adma
Superstar
Even more conspicuous in the photo is the apartment building behind Windsor Arms--also still extant on Sultan St...
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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now
- Thread starter Mustapha
- Start date
adma
Superstar
Britannica. (I'd love to see Wikipedia's logo atop the building today.)
adma
Superstar
Despite the photo's inscription, I believe the shot is looking *east*--and that "very modern looking" building just happens to be the future home of Bemelmans...
thecharioteer
Senior Member
here are a few street level shots of the same stretch looking west from St. Thomas looking towards the Medical Arts Building. a few of these houses on the south side are still there of course...MAC cosmetics is in one of them...
The feel of Bloor Street durng this transiltional period between residential and commercial uses seems very similar to Church Street today, the width of the street, the mixture of houseform buildings, the storefronts. Interesting if Bloor had evolved along these lines.
However, it was fortunate that the Bloor Street lots were deep enough to permit a widening of the street and the increase in scale of uses that exist today. Unfortunatley though, the architectural quality of buildings since the Colonnade has been fairly banal at best, exhibiting some of the worst qualities of 70's commercial and retail design (Manulife? Renaissance Plaza? The office towers at Bloor & Bay?) We've never really had buildings on Bloor worthy of the street's aspirations.
Mustapha
Senior Member
One entrance of the old HHOF building was saved along with its mural and is now the main entrance to BMO Field.
dbailey62, How observant! If you hadn't pointed this out to me I would have never realized. I wonder why they even bothered. I'm a CNEophile; making the trip down at least twice a season and this never twigged on me.
DC83, Best Buy. The old cinemas were a few dozen feet to the west of your memories; where the Best Buy is now.
dbailey62
Active Member
I believe it was one of the conditions agreed to between the City / CNE and MLSE who were handling the development of the stadium. It should be pointed out that it is at a 90 degree angle to its original orentation as it now faces west whereas the originals faced north (toward the Food Building) and south (towards the Grandstand).
I wish they'd saved a bit more of it, or even the other entrance (as it could have been used elsewhere at BMO).
Hey, it's something. I wish they'd saved a bit of the old Grandstand. Even those old blue plastic seats would have been better than most of the seating in BMO today.
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LowPolygon
Senior Member
Despite the photo's inscription, I believe the shot is looking *east*--and that "very modern looking" building just happens to be the future home of Bemelmans...
you're right! you can just see the top of the building that predated the Manulife poking above the streetcar. i had been trying to figure out which church that was in the distance--it must be St. Paul's at Bloor and Church...
i'd be very surprised if that moderne Bemelman's building went that far back though. 1929 seems a bit remarkable...if true, it would have to be the first modern structure built in the city....
jaborandi
Active Member
or perhaps St. Andrew's to the west of St. Paul's
adma
Superstar
Bemelman's is indeed that old; it's dated in Patricia McHugh's Toronto guide. (But it looks more "modern" in the photo than it was.)
Mustapha
Senior Member
Yeppers. The ability to preview the pictures is nice. It's faster too. Our tax dollars doing good things.
December 9 addition.
Then: Jarvis and Carlton NW corner. October 1, 1936.
Now: September 2009.
chriskayTO
Active Member
I believe it was closer to the passage that exists south from Dundas between the Eaton Centre & the Marriott, if my memory serves me correctly. Those screens were horrible.DC83, Best Buy. The old cinemas were a few dozen feet to the west of your memories; where the Best Buy is now.
thecharioteer
Senior Member
Depends what you mean by "modern". The Studio Building at 25 Severn Street was completed in 1914:
billyfly
New Member
dbailey62, How observant! If you hadn't pointed this out to me I would have never realized. I wonder why they even bothered. I'm a CNEophile; making the trip down at least twice a season and this never twigged on me.
DC83, Best Buy. The old cinemas were a few dozen feet to the west of your memories; where the Best Buy is now.
Hi All,
Related to this incorporation of the HHOF building into BMO is my quest to find something that I have a faded but vivid memory of and my attempts to bring it to the stadium.
Once at MLG in 1999, 2000 I saw what appeared to be a large wrought iron Canadian coat of arms.
I'd love for MLSE to incorporate it into one of the gates (as an example) at BMO Field.
Does anyone on this board or thread know anything about this piece?
LowPolygon
Senior Member
Depends what you mean by "modern". The Studio Building at 25 Severn Street was completed in 1914:
you're absolutely right. the Studio Building's deliberate deployment of the 'factory aesthetic' would in all likelihood mark it as Toronto's first modernist building.
sadly, it looks like that godawful condo on the site of the Canadian Tire Parking Lot on Church St. is finally going ahead, which, as has been widely reported, will effectively destroy the quality of light in the building.
