Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Earlscourt_Lad]

I think it is/was a cornice.

 

[adma]

And in just a few years time, the Tely would be gone from that location altogether--decamped to the present G&M building on Front.

Was the building demolished for Commerce Court, or some time earlier?

 

[Mustapha]

Jan 9 addition

Was the building demolished for Commerce Court, or some time earlier?

I wish I knew. Next to this picture, there seems to be nothing further online about the Tely building. So much history, not just architectural; irretrievable.





Anderson and William. Now respectively Dundas West and St. Patrick. SW corner.

The photographer was sent to document what was there prior to demolition for street widening. The kids are probably going in the shop for jawbreakers or 'gobstoppers' or whatever. One can imagine the lack of play space in those neighbourhood houses; and the sense of being cooped up in the wintertime in those days prior to electronic amusements. They seem to be about 5 or 6 in this 1912 picture. Their parents might have dressed them and given them a penny and permission to go on this little excursion. Penny candies lasted until the late 1960s - i.e., Fleer bubblegum - a chew and a tiny folded comic inside and a chance to get warm in the corner store.

If they lived to a ripe old age, they might only have passed a few years ago. This scene has an Edmund Gorey-esque feel about it; don't ask me why.

I estimate the store location to be about where that asphalt patch is.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The photo files that I have access to show that the Tely building had gone by April '66 - the site was already part of a large parking lot. The two buildings to the north of it, on the east side of Bay, remained. One of them, at the Bay/King intersection, was the Imperial Bank, which is shown during demolition in July/August '69. Another photo, from September '67, shows the building to the south the Tely in Mustapha's photo ( with lighter brickwork on upper floors, it stood at the north east corner of Bay and Wellington ) being dismantled. At that time, the simple but not unattractive modernist building that was destroyed to make way for BCE Place had been built at the south east corner of that intersection.

 

[Mustapha]

Jan 10 addition

Prittie ravine Then:

Now:

 

[Mustapha]

Jan 11 addtion

Wellington and Church looking SE

 

[khris]

That Lipton sign was horrible haha.

 

[BobBob]

Is it known what happened to the larger buildings (that held the Liptons sign)?

 

[Edward Skira]

Losing the Lipton building is a major disappointment for that strip.

 

[ganjavih]

Losing the Lipton building is a major disappointment for that strip.

Ditto. Especially considering the junk that replaced it.

Great job compiling these, Mustapha. They're fun but also depressing to see.

 

[egotrippin]

Ah, the days when adaptive reuse and salvaging older structures was out of the question. Truly wonderful times.

 

[adma]

Ditto. Especially considering the junk that replaced it.

Actually, the present incarnation of "the junk that replaced it" is an urbane early-Postmodern retrofit (in conjunction with condos behind) of a c40s/50s lowrise warehouse, so don't blame it, per se.

 

[Uncle Teddy]

The only problem I have with the replacement is that it could have been one or two floors taller.

 

[androiduk]

^ I agree, this would've been a great place to add some residential on top, maybe 3 or 4 floors. The city should start insisting on it, especially in the core.

 

[Mustapha]

Jan 12 addition

Thanks ganjavih, here's a couple more:

This is the EAST side of Yonge, from Eglinton north to Yonge Blvd. Pics taken from the west side of Yonge.

I did the WEST side of Yonge last week, so it's more of the same; just the other side of the street, that's all. I enjoy looking at what businesses managed to remain after all these years.