androiduk
Senior Member
Actually, they are starting to use wooden poles again because they last longer than the concrete ones. You can see brand new wooden poles at Bloor & Church and Bay & Bloor.
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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now
- Thread starter Mustapha
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DSC
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Actually I think these wooden poles are TEMPORARY ones used while the City is working on underground wiring as part of the Bloor 'revitalisation". They did the same thing on Yonge north of Dundas last year and when the wiring was all undergrounded the wooden poles were removed. That's not to say that they NEVER use new permanent wooden poles but not in the places you noted.
androiduk
Senior Member
Yes, the ones I referenced are just there for the Bloor Street Revitalization. Here's a post I put up a few months ago in case anyone's wondering why they would still use them.
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The leaning pole of Little Italy
Posted: May 14, 2008, 5:39 PM by Rob Roberts
Kuitenbrouwer
A wood pole commands the northeast corner of College and Grace streets, a corner it shares with Grace Meat Market, Scotiabank, CIBC and the late Cucina Restaurant. The pole is a bit shorter than the strip’s three-storey buildings. It is remarkably bent, curving both south and west on its way up. Thousands of rusted staples of various calibers cover it, thick enough at eye level to create a second, scaly skin. Age has etched crevasses along the grain of the wood, and a thick, rusted plate screwed on the College side (perhaps to protect it from runaway cars) has a tear in its centre.
“The nails are from before they invented staplers,†marvels Vito Tucci, a local retiree who stopped to chat with me about the pole the other morning. “These nails are back from when they crucified Jesus Christ.â€
I’ve been admiring the leaning pole of Little Italy lately, as I pass after picking up my kids from daycare nearby. I am drawn to wooden poles, which in a manufactured, antiseptic world have a natural quality that is human. Workers replaced the wooden poles on my street with cement ones a few years ago, and I worry some crew will replace this one with something boring, modern and sterile.
I needn’t fret. The pole, a western red cedar from British Columbia installed in 1950, was inspected in 2006, treated, and approved until at least 2016, says Thor Hjartarson, manager of system reliability planning at Toronto Hydro. Wood poles are here to stay: Toronto Hydro has 96,000 of them, and installs new wooden ones every day.
Still, my torturous path to receive this information illustrates some of the challenges Toronto Hydro faces in maintaining the 210,000 poles it owns and shares with “tenants,†who drape them with signs, electric wires, phone lines, cables, streetcar wires, street lights and traffic lights.
First I had to learn who owns pole 210, labeled with three numerals in yellow plastic nailed about five metres up. It is a vital bit of our city, holding a walk/don’t walk sign, three suspension wires for the 506 streetcar, a guy wire for houselights running north on Grace, fibre optic cable, two “no left turn†signs, streetlighting wire, and a streetlight. If this post toppled, life here would halt.
For a day I called the TTC, several divisions of Toronto Hydro, City Hall, even the Toronto Archives. The pole, it turns out, is an orphan. Toronto Hydro Electric System, the power distribution company, owns pole 210, but does not use it. About 10 years ago the company buried the hydro lines on College between Euclid and Shaw streets, in the centre of Little Italy. (East and west of that section, electricity wires still run on the wooden cross arms of tall wooden poles). In central Little Italy, having buried its wires, Toronto Hydro sawed off the top third of the poles, and left them for other users.
“Even though it’s not serving our lines, it’s still in our maintenance program,†says Mr. Hjartarson. Ben Sheng, an engineer in system reliability planning, says that in 2006 Genics Inc., a contractor working for his group, dug down one metre to expose the base of pole 210, and installed a chemical wrap.
“The chemical material slowly migrates into the wood, and kills all the fungus and insects,†he explains. “It preserves the asset life.â€
The average wooden pole in Toronto is 30 or 40 years old. You’d think cement poles would last longer, but in fact the first cement poles lasted just 15 years, says Ivano Labricciosa, Toronto Hydro’s vice-president of asset management. The cement then flaked off. New cement poles are more durable.
