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Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

I see a pole in the corner to operate the windows, but what is the device extending above, and attached to, the radiator? I grew up with radiators, but never did we have attachments.
It looks like a boiler return line heading for the ceiling and a wall-mounted gas lamp aligned directly in front of it.
Is that asbestos wrapped around what I'm assuming to be a heating pipe on the wall in the upper left of the image? A lot of asbestos was used for decades as a fire barrier.

Carcinogen or white asbestos was used as artificial snow in theatres and movie & television sets before they stopped using it. Remember that when you see Jimmy Stewart running through the artificial snow (foamite and asbestos) in "It's A Wonderful Life".
It probably is asbestos. It was the wonder mineral right up until the the 1960s.
 
High Park Sanitarium, Gothic Ave., west side, west of Quebec Ave.; looking north from Bloor St. W. 1920 TPL
High Park Sanitarium, Gothic Ave., west side, west of Quebec Ave.; looking north from Bloor St...jpg
 
These mineral baths were based on a pre-glacial underground river known at the Laurentian Stream. It bubbles up in High Park and can still be seen oozing mineralised water into Soring Creek in High Park.
 
These mineral baths were based on a pre-glacial underground river known at the Laurentian Stream. It bubbles up in High Park and can still be seen oozing mineralised water into Soring Creek in High Park.

Don't think the "modern" replacement (High Park Swimming Pool) uses the "mineral spring" water. Likely just regular Lake Ontario drinking water.
 
Few will remember when films & projectors were available for loan at the Public Libraries.
This image is dated 1984.
Films in the Public Library 1984.jpg
 
Few will remember when films & projectors were available for loan at the Public Libraries.
This image is dated 1984.
View attachment 219725
My mum and dad would borrow films from the library, as well as the projector and screen, for my birthday parties when I was a kid. It was mostly cartoons like Goofy and Daffy Duck, and was around the same time period when this picture was taken. Thanks for stirring such great memories!
 
Lansdowne Ave, north of Dupont and the rail line from around 2011:


View attachment 220602
Thanks AlbertC, for reminding me of that area of Toronto.
General Electric had a large concentration of manufacturing plants on both sides of Lansdowne, from Dupont to Davenport. It's where I had my first job.
Here's an aerial photo of the GE complex in 1953.
aerial GE on Lansdowne.jpg


Those former GE lands now contain dozens of town homes (called Davenport Village) and some lofts in refurbished GE factory buildings.
I was particularly surprised to find that the huge, former foundry building is now called The Foundry Lofts……here's a current photo of that structure (near Davenport Rd.).
former GE Davenport Works.jpg


I made this photo inside that foundry c.1952.
GE foundry xx.jpg
 

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