Here's another photo of the building that interests you.
This is cropped from a low-res image on the Ontario Archives.
Amazing. The 'Old Bread Factory' (2 Fraser) isn't the building in question. But you've caught the roof of the one that is. I have to be cagey about this in open forums, for a number of reasons. I'll try to PM you later.
But that pic is still very valuable! That's an angle we've never seen before, the steam line over the roof and to the 'residence' to the south is intriguing, but as
@adma replied yesterday, the date is inevitably incorrect for "1922". Records we have indicate that the second floor wasn't added until 1923 by a different architect than the original...but again, a lot of what is presumed to be the case is suspect.
That pic must have been taken from a balloon or a telescopic lens of the time from the taller buildings to the north (Massey, Barrymore et al).
From the angle, I'd guess balloon. (edit: It could also be atop a pole, the shaft of which might be visible in the far right of the pic. Also the 'Rorschach sign' might be backwards in the earlier pic! And thus incomprehensible)
I'm going to be forwarding that and stare at it intently before doing so. Again, many thanks, and I'll PM more details to you.
Edit to Add: lol! And there's the Rorschach sign on top of number 2 again! Only a fraction of that structure is left, it was glorious in its original form but it has been re-purposed well in its present iteration. The building had already been eviscerated with "modernization" over the decades. Fortunately the original facade has been saved on the Fraser side.
Something much more genuine is in the works across the street from it. The challenge is to find record of what it was in its original form. The fond at the Archives is full of the architect's drawings, blueprints and notes on most of his other buildings in Toronto, that building conspicuously absent. Even one a few doors up, the original foundry is in the Archives in exquisite detail and a some twenty typed pages of construction notes. It's very odd....
So even if you haven't hit the jackpot, you're hitting damn close. Pics of the original are out there. Just a case of finding them. I should be back at the TPL again once the great weather cools off to pick-up where I and staff have left off.
Heritage Toronto have yet to be approached. The local council sent a request for designation, (found the record of it) and must have had some supporting evidence for the request. I'd like to know what it is.