So a long life to pole 210! Even Lenny Lombardi, who owns CHIN Radio and heads the thriving Little Italy Business Improvement Area, says, “If it were just to be replaced with another pole, leave the historic one until at least 2016.â€
Just one detail worries me: Mr. Labricciosa says crews normally “shank†(i.e. cut off the tops) of poles “teepee style†or “leanto style,†so that rain can run off. Workers cut the top off pole 210 flat. So in the end, rain and snow will penetrate, and some day will finish it off.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The leaning pole of Little Italy
Posted: May 14, 2008, 5:39 PM by Rob Roberts
Kuitenbrouwer
A wood pole commands the northeast corner of College and Grace streets, a corner it shares with Grace Meat Market, Scotiabank, CIBC and the late Cucina Restaurant. The pole is a bit shorter than the strip’s three-storey buildings. It is remarkably bent, curving both south and west on its way up. Thousands of rusted staples of various calibers cover it, thick enough at eye level to create a second, scaly skin. Age has etched crevasses along the grain of the wood, and a thick, rusted plate screwed on the College side (perhaps to protect it from runaway cars) has a tear in its centre.
“The nails are from before they invented staplers,†marvels Vito Tucci, a local retiree who stopped to chat with me about the pole the other morning. “These nails are back from when they crucified Jesus Christ.â€
I’ve been admiring the leaning pole of Little Italy lately, as I pass after picking up my kids from daycare nearby. I am drawn to wooden poles, which in a manufactured, antiseptic world have a natural quality that is human. Workers replaced the wooden poles on my street with cement ones a few years ago, and I worry some crew will replace this one with something boring, modern and sterile.
I needn’t fret. The pole, a western red cedar from British Columbia installed in 1950, was inspected in 2006, treated, and approved until at least 2016, says Thor Hjartarson, manager of system reliability planning at Toronto Hydro. Wood poles are here to stay: Toronto Hydro has 96,000 of them, and installs new wooden ones every day.
Still, my torturous path to receive this information illustrates some of the challenges Toronto Hydro faces in maintaining the 210,000 poles it owns and shares with “tenants,†who drape them with signs, electric wires, phone lines, cables, streetcar wires, street lights and traffic lights.
First I had to learn who owns pole 210, labeled with three numerals in yellow plastic nailed about five metres up. It is a vital bit of our city, holding a walk/don’t walk sign, three suspension wires for the 506 streetcar, a guy wire for houselights running north on Grace, fibre optic cable, two “no left turn†signs, streetlighting wire, and a streetlight. If this post toppled, life here would halt.
For a day I called the TTC, several divisions of Toronto Hydro, City Hall, even the Toronto Archives. The pole, it turns out, is an orphan. Toronto Hydro Electric System, the power distribution company, owns pole 210, but does not use it. About 10 years ago the company buried the hydro lines on College between Euclid and Shaw streets, in the centre of Little Italy. (East and west of that section, electricity wires still run on the wooden cross arms of tall wooden poles). In central Little Italy, having buried its wires, Toronto Hydro sawed off the top third of the poles, and left them for other users.
“Even though it’s not serving our lines, it’s still in our maintenance program,†says Mr. Hjartarson. Ben Sheng, an engineer in system reliability planning, says that in 2006 Genics Inc., a contractor working for his group, dug down one metre to expose the base of pole 210, and installed a chemical wrap.
“The chemical material slowly migrates into the wood, and kills all the fungus and insects,†he explains. “It preserves the asset life.â€
The average wooden pole in Toronto is 30 or 40 years old. You’d think cement poles would last longer, but in fact the first cement poles lasted just 15 years, says Ivano Labricciosa, Toronto Hydro’s vice-president of asset management. The cement then flaked off. New cement poles are more durable.
So a long life to pole 210! Even Lenny Lombardi, who owns CHIN Radio and heads the thriving Little Italy Business Improvement Area, says, “If it were just to be replaced with another pole, leave the historic one until at least 2016.â€
Just one detail worries me: Mr. Labricciosa says crews normally “shank†(i.e. cut off the tops) of poles “teepee style†or “leanto style,†so that rain can run off. Workers cut the top off pole 210 flat. So in the end, rain and snow will penetrate, and some day will finish it off.
Mustapha
Senior Member
Feb 16 addition
Yonge and Dundas Square looking SE.
Yonge and Dundas Square looking SE.
Mustapha
Senior Member
Feb 18 addition
Spadina and Dundas looking NW.
Spadina and Dundas looking NW.
Mustapha
Senior Member
Feb 19 addition
Dundas and Victoria looking SE
Dundas and Victoria looking SE
adma
Superstar
Ah, Parkin's *other* Salvation Army building in Dundas Square. How I miss it. (And imagine if, in lieu of the Torch, it was retained and repurposed as part and parcel of Y-D Square. So that might have meant a few honking big billboards on top. So be it.)
