Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

[J T CUNNINGHAM]

King St., 1901

Note the plethora of Telegraph/Hydro wires, they being a major hindrance during the 1904 Great Toronto Fire.

Regards,
J T

 

[Goldie]

 

[Goldie]

Old Union Station and Toronto Islands c.1895

 

[44 North]

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

It's from the Chung collection at UBC archives. There's only six photos with the keyword "Toronto" in there, apparently. Thinking Chinese origin, the large homes, your post about the Annex, plus the "consulate" wording (from what may very well be shrubbery) leads me to believe somewhere around St George and Bernard. Not sure how long the Chinese consulate has been there. Know the area fairly well, but quick Streetview check I don't recognize any of the homes. A lot of those stately mansions were knocked down for towers, which could be a reason it's hard to pinpoint.

 

[steveintoronto]

It's from the Chung collection at UBC archives. There's only six photos with the keyword "Toronto" in there, apparently. Thinking Chinese origin, the large homes, your post about the Annex, plus the "consulate" wording (from what may very well be shrubbery) leads me to believe somewhere around St George and Bernard. Not sure how long the Chinese consulate has been there. Know the area fairly well, but quick Streetview check I don't recognize any of the homes.

That's the best conjecture so far.

A lot of those stately mansions were knocked down for towers

Even just to read that is painful. Inevitably, you're right, we've lost so much to 'progress'. I don't begrudge that we have to move forward, and perhaps I'm idealizing, but that scene is bucolic.

 

[44 North]

That's the best conjecture so far.

Even just to read that is painful. Inevitably, you're right, we've lost so much to 'progress'. I don't begrudge that we have to move forward, and perhaps I'm idealizing, but that scene is bucolic.

Well I originally saw the post on mobile and couldn't wait to get home to solve it using my amateur csi skills and city knowledge. I couldn't, and have strong doubts about it being the Annex. And yea I kinda get what you mean about the bucolic-ness. Tho I don't really feel that with the Annex so much. Too high-class and uppity at the time. Prefer the narrower lanes and lot sizes of the south end of the city, which still could've had a strong country feel depending on the era. And I think some of the interspersed towers in the Annex add more than they detract, so it kinda works out there than most other areas that saw vast razing.

 

[steveintoronto]

And yea I kinda get what you mean about the bucolic-ness. Tho I don't really feel that with the Annex so much. Too high-class and uppity at the time. Prefer the narrower lanes and lot sizes of the south end of the city, which still could've had a strong country feel depending on the era. And I think some of the interspersed towers in the Annex add more than they detract

Indeed! I noted how close the houses were together, and concluded it was a 'middle class neighbourhood', perhaps to the west of the ostentatious Annex. I wondered about the Dovercourt neighbourhood, but of course, it could be many between. Bathurst, Spadina and Ossington...they all had lovely neighbourhoods. Even South Parkdale or Roncesvalles.

That pic really hit an intellectual/emotional vein, it looks so freakin' *civilized*! Ward Cleaver's folks could have been born and raised there. I'm really torn, as it's so easy to idealize from those kinds of pics...but most of those houses were bought on one wage-earner's income. Sure medicine and social programs weren't anywhere near what we have today, and poverty in the world, for all our first world problems, has been reduced markedly (a curious stat but I accept it for the purpose of illustration)...and I stare at that picture, and part of me, a good part, longs for the life that went with that, yet it's well before my time.

Is it just nostalgia? It certainly speaks massive volumes about how images can be so evocative.

 

[Bogtrotter]

Yes I also considered that the signage might be a row of shrubs or even a balustrade/wall with small shrubs in front on either side of a driveway. On the other hand I can identify, or think I can identify, several letters so I'm not convinced it is shrubbery. Also, above the front door and to the left of the tree there is possibly another sign or lettering. I see a short line on top and a longer one underneath. I'm thinking it reads The 'something', in which case maybe it is an Inn, hotel or residence or some kind. There might be a church or a neo-gothic building behind it. Unfortunately I agree that this street scene might be completely unrecognizable today- perhaps only existing in a few peoples memories and this photo. An intriguing image to be sure.

 

[Goldie]

Exhibition Park - Rules and Regulations

 

[Goldie]

CNE Misway 1904

 

[DSC]

From: https://panam1901.org/documents/panamwomen/corabeckwith.htm

 

[DSC]

More on the Beckwith - who seems to be one of several!. From:
From Lambeth to Niagara: Imitation and Innovation among Female Natationists. Dave Day

Abstract
Sport in History Vol. 35 , Iss. 3,2015

The development of English swimming throughout the nineteenth century relied heavily on the activities of swimming professors and their families who promoted the sport through challenges and competitions and established classes for the teaching of swimming and lifesaving. Like many of their contemporaries, the leading swimming family of the period, the Beckwiths, expanded these activities beyond their Lambeth base to include summer seasons at seaside resorts as well as appearances in crystal tanks on the stages of variety theatres and music halls. Female members of the family proved particularly popular and Agnes Beckwith became the most recognized and acclaimed natationist of the period, particularly after her visits to America in 1883 and 1887. A year later it was being reported that a Clara Beckwith was due to appear in a tank scene at the Providence Museum and advertisements began appearing in 1893 for a Cora Beckwith, ‘Champion Lady swimmer of the World’ and demonstrator of the ‘famous Beckwith Backward Sweep’. This paper explores the lives of these two natationists who appeared regularly on stage and in travelling fairs in America over the decades following Agnes's visits. In newspaper advertisements and interviews, both women emphasized their British roots and their connections to the Beckwith dynasty as well as claiming credit for outstanding swimming feats. In announcing her intention to swim Niagara Falls in 1901 Cora, born Cora MacFarland in Maine in 1870, asserted that she had previously swum the English Channel alongside Matthew Webb. Clara, born Clara Sabean in Nova Scotia in 1870, was even more forthcoming about her entitlement to the Beckwith name by stating in her 1893 autobiography that she had been born in Lambeth in 1867, and identifying her father as William Manning Beckwith, Champion Swimmer of England. Both women not only appropriated the Beckwith name but they also annexed the Beckwith routines, including endurance floating and ornamental swimming, and this paper highlights these similarities before reflecting on some generic commonalities in these natational careers.

 

[Goldie]

Dufferin Memorial Gate at CNE, built in 1910

At one time there were CNE buildings north of the gates.
Probably demolished to make way for the Gardiner Expressway (c.1960).

Warriors' Day Parade 1930

 

[Goldie]

48th Highlanders, 12th Infantry, & 10th Royal leave Toronto for camp
Library of Congress - Bain (News Service) Collection c.1914

Example of a cut-and-paste (faked) news photo from 1914

 

[Goldie]

We buy so much from China now.
Do many know that Torontonians once (1944) manufactured guns for China?