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Today we have a rather special Then and Now to present. The reason? One innocent sounding post brought a barrage of really interesting responses that totally gave us a great look at a neighbourhood's history. This is one of the strengths of social media. Enjoy!
Original Post By Forum Member Mustapha.
Then: St. Clair W. looking at the Loblaws store circa 1970(?). Wells Hill Avenue is behind the photographer.
Now: March 2010.
Urban Shocker responds:
Then: June 14th 1974 according to the board leaning against the pole. The summer of Watergate.
Uncle Teddy comes in with:
Bathurst and St Clair is urbanizing nicely.
And then it starts... Seemsartless responds:
That chaulk board appears in many photos... Someone with way more time than me could make an interesting video, keeping the chaulk board in the same place and scoll through all the various photos. And Uncle Teddy, what the photo doesn't show is the wonderful ravine just to our left, which continues 2 blocks north. "Urbanizing nicely" would be to move the subway station and Loblaws, tear up the foot ball field farther north, and return the ravine to a (more) natural state... Never going to happen, of course, but as a bike rider that has to ride up St. Clair, across at the light, then through the neighbourhood to get back to the ravine I can dream! And there is a growing understanding that those sort of changes benefit a city, like the end of this TED video: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/er..._the_city.html
Anna joins the discussion with this photo:
Then thecharioteer comes to the table with this:
There are a number of photos in the Archives of the Bathurst/St. Clair area, illustrating when it was once known as the Fleming Estate. Here's a shot looking west towards Bathurst:
St. Clair and Bathurst, Toronto, 1912 Looking north (just east of Bathurst):
Civic Car Line, St. Clair Avenue, East of Bathurst The Fleming Estate:
Fleming Estate Driveway and Entrance, Toronto
Fleming Estate House, Toronto
Fleming Estate House, 1907, St. Clair and Bathurst, Toronto Looking east on St. Clair from Bathurst 1910:
St. Clair looking East from Bathurst, 1910, Toronto 1911
St. Clair Avenue at Spadina Road, Toronto Looking west:
St. Clair Avenue at Spadina Road looking West, 1912, Toronto 1935 (underneath the playing field and Loblaws was a garbage dump):
Garbage Dump below St. Clair Avenue, 1935, Toronto 1940
Dump below St. Clair Avenue, 1940, Toronto
And Seemsartless comes back one more time to end it for now:
Wow, yet another example of what an amazing thread this is, not to mention the whole forum. Thanks so much! We're also so fortunate that the Toronto Archives have so much of this online, in reasonable resolution too. Now if only we could re-play these photos backwards, minus the mud.
They built the rickety railroad bridge, then unloaded train fulls of fill:
Toronto Civic Railway, 1912
Train Unloading Fill, 1907-08(?)
Amazing to see the three shovels!
Amazing to see these photos and the history of an area long changed. Thanks to all who contributed.
