kingston phototour - downtown in february

[Brighter Hell]

in february i went up to mont-tremblant for a couple days of skiing. i slept on the floor at my friend's student apartment in ottawa, drove a 8+ hours to and from the mountain, skied in minus a billion degrees (and none of the double diamond runs were even open!), dug through a snowbank to escape a parking lot we were boxed into, and were kept up all night by rowdy roommates under the influence of certain illegal substances. now i’m no buzzkill, but i can eat mush…. i mean drink beer any time i want. i go to a hill like mont-tremblant but once a year and when i do i want to be rested and alert! no ottawa or mont-tremblant pictures – my camera was in the car the whole time. but on the way home it warmed up a bit so i stopped in kingston. kingston has probably the nicest downtown of any small city in ontario, unless of course you don’t like queen’s students, ex-cons, and soldiers. It’s definitely worth visiting to check out the limestone architecture.

overlooking the city from the east

classical domes are big in kingston

this is ontario street, drinking spot of choice for queen’s students. it’s pretty empty during the day.

the harbour in february. royal military college is across the river.

kingston city hall overlooks the harbour and a small park. the frontenac county courthouse is a near carbon copy but i totally missed it. no shots of queen’s university either. maybe next time i’m in the area.

random limestone building

the wolfe island ferry

buildings like this sit between ontario street (kingston’s version of queen’s quay) and the water. once you get away from city hall this is the way the waterfront has been developed. graffiti on the hoarding: “pave paradise put an apartment blockâ€. why do I get the feeling that “paradise†was a parking lot?

“well that’s nice and all but is there no retail? no funky coffee shops or second hand stores? no antique stores for tourists? no upscale shopping?†princess street has what you need. it runs perpendicular to the harbour and is one of the busiest main streets i’ve been on in ontario.

and i’ll leave you with kingston’s nightmare on princess st. hey, they can’t all be winners

 

[bizorky]

Nice tour, thanks! Brings back alot of memories as I lived in K-town for a spell.

 

[spmarshall]

One of my favourite small cities in Ontario as well. I find Stratford, Port Hope/Cobourg, Lindsay and Peterborough interesting in the same way - they kept most, if not all their civic buildings such as city halls, court houses, and have pretty settings (though Peterborough has more industrial grit as well). Guelph comes closest to Kingston, but doesn't have the vitality in its downtown core, though by Ontario standards, Guelph isn't bad either.

 

[simply Dan]

Great photos! I'll take Guelph over Kingston any day!

 

[allabootmatt]

Thanks--I like Kingston because it's really one of the only examples in Canada of a true college town in the American sense (as opposed to a town with a college, of which there are many). It's one of the most pleasant urban types there is, and the US is absolutely full of them (Middlebury, Berkeley, Madison, Burlington, Ithaca, my own home of New Haven, and the list goes on...). But Canada really has only Kingston and I guess Guelph, though I've never been there.

 

[21stcenturymichael]

But Canada really has only Kingston and I guess Guelph, though I've never been there.

You're forgetting places like Antigonish, Lennoxville, Sackville, and some would argue, only half tongue-in-cheek, Halifax.

 

[allabootmatt]

Well...my traditional conception of a college town has been somewhere larger than Sackville...more along the lines of a small city, but one clearly centred around and heavily influenced by the presence of a major university. Like in the 100,000 range.

So I guess I shouldn't have had Middlebury on my list, since it's pretty small, although lovely.

 

[migueltree]

I have a friend who lives there... nice town, though we like to call it 'the K hole'.

 

[Bayguy]

Kingston is the best city in the 100-200,000 population range in Canada IMO.

Nipissing University is the largest single employer here in North Bay, that makes us something of a 'university town' i'd say.

 

[Antiloop33rpm]

Kingston is also equally a military town too. Between RMC and CFB Kingston the military presence in the city is equally important to the local economy.

I spent quite a few years growing up in the Kingston area and I can attest to the 'K-Hole' comment. Its a really stagnant little town. If it where not for the massive investment that has gone into Queens in the past decade there might well have been a decline in the city. Much of the cities larger manufacturing base has been scaling back and cutting jobs which are replaced with call centers at best, though more often than not those former employees find themselves working for minimum wage at a local big box or mall retailer.