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
A few more Parkin gems, from the Panda archives:
http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/pan&CISOPTR=179&CISOBOX=1&REC=4
http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/pan&CISOPTR=279&CISOBOX=1&REC=2
http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/pan&CISOPTR=423&CISOBOX=1&REC=7
http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/pan&CISOPTR=468&CISOBOX=1&REC=11
http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/pan&CISOPTR=179&CISOBOX=1&REC=4
http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/pan&CISOPTR=279&CISOBOX=1&REC=2
http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/pan&CISOPTR=423&CISOBOX=1&REC=7
http://contentdm.ucalgary.ca/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/pan&CISOPTR=468&CISOBOX=1&REC=11
Mustapha
Senior Member
Thanks Edna. Those are gem shots. The Adelaide Terminal.. in addition to it's mid century beauty, it's also exquisitely lit.
Feb 20 addition:
King and York looking E along King.
The Prince George was of course once the famous Rossin House. Famous for being a photographers choice of perch in 1856.
http://www.toronto.ca/archives/earliest_3_ab&h.htm
Looking lovely here in what must have been its ninth decade. There are other pictures in the Toronto online archives showing the charming now gone practice of bicycles parked at the curb. Truly sharing the road.
Long Island Mike
Senior Member
Interesting architecture and talk of wood vs. concrete poles...
Mustapha: Interesting architecture finds and talk of wood vs. concrete poles in Toronto-in my travels I noticed that Canadian cities used concrete for light poles in particular. Wood poles can last a long time if they are taken care of.
This miscellany section can contain very interesting pics-like the one posted above by Mustapha. The older pic in front of the Prince George Hotel has a old Route 2 sign on a pole posted-
I recall those were porcelain-enamel signs that said "THE KING'S HIGHWAY"
the number and on the bottom "ONTARIO". The crown on top had some decent detail also. LI MIKE
Mustapha: Interesting architecture finds and talk of wood vs. concrete poles in Toronto-in my travels I noticed that Canadian cities used concrete for light poles in particular. Wood poles can last a long time if they are taken care of.
This miscellany section can contain very interesting pics-like the one posted above by Mustapha. The older pic in front of the Prince George Hotel has a old Route 2 sign on a pole posted-
I recall those were porcelain-enamel signs that said "THE KING'S HIGHWAY"
the number and on the bottom "ONTARIO". The crown on top had some decent detail also. LI MIKE
adma
Superstar
Interesting, too, that it was King that bore the Hwy 2 designation, not whatever predecessor to Lake Shore Boulevard...
Earlscourt_Lad
Active Member
There wasn't really a precursor to Lakeshore, at least in Toronto.
luxome
Active Member
awesome stuff...great Before and After pics.
Mustapha
Senior Member
Thanks LIMike and luxome..
Feb 21 addition
Cottingham Square. To get to this park; get off at Summerhill station and walk 1/2 a block south to Birch and then a block west. Mostly, people walk their dogs here in this park. This is a wonderful old central Toronto neighbourhood.
You can see the top of the original North Toronto Station in the distance - centre of picture to the right of the tree. There is an embankment in front of it; this spelled the end of our little station as it was at ground level. The embankment was built to serve the larger, better known and still extant 2nd North Toronto Station to the east across Yonge street.
I wrote about our little lost station in an earlier thread. You can read more here.
http://www.urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?t=6641
Thanks again everyone for the feedback.
Feb 21 addition
Cottingham Square. To get to this park; get off at Summerhill station and walk 1/2 a block south to Birch and then a block west. Mostly, people walk their dogs here in this park. This is a wonderful old central Toronto neighbourhood.
You can see the top of the original North Toronto Station in the distance - centre of picture to the right of the tree. There is an embankment in front of it; this spelled the end of our little station as it was at ground level. The embankment was built to serve the larger, better known and still extant 2nd North Toronto Station to the east across Yonge street.
I wrote about our little lost station in an earlier thread. You can read more here.
http://www.urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?t=6641
Thanks again everyone for the feedback.
DSC
Superstar
Member Bio
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If anyone is interested in the Kings Highways of Ontario look at: http://www.thekingshighway.ca/