Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

[Goldie]

Thanks for that aerial image, Northern Lights.
It brought back memories of my earliest movie-going experience.

Who knows that the building on the left (at Danforth & Gough Ave.) was also a cinema?
It opened in April 1913 as the New Onoka Theatre and later became the Iola, Ace and Regal.
I went there for the Sat. matinee when it was The Iola and had to pay 12 cents for 2 features, a newsreel, cartoon and the Captain Marvel serial.
After closing in the 1950s, the building became a savings bank, fruit/vegetable market, drug store, clothing shop, Canadian Tire outlet and more recently, a fitness centre.

 

[lenaitch]

^ I worked for Eaton's up until 1972. As I recall, the Annex had retail in the basement and perhaps ground floor and the rest was office space. Hayter Street was the downtown delivery depot (originally designed for horses). A lot of the space in the 'complex' was warehousing where staff would move product to Queen and College stores in ancient handcarts and freight elevators as well as space for things like tailoring, custom drapery - which took up a lot of floor space - and other ancillary customer services. Back then, Eaton's ran their own credit system and services like that, cash office, etc. were almost completely manual and took up a lot of floor space. I don't recall any actual manufacturing space.

 

[Richard White]

^ I worked for Eaton's up until 1972

Wowza. That must make you at least 70.

 

[DSC]

Wowza. That must make you at least 70.

A kid!

 

[lenaitch]

Wowza. That must make you at least 70.

Purdy dern close. I worked there for about two years after college and before my career.

 

[Goldie]

Imagine the change...50 years later!

 

[adma]

I'd estimate that to be late 40s--the old BMO's up at Bay & King, but not Scotia yet...

 

[W. K. Lis]

Imagine the change...50 years later!
View attachment 260084

Buildings black from soot from the coal furnaces. By the 1960's, the buildings were cleaned and looking like Toronto's normal "grey".

 

[Goldie]

Wreck of fire truck, car, pole, Queen and Pape 1929 TPL

 

[Goldie]

The Toronto Evening Telegram building (Bay at Melinda) was on the very edge of disaster during "The Great Fire" of 1904 TPL

 

[Goldie]

Yonge Street looking north from north of Asquith Avenue (then called Jarvis Street). 1861 TPL

 

[Goldie]

Barn Raising, Highland Creek. 1909 TPL

 

[Goldie]

THE BIG ONE......Fire (1904); Bay St., west side, looking south from north of Wellington St. W. TPL

 

[Goldie]

Giant heating plant under construction (1928) for the huge ovens and boilers that will supply the Union Station; new Royal York hotel; and the Canadian National express building with heat and electric power. TPL

 

[LPCI]

Giant heating plant under construction (1928) for the huge ovens and boilers that will supply the Union Station; new Royal York hotel; and the Canadian National express building with heat and electric power. TPL
View attachment 260905

View attachment 260906

Is that part of the system that also heated the sidewalks down around King Street?