Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

[J T CUNNINGHAM]

Houses and trees are too old for Forest Hill.

Regards,
J T

 

[Goldie]

it's got that Annex or Forest Hill feel... do you know the answer, Goldie?

It's a mystery to me too.
Unidentified on the UBC archive site.

 

[adma]

Oakville?

 

[J T CUNNINGHAM]

"Oakville?"

My thoughts are, house at left, 1890's, and as far as Oakville, the above streets have piped sewers and hard pavement/curbs; unlikely Oakville.

Regards,
J T

 

[steveintoronto]

First glimpse, it reminded me of Guelph....but here's the essential point: It could be anywhere, including what are now inner Toronto suburbs. That could be Parkdale, it could be off of Roncesvalles, it could be many places.

And here's why it's 'evocative': It's because it could have been so many places that the message to me is overwhelming: "Was the quality of life back then better?" It's a tough question, perhaps unfair, and it can be very easy to mistake that for the quality of life the average plebe lived in middle Canada at the time, there were also horrendous slums....and there are today, although many are high-rise slums...but going by the size of the plots, and proximity to the street, that was a middle-class neighbourhood.

And idyllic...

It says "A Street in Toronto"...and ostensibly those houses still stand. Are they as idyllic today? "Evocative" is right...

Edit to Add: Can't stop staring at the pic, and beyond the obvious houses themselves, the tree canopy is interesting. Not only relatively dense, but take note of how the hydro wires aren't cleared of surrounding vegetation as they are today. I had to look for a good couple of minutes before realizing there's a transformer on the pole to the foreground left, and poles both sides of the street...but they disappear into the canopy.

Distribution and line voltage were the same back then (albeit the present HV distribution is much higher, and run on some residential streets) so how bad was the fire hazard back then for street distribution? In houses, it was with the knob and tube, and there was a greater shock hazard due to grounding not being required....we've lost an immense amount with streetscapes, even with buried wiring in some areas.

That pic is far beyond evocative, it also tells stories.

 

[Goldie]

King St. E. c.1850
That's likely St.Lawrence Hall tower, far left

 

[Koolgreen]

It's a mystery to me too.
Unidentified on the UBC archive site.

just to the right of the car looks to be a sign or text of some sort....but cannot make it out....

 

[Bogtrotter]

It looks like there might be a neo-gothic building beyond the white one with the signage- perhaps a church? The signage for the large white house is just beyond legibility. I first thought The Belfast but then it also might end with ..mark or park. Tantalizing and evocative.

 

[thecharioteer]

From the Toronto Star Archives, now in the TPL: a view down King Street around 1930. One can see Oak Hall, the Beard Building and the huge gas tanks in the east end.

 

[Goldie]

Some forensics applied to that 'mystery' photo.
A little Photoshop manipulation and that sign beside the car may be: "consulate" ???????

 

[steveintoronto]

Some forensics applied to that 'mystery' photo.
A little Photoshop manipulation and that sign beside the car may be: "consulate" ???????

just to the right of the car looks to be a sign or text of some sort....but cannot make it out....

When I read that, I was looking higher for the 'sign'...completely missed looking at ground level. I keep staring at it, it's becoming Rorschach. Could also be "Consultant, Consultancy..."

From the Toronto Star Archives, now in the TPL: a view down King Street around 1930. One can see Oak Hall, the Beard Building and the huge gas tanks in the east end.

Here's a much easier one, and Adma had an excellent response prior: Where was this shot taken from?

The photographer chose highly angled sunlight to get that shot. The clue? The bright light casting across King from the intersecting side-streets, the Sun must have been very low on the horizon, probably very close to Winter Solstice. Another excellent window into the past.

 

[Goldie]

Could also be "Consultant, Consultancy..."

I doubt that there was such a thing as a "Consultant" in those days........that's a term of modern bravado!

 

[steveintoronto]

I doubt that there was such a thing as a "Consultant" in those days........that's a term of modern bravado!

