Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[dbailey62]

goldie's update today.

He asked me to post for him.

goldie is a member of the Photographic Historical Society of Canada. An article from their 2003 Journal reported the discovery of the the photos below:

"This amazing, huge panorama of Niagara falls was discovered during renovations in that attic [of the Ontario Legislature building] in 2003.
The Niagara scenics are credited to William Thomson Freeland. One photo, dated November 1, 1912, shows the area under a cover of snow; the
other, dated June 1913, was taken in the spring or summer. Both photographs bear an inscription that reads in part, "The Largest One-Piece-One-
Exposure Photo Enlargement iin the World."

The picture is supposed to be at the Ontario online archives but a link given in the article is dead.
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/exhibits/freeland/index.html

I undertook a search of the archives but had no luck. Someone else reading this should try, your luck may vary from mine.
http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/IMAGES?DIRECTSEARCH


Am I boring you already? Here are the pictures.


Thank you goldie.

There are reduced size copies of the restored panoramics in the tunnel that connects the Whitney Block to the main legislative building.

 

[androiduk]

^Thanks, how do you access that?

 

[Mustapha]

now see the guy under the Rexall sign....not paying attention, still in the intersection on a yellow...we need to wake up people....

Yeah, he has both hands on that thing in classic texting pose. Must have been important.

As a kid we had a 4-door 1964 Mercury Meteor. Ours had the backwards slanting rear window, but unlike the one poictured, ours did not have the optional "Breezeway" window that retracted behind the rear seats. As a kid I was jealous of the ones that had that feature, because we thought it would be cool to hang out the back window! Seat belts for rear passengers was still years away... And forget car seats! We just bounced around on all our long family car trips. While we lived in Vancouver, we twice drove down the west coast to explore all the West Coast and South Western States.

I forgot about those backward slanting windows; they were quite the design and made for a sharp side profile of the car.



January 29 addition.



Hey, we're a developer. Let's swing our influence around at City Hall and close off a street shall we?


Then: November 8, 1927.

Now: November 2009.

 

[Edward Skira]

I imagine the Eaton family had a lot to do with the closing.

 

[adma]

In what way? Hayter remained open in this stretch as long as Eaton's College Street existed...

 

[Edward Skira]

Wouldn't they have assembled the entire block in preparation for the full College Park plan including Hayter?

 

[Traynor]

Is that a church in the distance on Yonge Street at the end of Hayter? And if so, is that the one that donated a piece of itself to become an art installation in the same spot today? I lived a couple of blocks a way from there for years and walked by it every day, yet I am embarrassed to say I don't know its history.

(Bad amateur Toronto historian! Shame on you!)

 

[Edward Skira]

I think someone once posted that the piece currently on Yonge Street came from a church at Yonge and Bloor.

 

[Goldie]

Another site showing "Then & Now"

"SpacingToronto" <http://spacing.ca/wire/> has just begun an exhibition (every Friday) of Toronto Then & Now creations.

 

[DSC]

The arch was explained in Toronto Life (Urban Decoder) in 2007 It comes from St Andrews United Church that stood on Bloor just east of Yonge. It was moved to Yonge - at McGill Street - in 1981. It's a pity the City (who own it) do not put up a plaque to explain what it is.

 

[Mustapha]

I think someone once posted that the piece currently on Yonge Street came from a church at Yonge and Bloor.

Correct.

From:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Andrew's_United_Church_(Toronto)


"The Westminster building that was the home of St. Andrew's after 1950 had been built in 1923, after the original 1891 structure on the site was destroyed by fire in 1920. In the mid-1970s great debate arose in the congregation about the state of the church. It was low on funds, but sitting on some of the most expensive real estate in Canada. After considerable discussion it was decided to demolish the old church, build an office tower above, and relocate the congregation to the lower level of the new complex. This was done in 1981. A portion of the old church was retained by the city of Toronto, it is now located further south on Yonge Street marking the entrance to McGill Street. Several other United Churches chose the same path in this period such as College Street United Church and Parkdale United Church."


Then: 57 Bloor street east. December 3 1923. Westminster Church House. See right side of picture. Is this the same stone structure as in my Now picture?

Now: Yonge street at McGill.

 

[Zeiss]

That has been one very well proportioned house.

 

[Stumack]

Mustapha: I will comment on these pics recently posted: 1/21 TFD pics: The first one of the Chief's Car baffles me-it looks like a Ford Thunderbird from the mid 60s but it could also be a GM product-Stumack: Any idea what this is? It is quite interesting indeed...

Yes, 1964 Meteor. It was a Canada-only make, in this era basically the Mercury body with a Ford interior, intended to give Mercury dealers a car to sell in the low price field. Meteor was the make, not just a model name. Note that the negative's been reversed, the "Meteor" script on the rear fender is backwards!

 

[Stumack]

January 29 addition. Hey, we're a developer. Let's swing our influence around at City Hall and close off a street shall we?

Then: November 8, 1927.

That's a very early example of the octagon shape used for the Stop sign. They were black on yellow with the "Stop Through Street" legend, but through work I've seen photos showing square ones well into the '50s.

 

[thecharioteer]

Wouldn't they have assembled the entire block in preparation for the full College Park plan including Hayter?

It would appear that the original design for the Eaton's College Street store only went to Hayter Street (see montage by Wyliespoon below). There was, however an east-west street called Buchanan which was closed to build the store, as can be seen in the Goad 1910 map:

1930:

If the full proposal had been built:

As a side note, it's interesting to see on the map the original location of Bishop Strachan School at College and Bay, prior to its relocation to Forest Hill

On the right: