skyscan
New Member
What an amazing thread. Thanks to everyone posting these old pictures of Toronto. I could only imagine what life was like back then.
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Evocative Images of Lost Toronto
- Thread starter LowPolygon
- Start date
thecharioteer
Senior Member
The Royal York:
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J T CUNNINGHAM
Senior Member
CADILLAC DUAL COWL - V 16!
Regards,
J T
Regards,
J T
thecharioteer
Senior Member
It's hard to think of Bloor/Yorkville as once having breweries and dyeworks. On the site of the present Reference Library once stood the Parker Dye Works, one of the major industrial operations in Victorian Toronto.
As written about in the Torontoist:
" Robert Parker established his first cleaning and dyeing operation in Ottawa in 1876, originally focusing on adding colour to ostrich feathers. The book noted that “Mr. Parker is an Englishman by birth and a young man of exceptional business ability who, by close application and carefully attending to the interests of his patrons, has built up a business of such magnitude that he finds it now almost impossible to keep pace with growing demands made upon him. Such a condition of affairs certainly speaks for itself.†By 1893, Parker’s Dye Works operated six locations around the city, plus branches scattered from London to Hamilton where one could have sung the company’s jingle “We Dye to Live.†The main office and processing facility took up several storefronts along Yonge Street where the Toronto Reference Library now stands. By the end of the decade, Parker’s was the second company in Toronto to use motorized delivery vehicles, an achievement recognized on a postage stamp a century later. The dyeing portion of the business decreased over time, though it might be amusing to watch the clerk’s reaction if you brought ostrich feathers in for dyeing at any current location of Parker’s Cleaners."
The complex shows on this map from 1924, an L-shapd property with frontage on Yonge and the plant on Asquith:
The Yonge frontage:
The plant on Asquith (formerly Bismarck):
As written about in the Torontoist:
" Robert Parker established his first cleaning and dyeing operation in Ottawa in 1876, originally focusing on adding colour to ostrich feathers. The book noted that “Mr. Parker is an Englishman by birth and a young man of exceptional business ability who, by close application and carefully attending to the interests of his patrons, has built up a business of such magnitude that he finds it now almost impossible to keep pace with growing demands made upon him. Such a condition of affairs certainly speaks for itself.†By 1893, Parker’s Dye Works operated six locations around the city, plus branches scattered from London to Hamilton where one could have sung the company’s jingle “We Dye to Live.†The main office and processing facility took up several storefronts along Yonge Street where the Toronto Reference Library now stands. By the end of the decade, Parker’s was the second company in Toronto to use motorized delivery vehicles, an achievement recognized on a postage stamp a century later. The dyeing portion of the business decreased over time, though it might be amusing to watch the clerk’s reaction if you brought ostrich feathers in for dyeing at any current location of Parker’s Cleaners."
The complex shows on this map from 1924, an L-shapd property with frontage on Yonge and the plant on Asquith:
The Yonge frontage:
The plant on Asquith (formerly Bismarck):
DTowner
Active Member
My office window overlooks Park Rd. This is crazy! Lol. To think I could've been overlooking a Methodist Church and a Ladies College.
thecharioteer
Senior Member
And a very different view it was from today!
Moulton Ladies College, 1900, (Bloor St. East at Park Road):
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Goldie
Senior Member
Winchester (Lakeview) Hotel
This site www.historicplaces.ca was mentioned in today's Globe & Mail.
It's interesting & useful.
Contains photos such as the 'attached' (Lakeview Hotel 1891).
This site www.historicplaces.ca was mentioned in today's Globe & Mail.
It's interesting & useful.
Contains photos such as the 'attached' (Lakeview Hotel 1891).
Attachments
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thecharioteer
Senior Member
More working-class Yorkville. The houses on Collier vanished when Church Street was extended north to meet Davenport in the early 1930's:
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FAC33
Active Member
More working-class Yorkville. The houses on Collier vanished when Church Street was extended north to meet Davenport in the early 1930's:
Nice A. altissima (Tree of Heaven, ghetto palm, stink tree) sprouting there by the door. I'm actually surprised how little I see this tree in old photos. I've always wanted to do a survey of the spread of A. altissima in Toronto--from my seat on the Lakeshore East GO, I see quite a lot of them up to around Scarborough station, but few afterwards. They're a rather well-known marker for older or blighted neighbourhoods, but they were apparently not always so, being considered an ornamental tree and not a pest in the 19th century. They are a notorious pain to get rid of and can do a number on foundations and pipes. And the male trees do indeed stink.
thecharioteer
Senior Member
An interesting aspect about housing patterns in Victorian Toronto was the close proximity of what we would call working class housing to the grand mansions of the upper middle-class. It occurred near Jarvis Street on streets like Homewood and Mutual, and it certainly occurred on Bloor Street West, between Yonge and Avenue Road with relation to the mansions on Bloor and the stucco rowhouses on Cumberland.
Bloor Street West:
92 Bloor (later to be enveloped by Lothian Mews and then called the Pearcy House):
52 Bloor St. W.(site of Holt Renfrew):
Across the street, on the SW corner of Bloor and Balmuto (site of the ManuLife Centre), a surviving Georgian villa:
Bloor Street West:
92 Bloor (later to be enveloped by Lothian Mews and then called the Pearcy House):
52 Bloor St. W.(site of Holt Renfrew):
Across the street, on the SW corner of Bloor and Balmuto (site of the ManuLife Centre), a surviving Georgian villa:
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Goldie
Senior Member
J T CUNNINGHAM
Senior Member
"Does anyone know the location and if it still exists?" QUOTE Prof Goldie.
Sorry, I cannot help with the above other than spec it being between Bathurst & Bay, south of Bloor.
Not seeing a date makes the job more difficult as well.
Regards,
J T
Sorry, I cannot help with the above other than spec it being between Bathurst & Bay, south of Bloor.
Not seeing a date makes the job more difficult as well.
Regards,
J T
wwwebster
Active Member
University Avenue, according to John Ross Robertson:
http://www.archive.org/stream/landmarkstoronto04robeuoft#page/562/mode/2up
(image extracted and attached)
Attachments
J T CUNNINGHAM
Senior Member
Thank you wwwebster!
(And to think that I have "Landmarks", six volume set, in my bookcase.)
'Guess I was just lazy.
Regards,
J T
(And to think that I have "Landmarks", six volume set, in my bookcase.)
'Guess I was just lazy.
Regards,
J T
Goldie
Senior Member
Thanks for that answer, wwwebster.
Now, if we could learn the address on University, a fine "Then & Now" might be possible.