Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Long Island Mike]

Stumack: Good auto identification! I stand corrected...

Mike - I tend to think 1963 is correct. The newest car I can identify is a 1963 Pontiac (two back and left of the Beetle). The cars also appear to have black plates, which is correct for '63. Other cars include '58 Chev following the Beetle, a '61 Pontiac heading the other direction - the two waiting at the intersection are a '61 Plymouth (the dark one) and I think a '58 Studebaker (not common, even then).

The letters on the bank clearly look to be the same - most excellent!

Stumack-Thanks for the clarification-one thing about car designs from back then was how quickly they changed from year to year...
A notable exception was the Volkswagen Beetle as many know...I believe it was as cheap an import to buy in Canada as it was in the US...

As you mention Studebakers were not common in Canada...were they sold there or all imported from the US?

Being a license plate collector I usually notice the plate colors as I avidly collect Canada's provinces just as I collect US states...

Those "cobra" light brackets looked to me more modern then '63-but they are definitely a '60s design...
Were the lights mercury-vapor bulbs (new in the 60s) or traditional incandesent ones?

LI MIKE

 

[TheHYPO]

I just discovered this marvelous thread (then is now is basically all my brain wants to do when it sees old photographs of the city, so this thread is perfect for me). I'm reviewing it a bit a day, but I skipped to the end (300+pages? Wow! this is going to take a while) and want to thank you for starting at whatever point to date the photos when possible; now is pretty obvious to estimate but sometimes the thens could be 1910 or 1970 and I appreciate the dates being included. Thanks for a great thread!

 

[UserNameToronto]

As you mention Studebakers were not common in Canada...were they sold there or all imported from the US?
LI MIKE

No, they were imported from Canada! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker_Canada

"While Studebaker produced cars in Canada prior to World War II,[1] Studebaker's first modern automobile factory was established at Hamilton, Ontario in 1947, in an anti-aircraft gun plant purchased from the Canadian government. From its opening until December, 1963, the Hamilton plant manufactured automobiles as a satellite facility using engines produced in the United States. Studebaker half-ton pickup trucks were assembled at Hamilton, Ontario, from 1950 through 1955.

"

 

[Stumack]

As you mention Studebakers were not common in Canada...were they sold there or all imported from the US?

Studebakers were both sold and built in Canada. I was referring particularly to 1958, which was a bad year industry-wide. Studebaker's total production was less than 45,000 cars- there just weren't a whole lot of them made, and the company very nearly packed it in that year.

 

[Long Island Mike]

Studebaker of Canada...after the Company closed the South Bend,Indiana plant...

No, they were imported from Canada! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker_Canada

"While Studebaker produced cars in Canada prior to World War II,[1] Studebaker's first modern automobile factory was established at Hamilton, Ontario in 1947, in an anti-aircraft gun plant purchased from the Canadian government. From its opening until December, 1963, the Hamilton plant manufactured automobiles as a satellite facility using engines produced in the United States. Studebaker half-ton pickup trucks were assembled at Hamilton, Ontario, from 1950 through 1955.

"

UNT: Thanks for that clarification along with Stumack-I now realize that smaller car companies maintained Canadian manufacturing plants along with the well-known Big Three automakers...

I found the Studebaker information quite interesting due to the fact that they closed the South Bend,Indiana plant before they ceased making vehicles altogether...

Was it actually easier for a company like Studebaker to have a Canadian plant then to strictly import cars manufactured in the US thru Customs into Canada?

I recall reading someplace that it was much harder in the past to import/export vehicles between the US and Canada and it is actually much easier today-can anyone clarify this?

This is a great example of why I am a member of UT-I can learn something new each day...this is no exception!

Happy 2011 to you all and everyone here at UT-LI MIKE

 

[Goldie]

Studebaker - Hamilton

As you mention Studebakers were not common in Canada...were they sold there or all imported from the US?

According to this site (http://www.studebakerhistory.com/dnn/Facilities/HamiltonOntario/tabid/78/Default.aspx) --
They were manufactured in this Hamilton Plant until 1966.

