Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

[seemsartless]

View of the Old City Hall during the final stages of construction (from the McCord Museum).

Thanks for another great online resource of historic photos. I went to http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/keys/ and tried some searches, but couldn't find the image here. Do you remember what you searched for? Is there a direct link?

 

[thecharioteer]

Thanks for another great online resource of historic photos. I went to http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/keys/ and tried some searches, but couldn't find the image here. Do you remember what you searched for? Is there a direct link?

I found it through commons wikimedia : http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:History_of_Toronto

 

[Mustapha]

Evening everyone. Goldie asked me to post this.

 

[LowPolygon]

Evening everyone. Goldie asked me to post this.

almost exactly the same frame--amazing!
its extraordinary how unchanged bicycles are--they are a remarkably stable form.
on the other hard, its hard to imagine the 1899 man with a helmet on...as he needs his head for his hat.

 

[wwwebster]

Molly Sachs was born Nov 18, 1898.

Thanks for that document, Anna. Knowing her maiden name (Pullan) helps find these:

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maryc/tor1925p6.htm [excerpt]

"4002-25 Max Joel SACHS, 33, merchant, Russia, 652 Wellington St. in Ottawa, s/o Samuel SACHS, b. Russia & Toba PULLAN, married Jennie Freda ENUSHEVSKY, 28, Toronto, same, d/o Bernard ENUSHEVSKY & Sophie PRITZKER, witn: E. PULLAN of 285 Russell Hill Rd & Dr. S. KAPMAN of 488 6th Ave in illegible Long Island, 7 July 1925"

Toba Sachs passes, July 16, 1950 (Ottawa Citizen):

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...7QvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mtwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1093,2533289

 

[yonderbean]

Interesting how it appears that Lennox was acting as contractor as well as architect. I wonder if this was the norm at the time.

I suspect it was. From what I've read about Frank Llyod Wright, for example, he was often directly involved in every aspect of his projects, even sourcing bricks to be made to his specifications. I think the widening architect/contracter divide has been to the detriment of much modern building.

 

[auratic]

Thanks for that document, Anna. Knowing her maiden name (Pullan) helps find these:

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maryc/tor1925p6.htm [excerpt]

"4002-25 Max Joel SACHS, 33, merchant, Russia, 652 Wellington St. in Ottawa, s/o Samuel SACHS, b. Russia & Toba PULLAN, married Jennie Freda ENUSHEVSKY, 28, Toronto, same, d/o Bernard ENUSHEVSKY & Sophie PRITZKER, witn: E. PULLAN of 285 Russell Hill Rd & Dr. S. KAPMAN of 488 6th Ave in illegible Long Island, 7 July 1925"

Toba Sachs passes, July 16, 1950 (Ottawa Citizen):

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...7QvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mtwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1093,2533289

,

 

[LowPolygon]

“Earlscourt is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. It is centred on St. Clair Avenue West, with Dufferin Street, Davenport Road, and Old Weston Road forming its boundaries.â€

I’ve often wondered about this neighbourhood in the northwest of the city. It seems to have been called various things, Caledonia, Fairbank, and Earlscourt. The area was also referred to colloquially as Shackland or Shacktown.

The neighbourhood began as a squatter settlement in 1906, and was inhabited by British and Scottish immigrants who worked as labourers in the local factories.

“Earlscourt families would toil day and night building meagre tar and paper shacks, as temporary homes until enough money was saved to build a proper brick houseâ€.

The conditions that the squatter community lived in were unbelievably primitive. During rainstorms the streets would become a sea of mud, making transportation almost impossible. In the beginning it appears that the area was almost totally unserviced.

The city annexed the area in 1910, and the quality of life began to improve. By the WW1 era, local realtors were actively selling off the plots of land, and the neighbourhood began to evolve into a stable working class community.

Today, you can still see the remnants of these original neighbourhoods. The streets to the east of Caledonia Ave. in particular are still full of the oddest little wooden frame ‘strawberry box’ style houses.

 

[adma]

And of course, in that general neighbourhood, you mustn't forget this.

 

[thecharioteer]

What a tragic story about the fire on Bird Avenue. Bird Avenue was renamed Rosemount Avenue (SW of St. Clair & Dufferin) and the block containing the houses is now the home of Loretto College. I don't think I'll ever look at those tiny bungalows the same way.

1910 Goad Atlas:

Today:

 

[GenerationW]

Looks like they saved the bread!

 

[Earlscourt_Lad]

“Earlscourt is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada. It is centred on St. Clair Avenue West, with Dufferin Street, Davenport Road, and Old Weston Road forming its boundaries.â€

I’ve often wondered about this neighbourhood in the northwest of the city. It seems to have been called various things, Caledonia, Fairbank, and Earlscourt. The area was also referred to colloquially as Shackland or Shacktown.

The neighbourhood began as a squatter settlement in 1906, and was inhabited by British and Scottish immigrants who worked as labourers in the local factories.

Excellent review of my neighbourhood. My great-grandparents moved here in 1917 and we've been here since. If you walk around, you can find all sorts of oddball houses, legacies of the self-build heritage in the neighbourhood.

 

[luisfromtoronto]

Excellent review of my neighbourhood. My great-grandparents moved here in 1917 and we've been here since. If you walk around, you can find all sorts of oddball houses, legacies of the self-build heritage in the neighbourhood.

Hopefully as a longtime resident you can answer a question I have had about my street.

When I first moved into St. Clarens Avenue (about halfway beetween St. Clair and Davenport) there was a house that took up about 3 or 4 lots and behind it, there was what looked like a factory. I would like to know what they maufactured in there. Sadly, the house and the factory were torn down about 20 years ago and four townhomes now stand there.

 

[LowPolygon]

Excellent review of my neighbourhood. My great-grandparents moved here in 1917 and we've been here since. If you walk around, you can find all sorts of oddball houses, legacies of the self-build heritage in the neighbourhood.

thank you! that's amazing that your family has been there almost 100 years. there must be some interesting shots of the neighbourhood floating about in the family photo albums!
anyway, its so completely baffling that people talk about Toronto having 'no history', or that its 'boring' or whatever. The history of an area like Earlscourt is completely fascinating, and its just one part of a much larger fabric...

 

[thecharioteer]

thank you! that's amazing that your family has been there almost 100 years. there must be some interesting shots of the neighbourhood floating about in the family photo albums!
anyway, its so completely baffling that people talk about Toronto having 'no history', or that its 'boring' or whatever. The history of an area like Earlscourt is completely fascinating, and its just one part of a much larger fabric...

I agree. There's the "official" history with the predictable story-line; then, there's the "unofficial" history as shown in your Earlscourt retrospective. Who was it that said that history was written by the victors?

Massey Mansion, Jarvis Street 1905