Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Goldie]

Note to Mustapha:
That's a Leica M2 - no longer have it.
It was the world's best 35mm film camera in its day.
Does anyone remember 'film'?

 

[thecharioteer]

August 6 addition.

This isn't a Then and Now in the usual sense. I was walking up Markham street just north of London street when I came upon some very old houses and took a picture. At the Toronto Archives I found a picture of similar houses. What struck me was as far back as 1936 those old houses on Best Place were already past their prime. Here we are in 2010 and I can assume that the homes in my Now picture were occupied as recently as a couple or very few years ago? I realize that regular maintenance can keep an old house going forever but I am still in wonderment these workers cottage style homes still exist on other streets throughout downtown Toronto and many are lovingly maintained by their owners.

Though the first brick house was built in Toronto (York) in 1807 (the Quetton St. George House, NE corner of King & Frederick), it would appear from early photos (i.e.looking at one of the 1857 Rossin House panorama pics) that this was not originally a city of brick and stone, but one of lathe and stucco. Many of these early buildings survived and became the subject of concern in the early 20th century for their sub-standard living conditions. Many of the photos in the archives originate from the Health Department for that reason.

1857 view looking NE from the roof of the Rossin Hotel, King & York:

First brick house built in York (King and Frederick 1807); photo taken in 1880:

Early stucco house, Berkeley House (King & Berkeley; original portion 1795); photo taken in 1908:

650 King W in 1917:

575 King W in 1917:

372 King E in 1917:

349 Gilead Place in 1917:

331-33 Seaton in 1941:

251-57 Ontario in 1939:

217 Berkeley in 1939:

204 Duchess in 1938:

188 Berkeley in 1939:

184 Lipincott in 1924:

178 Lipincott in 1924:

77 Trinity at Front 1917:

75-79 Duchess in 1917:

30 Bleeker in 1935:

14 Duchess in 1923:

14-18 Ontario in 1935:

9-11 Britain in 1935:

 

[yonderbean]

Wow. Thanks for that collection of the rotting remains of the city's original wooden buildings!

 

[J T CUNNINGHAM]

The last pic is now the entrance to the parking lot for STARZ and George Brown School of Design.

Regards,
J T

 

[adma]

Judging from that joint on the right, Toronto was really ahead of the game when it came to same-sex marriage, and the failure thereof...

 

[Goldie]

Judging from that joint on the right, Toronto was really ahead of the game when it came to same-sex marriage, and the failure thereof...

I expect very few will remember the comic strip - see attached thumbnail:

 

[Mustapha]

Wow. Thanks for that collection of the rotting remains of the city's original wooden buildings!

Indeed, thanks thecharioteer for that visual tour. Especially touching is that those buildings were demolished so long ago.



August 12 addition.



Then. September 22, 1949. Dalhousie looking S from Gerrard st E.

Now. July 2010. Our building on the right (from which the boy and man stare at us across time from the loading dock in the Then picture) is still there. Nothing else remains from 1949.

 

[adma]

Nothing else remains from 1949.

Other than the Merchandise building and the St James steeple, of course.

 

[Goldie]

A COUPLE OF EAST-END TORONTO 'THEN & NOWS'

Ravina Cres. at Jones Ave. intersection 1913

Fire Hall on Main St. 1911 - at the time a new hall was being readied (right) and a police station was nearing completion (left).
P.S. - The police station is now a community centre.

 

[Mustapha]

Other than the Merchandise building and the St James steeple, of course.

Thanks adma. Corrected version: "Nothing else on this block between Gerrard and Gould remains from 1949."



Goldie,


Those Then pictures are very atmospheric; the little girl walking in the unpaved street instead of the new sidewalk; the fire hoses drying out...


You used the term "East End". I've heard residents Pickering, Whitby, etc., use this same term. Our ever expanding City.



August 13 addition.


Then. Aug 22, 1949. Dalhousie street looking N from opp #203.

Now. July 2010.

 

[Goldie]

MORE FROM MY RECENT TORONTO-EAST-END EXCURSION

Wilkinson Public School on Donlands Ave. during a 1920s addition.
Restorations underway in 2010.

Donlands Ave. at Danforth before the 1948 widening (Wilkinson School towards the right-background).

Gerrard at Greenwood - looking west along Gerrard (1934).

 

[adma]

Now for some Bart Simpson type to change the lettering to 'Nakeed V. Butt"

 

[Mustapha]

August 14 addition.


Then. Jarvis looking N across Lakeshore 1963.

Now. July 2010. I took the Now pic from about where the white car was in the Then pic. A modern perspective is impossible - I would have been inside the Queens Quay Loblaw garage.

 

[Mustapha]

August 15 addition.



Then. "Meteorological Office Bloor street 1908?." Actually the Dominion Meteorological Building. In use from 1909-1971 as such.

Now. July 2010. Many trees in the way but still there. The original fence is untouched too.

Here's another view.

http://www.toronto.ca/involved/statutorynotices/archive2010/jul/hl_072710.htm



.

 

[west_end_kid]

I'm sure a few of these have been done before.

St. Lawrence Market taken from south east corner of Front & Jarvis.

Then

August 2010