 

[Mustapha]

January 11 addition.





So, our Goldie happens to be at the SE corner of King and York street in 1969 with a camera handy. He took this picture of the demolition rubble of Rossin House. He posts it here at UT back on December 25 2009.

Thank goodness for the internet. If it didn't exist, Goldie would still be showing the hardcopy to his coffee shop friends; right Goldie?

Online conversation ensues, such as:

http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/daviestaylor.htm /QUOTE]

It is maybe of interest to note that the J & J Taylor Safe Company and their wharf were recently recognised by the City when a laneway, running between Frederick Street and George Street South just south of Front Street, was named Taylor's Wharf Lane. Councillor Pam McConnell unveiled the signs a week or so before Christmas!

Today, January 10 2010 I had a camera handy and came across this in the lobby of 229 Yonge street.

How very interesting that the company - L. D. Caulk - that owned it, is still trading.





http://www.caulk.com/

 

[junctionist]

Also unusual is the swastika in the tiles.

 

[Mustapha]

I just discovered this marvelous thread (then is now is basically all my brain wants to do when it sees old photographs of the city, so this thread is perfect for me). I'm reviewing it a bit a day, but I skipped to the end (300+pages? Wow! this is going to take a while) and want to thank you for starting at whatever point to date the photos when possible; now is pretty obvious to estimate but sometimes the thens could be 1910 or 1970 and I appreciate the dates being included. Thanks for a great thread!

Hi TheHYPO, welcome and please chime in whenever you can,

cheers,

M.

 

[Goldie]

January 11 addition.





So, our Goldie happens to be at the SE corner of King and York street in 1969 with a camera handy. He took this picture of the demolition rubble of Rossin House. He posts it here at UT back on December 25 2009.

Thank goodness for the internet. If it didn't exist, Goldie would still be showing the hardcopy to his coffee shop friends; right Goldie?

Oh, I'm so frustrated now! I can't find either hard or soft copies.
I know I had a second view of that safe from 1969, but my files are in such disaray that I can't find it.
It's somewhere among my thousands of pix, but where, oh where?
"Thank goodness for the internet", indeed! At least that one is being preserved - thanks Mustapha.

 

[Goldie]

Thank goodness for the internet. If it didn't exist, Goldie would still be showing the hardcopy to his coffee shop friends; right Goldie?

Eureka! I found it!

Gad, what a fine filing system I have!

Here's the other view of that safe:

 

[ReiwaMagi]

I wonder what happened to the safe afterwards? Taken off site to a safe location, or the demolition team break it open for its rewards?

 

[Goldie]

For any collectors of 'safe' photos, I've got another one.
This one is in the old Morrish store which now houses the Scarborough Historical Society's archives.

 

[Mustapha]

I wonder what happened to the safe afterwards? Taken off site to a safe location, or the demolition team break it open for its rewards?

I'm guessing that all we have left of it is the picture. Larger safes heavier than than what could be manhandled into a truck probably got left behind at businesses that closed.

Note in Goldie's picture the damage to the bottom of the safe - it isn't solid steel - many safes were made fireproof as well - through a sandwich construction of concrete - an insulator - within a steel sandwich.

My gramps' safe is still in the family. It required a strong person at each corner to lift it even a few inches onto I think it was 4X6 planks to shift it out of his store and into its new location. I was a youngster when this happened. Not looking forward to it again.

Eventually a lottery will decide among those of us descendants who want it.

There used to be a Royal Bank branch on the NW corner of Avenue Road and Lawrence. When it was demolished (for the present Shoppers Drug Mart) the safe stood until the very last looking like a little concrete hut when the rubble around it had been all cleared away.

I wasn't around when the safe finally disappeared, but I imagine specialists or special equipment was brought in.

 

[Mustapha]

January 12 addition.





Then. 1939. Colborne, just a few yards E of Yonge, looking NW at the "Montreal Trust Building Annex".

Now. January 2011.