Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

[LowPolygon]

Here are some photos from 2 years after the Great Toronto Fire of April 19th, 1904

Note that the piece found in the 2nd photo is probably the 3rd piece from the left in the 3rd photo. I assume that is University College on the plate?

thank you for contributing those! i especially like the detail shots of the ironstone and china.

"Ironstone is used as a component in some ceramics, commonly known as "ironstone china". Josiah Wedgwood also manufactured a "stoneware" china in the 19th century. It was commonly used for heavy-duty dinner services in the 19th century. Charles James Mason (son of the potter Miles Mason) took out a patent for "Mason's Ironstone China" in 1813."

good eye on the hand painted UC image on the maple leaf plate. i know Urban Shocker isn't fond of Victorian tchotchkes, but i'd happily give them a home! those miniature ceramic boots are still uh "kicking around", you see them at the Sally Ann on occasion....

 

[thecharioteer]

Your pics of the Toronto Wholesale Fruit Market (NE corner of Yonge and The Esplanade) show a decaying building with broken windows. However, in the 1850's it was the gleaming new Great Western Railway Station (a line which later merged with the Grand Trunk Railway). The building remained a presence near the waterfront for nearly a century until destroyed by fire in the 1950's:

1862:

1867:

1910:

The old station behind troops departing for WWI:

 

[LowPolygon]

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[wwwebster]

I was looking for something else today when I stumbled on this:

"An Historical sketch of the Toronto Young Men's Christian Association -- (1913)"

http://www.archive.org/stream/historicalsketch00younuoft#page/n1/mode/2up

There's a photo of the Broadview branch on page 13. 100% zoom provides the best image to extract, but I pulled the attached image from 50% zoom.

 

[LowPolygon]

I was looking for something else today when I stumbled on this:

"An Historical sketch of the Toronto Young Men's Christian Association -- (1913)"

http://www.archive.org/stream/historicalsketch00younuoft#page/n1/mode/2up

There's a photo of the Broadview branch on page 13. 100% zoom provides the best image to extract, but I pulled the attached image from 50% zoom.

thank you for adding that! i've never seen an image of the Broadview YMCA. you can see the semi-circular glass enclosure for the swimming pool room on the right....

 

[LowPolygon]

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[photosbymkh]

i love this thread. great photos!

 

[LowPolygon]

There are very few corners in the heart of downtown more ‘blah’ than Front St. and Simcoe St. Once though this was a bustling and busy part of the growing city, as commercial and industrial activity expanded west of Yonge St. It appears that the corner formed the southwest edge of the city, and with the demolition of Government House (on the sw corner) in 1912, it marked the beginning of the expansion of railway lands and shipping yards that expanded along the western lakefront.

From the Wiki: "In 1868, construction began on a new Government House, designed in the Second Empire style. A three-storey red brick home, trimmed with Ohio cut stone, the building featured a tower, steeply sloped mansard roofs and dormer windows, with the main entrance and carriage porch facing Simcoe Street. Both the drawing room on the first floor and the state bedroom on the second floor faced Lake Ontario over a large landscaped garden. By the 20th century, the development of railways and industrial uses nearby prompted the provincial government to seek a more appropriate location for its vice-regal residence, as it had done more than a century before. The third Government House was torn down in 1912 and the land was sold to the Canadian Pacific Railway."

 

[adma]

Wait: the Gov't House was at the SW corner of *King* and Simcoe, not Front, wasn't it?

Anyway, love the immigration office at the right side of this photo.

 

[LowPolygon]

Wait: the Gov't House was at the SW corner of *King* and Simcoe, not Front, wasn't it?

Anyway, love the immigration office at the right side of this photo.

you're right! that makes more sense....

"The King and Simcoe Streets intersection was a busy place in the latter part of the 19th century. Government House, the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, was located in the block now occupied by Roy Thomson Hall and Metro Hall and the Parliament Buildings were in the block to the south. Upper Canada College stood on the north west corner. A popular tavern was on the north-east corner. St. Andrews Church, opened in 1876, is still on the fourth corner. The four corners were known as “The Four Nations: Legislation, Education, Damnation and Salvation."

you can see the CP building that replaced it here in left foreground:

here is a shot looking up Simcoe towards King in 1912, the year of its demolition. you can see the grounds surrounding the property on the left.

 

[Goldie]

another association with spring was of course the beginning of planting season, and the bounty of Ontario farmlands that followed...

That's not the Toronto Islands in the background, is it?
The elevation of the land doesn't match today's view.
Could this photo be elsewhere?

 

[LowPolygon]

That's not the Toronto Islands in the background, is it?
The elevation of the land doesn't match today's view.
Could this photo be elsewhere?

yes you're right--that's fruit headed to Toronto from Niagara on the lake....

 

[J T CUNNINGHAM]

"Could this photo be elsewhere?" QUOTE. Goldie.

The United States of America!

Regards,
J T

 

[thecharioteer]

Great photo essay on Front/Simcoe, deepend. It illustrates how crucial certain institutions like railway stations, theatres or even certain stores can be anchoring a neighbourhood and giving it meaning. The loss of the old Union Station created a kind of ubanistic black hole on this section of Front, and its decline soon followed.

I love these two pics of Front from 1908 and 1928 that illustrate the significance of the old Union Station urbanistically:

 

[thecharioteer]

A pot-pourri of images: