Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Edward]

and a neighbourhood without (at that point) a lot of political clout.

So Rosedale wasn't always a rich neighbourhood?

 

[Mustapha]

Playing with Photoshop is always fun.
I did a little work on A STORK.

That brought out the details in the shadows quite nicely.

I like your suggestioh, mustapha: "If any of us here have exterior 'then' photos of our homes or neighbourhoods why not post them here?"

Here's my birthplace at 147 Donlands Ave., then in East York.
When my parents arrived (c.1930?) there was no house next door.
My earliest recolection of the area is the Donlands Dairy a short distance north - between Mortimer and Cosburn - we walked there for the ice cream.
North and east of the dairy was mainly farmland!

This reminds me a recent reminisce from a neighbour: "it was a very big deal when they opened the [Maple Leaf] Gardens".



October 14 addition.


Then: Feb 20 1915. Bloor looking west. Keele in the distance.

Now: September 2009.

 

[wwwebster]

C' mon Gang! Rather than just posting a pic, what about a little digging in the Might's Toronto Directories for some background.

It's funny you should say that. I've recently been digging into the history of the house below, identified by the Toronto Archives as "Sherbourne opposite Bloor." From the front, 1913:

http://gencat4.eloquent-systems.com...esource/ser372/ss0010/s0372_ss0010_it0172.jpg

From the rear (1908?):

http://gencat4.eloquent-systems.com/webcat/systems/toronto.arch/resource/fo1244/f1244_it7244.jpg

In fact, it's 631 Sherbourne, Registered Plan 44, Lot 1, and Sherbourne Station stands there now:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Sherbourne_Station_-_TTC.jpg

Prof. Jacob M. Hirschfelder lived on the lot, in an older structure, from the 1850s until about 1888, when he moved to Maple Ave. The older structure was replaced with this one around 1890, and sometime after 1894 Lady Anne Thompson moved in, apparently dubbing it "Derwent Lodge":

http://www.archive.org/stream/cihm_00769#page/n47/mode/2up

http://www.archive.org/stream/bluebook190200tyrruoft#page/n93/mode/2up

http://www.archive.org/stream/torontodirec190500midiuoft#page/240/mode/2up

More on Lady Thompson:

http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=7168

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Affleck

Around 1905 Lady Thompson moved out and Dr. Horace E. Eaton moved in, commissioning Burke & Horwood to redesign the front room and windows to accommodate his practice (see Fig. 7):

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2329857

The house stood until around 1918, when it had to make way for the Bloor Viaduct:

http://gencat4.eloquent-systems.com...esource/ser372/ss0010/s0372_ss0010_it0180.jpg

 

[CityPlaceN1]

Great info in this thread.

 

[chriskayTO]

The house stood until around 1918, when it had to make way for the Bloor Viaduct:

http://gencat4.eloquent-systems.com...esource/ser372/ss0010/s0372_ss0010_it0180.jpg

That's a great little map. I wonder if there are any traces of the old path at the north end of Parliament, the one that snaked down to Rosedale Valley Rd and back up.

 

[UserNameToronto]

So Rosedale wasn't always a rich neighbourhood?

I took it to mean Jarvis, which would have been on its way down into boarding house territory in the 1940s-50s.

 

[DSC]

That's a great little map. I wonder if there are any traces of the old path at the north end of Parliament, the one that snaked down to Rosedale Valley Rd and back up.

There IS a path going into the ravine from behind the Castle Frank Subway station - I suspect the other branch (from Parliament) vanished when the subway was brought through, if not before.

 

[wwwebster]

I wonder if there are any traces of the old path at the north end of Parliament, the one that snaked down to Rosedale Valley Rd and back up.

Yes, there is still a trace of the old road to Drumsnab on the Parliament side of the ravine, just north of the Cemetery.

There was a gate-keeper's cottage on the east side of Parliament (though its eventual municipal address was 110 Howard).