Agree completely, save for it being some kind of medical clinic back then. It really is beguiling, and it might take tripping across another pic of the same spot to identify it. I'm intrigued as to how the property and street look so attractive, and yet properties are not grandiose. I'd take a stab at guessing Lakeshore Rd, save that the street is nowhere near wide enough. Ditto for Palmerston, but perhaps Dovercourt area north of College? It's pretty flat and roads are straight. lol...a lot are guessing on this one...

 

[Goldie]

King St., 1901

 

[steveintoronto]

King St., 1901

No doubt when or where on that one...but the streetcar destination: "Belt Line"...is that the streetcar route, or the Belt Line Railway with an ostensible stop at where King meets Queen at the bridge over the train stop? Anyone?

Edit to Correct: I typed too soon!

Compiled by Pete Coulman
Text by James Bow

Belt lines can be found in a number of cities across the continent, although not all of them are in use today. As railway lines stretch out from city cores, sometimes the ends of two lines turn towards each other and join, forming a circle. Chicago has its elevated Loop, although this is too small to be a true Belt line, since most incoming trains use it to turn around through the downtown. Comparable examples in the United Kingdom include the Circle Line of the London Underground and Glasgow's sole tube line. Circle lines are sometimes appreciated because they don't have to stop and change ends. Instead, they keep on cycling around and around.

Sometimes this is done to distribute passengers coming in from the suburbs through the downtown core. This is the case with the Circle Line in London, and was the plan for Detroit's People Mover (although the incoming lines never materialized). This was also the plan in the late 1980s for the Yonge-University-Spadina subway, albeit on a far larger scale. But for Toronto in the late 19th century, and also for the city of Hamilton, the belt line system proved effective in connecting the cities' downtowns to their suburbs. Hamilton had a belt line, and Toronto had two. The key is that both Hamilton and Toronto abutted a lake, meaning that each city grew out in three directions only (two in the case of Hamilton -- south and east -- and west, north and east for Toronto). A belt line was an effective way to join the downtown cores to suburbs in these directions, conserving resources while increasing ridership.

In the late 19th century, real estate speculators hoped to generate a housing boom by building a belt line railway from Union station, up the Don Valley, through North Toronto and Forest Hill and south through Parkdale. They weren't successful, although their legacy remains to this day in the form of the Belt Line trail. The Toronto Railway Company was far more successful with its Belt Line experiment, though its legacies are harder to find. The impact it had on Toronto was still well enough remembered, however, for the line to rematerialize as a tourist operation decades later.

A Chronology of the Original Toronto Belt Line
September 21, 1891
Service begins on a new horse car route operating out of Front Street carhouse, combining the old SHERBOURNE, SPADINA and BLOOR routes into a circle route running in both directions via Spadina, Bloor, Sherbourne and King Streets. Service operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

December 15, 1892
Electric streetcars replace horses on this day. Horses continue to pull cars in night service.

March 1893
Operation transferred to Yorkdale carhouse.

July 2, 1894
Electric cars replace horse cars on night runs.

October 27, 1913
Half of the service is now operated out of Lansdowne division. The other half follows soon thereafter.

December 14, 1918
Additional service on Spadina Avenue provided by BLOOR WEST TRIPPERS running from Bloor Street west of Spadina. This is the beginning of the end. Streetcar tracks are being extended west on Bloor Street, and the demand for crosstown service on Bloor is increasing. Toronto is expanding, and suburbs further to the west and to the east require service, making the BELT LINE less relevant.

September 1, 1921
The Toronto Transportation Commission takes over all Toronto Railway Company streetcar service in Toronto. Service on the BELT LINE is maintained. The TTC maintains the TRC policy of referring to the counter-clockwise run as the "Sherbourne Belt Line" (because cars go "up Sherbourne") and the clockwise run as the "Spadina Belt Line" (because cars go "up Spadina").

April 15, 1922
Track rehabilitation on King Street forces service to divert off of King in both directions via York, Wellington and Church.

July 2, 1922
Track rehabilitation on King Street forces service to divert in both directions via York, Adelaide and Church.

July 23, 1922
Regular routing restored

June 30, 1923
Last day of operation. Service is discontinued in favour of crosstown service on the BLOOR streetcar and separate SPADINA and SHERBOURNE streetcar routes. [...continues...]

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/streetcar/4131.shtml