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Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

Anna said:
More iterations of the TD Bank at Yonge and Eglinton.
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It's not even nostalgia...although that's a huge part of it...it's just an act of horrendous denial of art and form that gets destroyed in the clamour for the latest 'current'.

Somehow, I just hope the original building is under all that somewhere. I'm a modern guy, and yet out of the four pictures, if I had the choice of where to live, it's an absolute no-brainer.

The first.

Thank you Anna. That's emotionally troubling, but the more I look at the pics, it becomes easier to understand why.
 
Goldie said:
Regarding that still-unsolved "mystery street" in Toronto............
Here's another unidentified photo (what Canadian city?) from the Walter B, Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection at UBC

What city? c.1930-39
View attachment 121091
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I suggest Montreal, the site of the former Robert Simpson Co Building on Ste Catherine @ Metcalf: (The low-rise building to the right looks very familiar to me from my early days in Montreal (1972) but I can't find any photos.

Murphy.JPG
 

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From: http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/catalog/cat2411e.shtml See:

[paste:font size="3"]

​
John Murphy's store, St. Catherine Street, 1909.



Squeezed by Carsley's and drawn by the opportunities in Montréal's Golden Square Mile, John Murphy & Company abandoned Old Montréal for St. Catherine Street, where it opened in a new five-storey building at the corner of Metcalfe in 1893. Presumably the mail-order division remained an integral part of the store. A year after the reorganization of Murphy's as a limited liability company in 1904, the Robert Simpson Company acquired a controlling interest, but continued to operate the store under the Murphy name. The store was extended in 1909-10 to occupy the western half of the block between Metcalfe and Mansfield Streets. In 1929, it was renamed Robert Simpson Montreal and all its assets were sold to Simpson's Limited, which demolished the building and built a new store covering the width of the block. Simpson's thus assumed a powerful presence on Montréal's premier shopping street.
 
I may have posted this six years ago.
But if others have the same memory problem as I, there'll be no complaints.
Group at Ward's Island, 1921.
Wards Island group 1921.jpg
 

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Koolgreen said:
just for fun anna,

pic one - 1971?
pic two - 1983?
pic three - 1990?

and steve, my brain also picks number one....
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According to Toronto Archives:
First one is one of a series take prior to extension of subway north of Eglinton - 1968
Second one is between 1982-1986
Last one some time in the 1980s (but has to be after the second one)

Interesting thing for me was that a 4 storey office building just east of TD was torn down for a 2 storey Royal Bank later Burger King.

Another one during subway construction showing an extension on the back of the original building.

s0574_fl0083_id491048.jpg
 

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Anna said:
Another one during subway construction showing an extension on the back of the original building.

View attachment 121195
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And, shortly before the merger that created Toronto-Dominion as we know it.

Also note: the top two floors being added to the original Bell building. (Note: this isn't the office-block extension added to the west; that came later.)
 
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