A
AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
From the Star:
Gas station `castle' crumbling
May 22, 2006. 12:25 AM
JACK LAKEY
STAFF REPORTER
An old gas station on Lake Shore Blvd. W. that's designated a historical building is slowly crumbling due to negligence and is now a shabby eyesore.
In the early days of motoring, oil companies understood imagery drove sales. Remember when one crisply uniformed gas jockey pumped ethyl while another cleaned windows and checked the oil and tires? Or how Mr. Texaco would snap off a salute from the brim of his cap in the old TV ads?
Architecture helped create a corporate identity. Some stations were palaces compared to the dispiriting, convenience-store boxes of today, and none more gaudy, pretentious and fascinating than the faux-chateaux structures built around Toronto in the late 1930s by the Joy Oil Co.
At the west end of Sunnyside beach, near Lake Shore and Windermere Ave., stood one of the tiny Joy castles, which was actually two buildings; An office with a small turret similar to those that adorned European castles, connected to the service bay building.
The original windows were leaded, the flashings were copper and an elegant weathervane topped the turret. The mostly male drivers of the day must have felt like kings.
The Lake Shore station is the sole survivor, but it is a ghost of its former self. After the station sat unused for more than a decade, the city designated it a historical building about five years ago, due to its unique design. The surrounding land was slated for development but the structures had to be saved.
Since then, the buildings have been sitting on platforms, with the roof and turret swathed in plastic. The fenced-in site is muddy and trash-strewn and the structures look as though they're falling apart. It's a shame.
AoD
Gas station `castle' crumbling
May 22, 2006. 12:25 AM
JACK LAKEY
STAFF REPORTER
An old gas station on Lake Shore Blvd. W. that's designated a historical building is slowly crumbling due to negligence and is now a shabby eyesore.
In the early days of motoring, oil companies understood imagery drove sales. Remember when one crisply uniformed gas jockey pumped ethyl while another cleaned windows and checked the oil and tires? Or how Mr. Texaco would snap off a salute from the brim of his cap in the old TV ads?
Architecture helped create a corporate identity. Some stations were palaces compared to the dispiriting, convenience-store boxes of today, and none more gaudy, pretentious and fascinating than the faux-chateaux structures built around Toronto in the late 1930s by the Joy Oil Co.
At the west end of Sunnyside beach, near Lake Shore and Windermere Ave., stood one of the tiny Joy castles, which was actually two buildings; An office with a small turret similar to those that adorned European castles, connected to the service bay building.
The original windows were leaded, the flashings were copper and an elegant weathervane topped the turret. The mostly male drivers of the day must have felt like kings.
The Lake Shore station is the sole survivor, but it is a ghost of its former self. After the station sat unused for more than a decade, the city designated it a historical building about five years ago, due to its unique design. The surrounding land was slated for development but the structures had to be saved.
Since then, the buildings have been sitting on platforms, with the roof and turret swathed in plastic. The fenced-in site is muddy and trash-strewn and the structures look as though they're falling apart. It's a shame.
AoD
