Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Long Island Mike]

Everyone: As promised I looked at all the interesting pics posted here-too much to comment about everything but I took note of these:
2/1 Mo-Tage - Gardiner looking E towards the CN Tower under construction - 1975 perhaps? Quite a difference today!
2/5 Mustapha - Yonge and Church - Quite a difference!
2/4 Anna - North York Pics - 1959 vintage plates on those cars in that third pic...
2/6 Charioteer: Nice airviews,maps and pics - all especially that 50s era stuff!
2/8 Deepend - Neat 1938 pics - the 1938 Ontario plates were a colorful orange on blue - I have one in my license plate collection...
2/9 Mustapha- Parliament/Spruce SE corner - somewhat Philadelphia-like...
2/11 LP and Deepend - Jane/Finch - Is that the Ontario Housing projects I remember hearing about in these pics?
2/11 Charioteer - 9th pic from top with "1960" above - this has to be 1954 or before judging by license plate 42E6 - old size style - 6" by 12" plates began in Ontario in 1955...
A good group of 50s and 60s pics also are in evidence here...
2/15 Bloor/Bathurst pic with Honest Ed's store and the Alhambra Theatre...the older pic with the Ford Fairlane 500 on the left-1960 is a good guess...
2/16 Mustapha - 5/59 pic W on Bloor towards Yonge - Ontario routes 5 and 11 King's Highway signs in pic - neat!
2/21 - Brookdale Avenue - early to mid 60s a good guess for the older pic - is that the very same sign in the newer pic?
The color and lettering type remind me of street signs posted in the Town Of Islip - Suffolk County,LI,NY - where I live - 70s and 80s era - literally the same...
Also note the Ontario routes 11A and 401 directional signs...
- Long Island Mike -

 

[NomoreaTorontonian]

February 22 addition.


Then: Avenue Road at Brookdale looking N on Avenue Road. 1962?-ish.

Now: December 2009.

A tree grows at Brookdale!

Despite the slush the corner looks better today than on that hot summer day in 1960-whatever. Trust companies make tidier corners than service stations. The whole scene has lost its suburban look.

 

[Lone Primate]

'Wood-a-bridge'; as older Italian Canadians would call it

How much wood would a woodbridge bridge if a woodbridge could bridge wood?

February 20 addition.

What would be a real laugh is if that kid were still sitting there. Mind you, he'd be about 100 by now.

 

[Mustapha]

2/9 Mustapha- Parliament/Spruce SE corner - somewhat Philadelphia-like...

2/21 - Brookdale Avenue - early to mid 60s a good guess for the older pic - is that the very same sign in the newer pic?

- Long Island Mike -

Or Pittsburgh.

Can't say, it sure looks like it but it's too new looking.

A tree grows at Brookdale!

Despite the slush the corner looks better today than on that hot summer day in 1960-whatever. Trust companies make tidier corners than service stations. The whole scene has lost its suburban look.

Closest ever Then and Now to my house. The TD is my home branch.



thecharioteer: Broadway Tabernacle. EJ Lennox was only 33 when he designed it. He outlived the Tabernacle by 3 years.




February 23 addition:

 

[Urban Shocker]

thecharioteer: Broadway Tabernacle. EJ Lennox was only 33 when he designed it. He outlived the Tabernacle by 3 years.

Not a "Then and Now" but, talking of outliving the churches they designed, here ( choose Volume 6, 1893, Issue 4, Plate 3 ) is an image of architect Henry Simpson's distinctive Bethany Chapel, which stood at University and Christopher Street from 1893 until it was demolished in 1910. Simpson died in 1926. He apprenticed with Lennox and among his surviving local buildings is 251 King East, which he updated and is the site of the proposed Bauhaus condo:

http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/cab/search/browse_frameset.htm

 

[wwwebster]

I just found James Way and family in the 1861 census of Toronto.

My thanks to NomoreaTorontonian and thecharioteer for the additional info. And, of course, to Mustapha for this ever-informative thread.

 

[Anna]

Strangely enough, police cars patrol our back lane. It's also salted as well as plowed.

That’s because you live in a high-rent district.