In 18-something:

http://ohqdigit.tpl.toronto.on.ca/OHQ_Pictures/image/404.jpg

In 1913:

http://gencat4.eloquent-systems.com...esource/ser372/ss0010/s0372_ss0010_it0087.jpg

http://gencat4.eloquent-systems.com...esource/ser372/ss0010/s0372_ss0010_it0111.jpg

http://gencat4.eloquent-systems.com...esource/ser372/ss0010/s0372_ss0010_it0112.jpg

Owen Staples' watercolour, circa 1914:

http://images92.torontopubliclibrary.ca/idc/groups/public/documents/pictures/pictures-r-3916.jpg

The watercolour, listed as part of John Ross Robertson's donated art collection (#1108, "Pioneer Gate House"):

http://www.archive.org/stream/landmarksofcanad01torouoft#page/178/mode/2up

 

[thecharioteer]

So Rosedale wasn't always a rich neighbourhood?

Post-war Rosedale housing stock had a lot in common with Jarvis and Sherbourne Streets: large houses that no longer appealed to smaller, servant-less families. Though the neigbourhood never declined to the extent of say, Parkdale, wholesale demolitions on streets like Dale, Crescent and Elm resulted in a proliferation of low-rise apartment buildings (the neighbourhood was still politically influential enough to prevent hirises). Zoning allowed rooming houses. This is in contrast to Forest Hill (which did not amalgamate with the City of Toronto until 1967), which did not allow muti-unit buildings except on Eglinton, Bathurst and near the Village itself, and even prohibited anything above four stories on St. Clair (which was part of Toronto in those days). Rooming houses were also strictly forbidden.

An interesting article in the Toronto Star ran last year (July 17, 2008) about a man who has renovated a number of Rosedale mansions, describing this post-war period thus:

"John Emery's love affair with the splendid mansions of Rosedale goes back more than 40 years when many of the homes in this now upscale Toronto neighbourhood were far from grand. "I've always been fascinated by the homes of Rosedale, but back then many of the old homes had been boarded up because the owners couldn't afford to fill the oil tank to heat them, and others had become rundown rooming houses," says Emery.

"At that time it was not a sought-after area," he says. "

 

[DC83]

Google Streetview NOW

October 14 addition.


Then: Feb 20 1915. Bloor looking west. Keele in the distance.

Now: September 2009.

Annnnnd Google Streetview

I really enjoy your efforts, Mustapha!
I think it's neat that we can ALSO see a Google Streetview version, but are you worried that may make your 'job' obsolete!? hahaha
I hope not b/c I actually look forward to these daily updates every day!

 

[Goldie]

Bloor Sherbourne-Parliament

Those are marvelous images of the Sherbourne-Parliament area.
Here's some more.

 

[Skeezix]

I like your suggestioh, mustapha: "If any of us here have exterior 'then' photos of our homes or neighbourhoods why not post them here?"

Here's my birthplace at 147 Donlands Ave., then in East York.
When my parents arrived (c.1930?) there was no house next door.
My earliest recolection of the area is the Donlands Dairy a short distance north - between Mortimer and Cosburn - we walked there for the ice cream.
North and east of the dairy was mainly farmland!

Great then and now, Goldie. Some of the north-south streets in that part of the world (Pape comes to mind) were widened at some point in the mid-20th century, so the front lawns shown in the early shots have shrunk dramatically in the contemporary photos. Interestingly, that doesn't appear to be the case with your parents' home on Donlands.

 

[wwwebster]

Here's some more.

Interesting thing about that last image (SW 1923) is that the house on the very right-hand side is still standing, at 403 Bloor East, behind a storefront. Apparently, the very last of the old houses on Bloor East.

 

[Goldie]

widened Donlands

Great then and now, Goldie. Some of the north-south streets in that part of the world (Pape comes to mind) were widened at some point in the mid-20th century, so the front lawns shown in the early shots have shrunk dramatically in the contemporary photos. Interestingly, that doesn't appear to be the case with your parents' home on Donlands.

Yes, indeed. Donlands was widened (1950s?) and the front lawn was cut back (not very noticable in the photos). That's why there's now a concrete wall at the sidewalk.

 

[LowPolygon]

These recent photos of the area around Rosedale valley put me in mind of the oft overlooked covered bridge between Sherbourne and Castle Frank subway: probably the most beautiful brutalist structure in the city…