member
Some amazing images here.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
I believe it opened in 1914. The Dominion Bank, built in 1913, appears to be finished.
thecharioteer
Senior Member
Sorry, misread Royal Bank as Royal York (long week...). Similar angle in the well-known painting (the artist's name escapes me but it's on the cover of the book Toronto in Art):
Which building was the Royal Bank? Is it still around?
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Yes - at the north east corner of Yonge and King.
Anna
Active Member
Pianos were the TVs/DVDs/PCs of the day.