Kingston is a city with great potential and despite its economy, still has managed to not destroy too much of its architectural history. Too a certain extent, the decay of the city itself is really just another chapter in what is one of Ontario's most historically important cities.

Just like Montreal, perhaps economic stagnatation may have been a good thing for the city in the end.

 

[Darkstar416]

Just like Montreal, perhaps economic stagnatation may have been a good thing for the city in the end.

How so? In the sense that it creates a cheaper living environment for creative types?

 

[Antiloop33rpm]

How so? In the sense that it creates a cheaper living environment for creative types?

I never thought about that aspect of it but I suppose that is one positive aspect. I was looking at it more from the persepctive of preserving its heritage buildings. With minimal economic pressure over the past decades there hasnt been much demand to engage in the wholesale destruction of its downtown core that many cities engaged in. By and large the downtown area was just left alone to slowly degrade through the processes of time and neglect, much like Montreal. There is a lot of potential in Kingston, just not a lot of money being invested in the city at the momment though.

 

[Darkstar416]

Cool, I follow you now...and agree!

 

[Antiloop33rpm]

Not that I want to hijack Brighter's thread but I thought since the topic of Kingston was allready being discussed I might as well add a few pictures to the discussion. Take note. These were largely pulled out of my collection at random and probably the only common thread between them is that all but one are outside of the downtown area and are ment to show the lesser seen, but still interesting side of Kingston.

This sign has been up for as long as I can remember. Religion seems to be central to the city. I could do an entire thread on the hundreds (I mean that literally) of churches that are in the city and the towns immediately bordering it. There are some fantastic examples of churches built between 1950 and the early 80's. This type of sign is rather common in the city.

These are probably 3 or 4 km's from the downtown core. They are not all that interesting too look at, however, every time I see this picture, I cant help but think of Longueil or any other 60's Quebec suburban development.

This is the only picture from this group within the downtown area, the Queens ghetto to be more precise. The reason I like it is because this scene could be from Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, Guelph, Sarnia, or any other Ontario city. If one where to try to describe any unique urban asthetic characterstics of an Ontario city, this would be kind of urban environment I would tend to describe.

Not a great church, but rather typical of what you will find in many 1960's and 70's subdivisions in Kingston.

Dead malls, empty parking lots, cracking ashpalt. An all too common scene in Kingston.

There are two elements that make Kingston an interesting city. The first is limestone. The second, commie blocks and other social developments. Even for an Ontario city Kingston seems to have a higher percentage of these kinds of developments than most. This is the first of a few examples you will see.

Apartment blocks overlooking a wetland.

More limestone, this time, in its natural, unmined setting, albeit with some modest suburban houses set on top of it.

The Sun. Kingstons paper of choice.

Ive always liked this shot.

Looking down a twisted railway track, occasionally used to deliver oil to the few remaining manufacturers that exist further down the line.

Full cars waiting to be delivered? Or empty cars waiting to be taken away?

The next 3 shots are just some more examples of developments that have been built over the year. They may be suburban in nature, but there is an element to them that is appealing.

Amherstview is pure average. It is a near perfect image of the 1960's dormitory suburb. This is another photo thread that I may post at a later date, but for now, here is a photo that might best sum up this quiet little town just outside Kingston's city limits.

Back to Kingston. The backs of newly constructed sprawl, in all their plastic splendor.

The bridge you see in the foreground links two sprawling areas of the city. The plastic paradise from above is just too the left of this picture.

Some parting shots of more social housing. The home owners and renters in this area seem to take a lot of pride in their modest little places, and it shows. It might not be the most luxurious or fantastic development ever built, yet, you can almost understand just what architects had in mind when this kind of development was first designed and built.

 

[ganjavih]

I never thought about that aspect of it but I suppose that is one positive aspect. I was looking at it more from the persepctive of preserving its heritage buildings. With minimal economic pressure over the past decades there hasnt been much demand to engage in the wholesale destruction of its downtown core that many cities engaged in. By and large the downtown area was just left alone to slowly degrade through the processes of time and neglect, much like Montreal.

I dunno, Montreal was still quite healthy up until the 1970s when the PQ were first elected... it only became stagnant after a lot of the modern city was already built. I think Montreal's just lucky that someone decided to build the new downtown several blocks north of the old city.

Winnipeg's a good example of preservation through stagnation. Toronto's probably one of the best examples of being a victim of your own success.