Closest ever Then and Now to my house. The TD is my home branch.

A tree grows at Brookdale!
Despite the slush the corner looks better today than on that hot summer day in 1960-whatever. Trust companies make tidier corners than service stations. The whole scene has lost its suburban look.

That gas station looked pretty tidy to me - and as soon as your tires hit the bell, a uniformed attendant would fill your tank, check your oil and wash your windshield, all for only 46 & 9/10 cents a gallon (10 1/3 cents a litre). Mustapha’s Then & Now with all the pre-Yonge Subway extension pictures a while back showed how many gas stations have disappeared over the years.

 

[Lone Primate]

A comparison of views looking east along Finch Avenue from Page Avenue towards the bridge over the East Don River and Leslie Street; 1960, 2010. Top image photographed by Ted Chirnside.

 

[Lone Primate]

Old Bayview bridge south of Lawrence, 1956, 2005

Two views of the long-abandoned old Bayview Avenue bridge over the Don; top one taken by Ted Chirnside in 1956; bottom view from May, 2005. The bridge was built around the beginning of the 20th century and was replaced by the current bridges in the 30s or 40s. It's possible that in the upper shot, the bridge was still technically open to road traffic.

 

[LowPolygon]

Two views of the long-abandoned old Bayview Avenue bridge over the Don; top one taken by Ted Chirnside in 1956; bottom view from May, 2005. The bridge was built around the beginning of the 20th century and was replaced by the current bridges in the 30s or 40s. It's possible that in the upper shot, the bridge was still technically open to road traffic.

Is that the famed Cheddington looming beacon-like on yon hill?

 

[chriskayTO]

Two views of the long-abandoned old Bayview Avenue bridge over the Don; top one taken by Ted Chirnside in 1956; bottom view from May, 2005. The bridge was built around the beginning of the 20th century and was replaced by the current bridges in the 30s or 40s. It's possible that in the upper shot, the bridge was still technically open to road traffic.

Where exactly is this located? Is this north of Finch?

 

[Asterix]

Where exactly is this located? Is this north of Finch?

Bayview & Lawrence. You can still see the cut through the trees heading south from the end of the eastern section of Lawrence.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...592,-79.380029&spn=0.005318,0.009699&t=h&z=17

 

[Mustapha]

Not a "Then and Now" but, talking of outliving the churches they designed, here ( choose Volume 6, 1893, Issue 4, Plate 3 ) is an image of architect Henry Simpson's distinctive Bethany Chapel, which stood at University and Christopher Street from 1893 until it was demolished in 1910. Simpson died in 1926. He apprenticed with Lennox and among his surviving local buildings is 251 King East, which he updated and is the site of the proposed Bauhaus condo:

http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/cab/search/browse_frameset.htm

Christopher street itself is gone too.

That gas station looked pretty tidy to me - and as soon as your tires hit the bell, a uniformed attendant would fill your tank, check your oil and wash your windshield, all for only 46 & 9/10 cents a gallon (10 1/3 cents a litre). Mustapha’s Then & Now with all the pre-Yonge Subway extension pictures a while back showed how many gas stations have disappeared over the years

The "corner gas" would often plow the sidewalks of their block... in return, they could somewhat be assured of the patronage of the merchants of same.

Two views of the long-abandoned old Bayview Avenue bridge over the Don; top one taken by Ted Chirnside in 1956; bottom view from May, 2005. The bridge was built around the beginning of the 20th century and was replaced by the current bridges in the 30s or 40s. It's possible that in the upper shot, the bridge was still technically open to road traffic.

No idea this relic was even there. Wonderful.




February 24 addition.

Then: Queen and Broadview, SE corner. May 15, 1919.

Now: December 2009.

 

[adma]

Any "change in status" re the Bayview bridge might relate to the property being IIRC co-opted by Glendon College not long after; and I think it still remained technically a "vehicular access" maybe even into the 80s or 90s...

 

[jswag]

February 24 addition.

Then: Queen and Broadview, SE corner. May 15, 1919.

Now: December 2009.

GOOD GOD! That is probably the most shocking, the most abhorrent "Toronto Then & Now" I have seen. What a tragedy.