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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now
- Thread starter Mustapha
- Start date
Mustapha
Senior Member
Then and Now for April 2.
Then. Avenue Road and Pears, NW corner. 1959.
Now. August 2011. Incredibly, Chow Keong Laundry is still there. The very last Chinese laundry in Toronto, if - and I am guessing here - not in North America.
Then. Avenue Road and Pears, NW corner. 1959.
Now. August 2011. Incredibly, Chow Keong Laundry is still there. The very last Chinese laundry in Toronto, if - and I am guessing here - not in North America.
FAW
New Member
i hope I'm doing this right. I haven't read ahead yet to see if this was answered. The Birch terminal had to close when the CPR was raised 10 feet and Yonge lowered 10 feet. The Metropolitan could no longer get to the Birch terminal so it was moved up Yonge street. They even reused the sign from the Birch depot.
Mustapha
Senior Member
i hope I'm doing this right. I haven't read ahead yet to see if this was answered. The Birch terminal had to close when the CPR was raised 10 feet and Yonge lowered 10 feet. The Metropolitan could no longer get to the Birch terminal so it was moved up Yonge street. They even reused the sign from the Birch depot.
Fascinating, FAW, you've revived a thread from Dec 20, 2010. I'm not sure what your question is?
J T CUNNINGHAM
Senior Member
"I'm not sure what your question is"
QUOTE Mustapha.
Everything else aside, take note of "The Old Horse Blanket Trick" on the auto to the right in the pic.
Regards,
J T
QUOTE Mustapha.
Everything else aside, take note of "The Old Horse Blanket Trick" on the auto to the right in the pic.
Regards,
J T
FAW
New Member
Please forgive me, I have been reading through the previous posts and came across this from post *4610. The thread was about the location of the Birch street terminal for the Toronto and York Radial. wwwebster noted that there were two addresses on Yonge for the terminal. I apologize for the disconnected posts.
Mustapha
Senior Member
Hi and welcome FAW. wwwebster provided a map that shows the location of the Birch street terminal in post #4593.
The first link in your post interestingly shows Frogley's bakery at 750 Yonge. This is the SW corner of Yonge and Yorkville. It's a cookbook store now. Last time I looked - although its been many years - the name was engraved high up on the building.
FAW
New Member
Hi and welcome FAW. wwwebster provided a map that shows the location of the Birch street terminal in post #4593.
The first link in your post interestingly shows Frogley's bakery at 750 Yonge. This is the SW corner of Yonge and Yorkville. It's a cookbook store now. Last time I looked - although its been many years - the name was engraved high up on the building.
Thank you for the welcome. You have said other nice things about my work and I am grateful. I hope I am doing this right.
Those links were supplied by wwwebster, the map he supplied in post 4593 shows the first location of the Toronto and York railway terminal. I replied to his post #4606 and 4607. Oldcamera posted #4608 with other photos and a map. These were all on page 308 of this thread. I am involved with railway history and thats what got me to reply. It seemed that wwwebster was confused about why there were two addresses listed for the Toronto and York Railway terminal, 1092 Yonge (the Birch terminal), and 1188 Yonge. The picture I first posted was of the second(1188 Yonge) terminal. When the TTC took over the terminal was moved again to Glen Echo. www.cermc.webs.com The Canadian Electric Railway Map Collection.
I would post a screenshot of the Google streetview at Birch and Yonge in keeping with a then and now theme, but I don't know how. Faw.
r937
Active Member
i prefer actual links to google street view -- http://g.co/maps/3b5sv
this lets others interactively move around the location
J T CUNNINGHAM
Senior Member
YORK BURIAL CO, not to be confused with Yorke Brothers, aka Yorke Chapel, Turner & Porter. Bloor St W.
Regards,
J T
Regards,
J T
Mustapha
Senior Member
Hey everyone, I got a 'back channel' question about what criteria I use to define a 'Chinese laundry', as some may think there are many still around, and Chow Keong laundry on Avenue Road is not the 'last' one, as I assert.
Pub bore mode on:
The criteria I'm using is a Chinese laundry being defined as:
-established at least since the middle of the last century - 1950.
-is primarily a water wash laundry, NOT a chemical dry cleaners.
-was established by and run by immigrants or their descendants from mainland China who came to Canada before the restriction of Chinese immigration in 1925.
-architecturally speaking, a mostly unimproved, mostly original store space, fixtures and location.
-an unsophisticated naming convention for the business itself.
Chow Keong laundry fulfills all these requirements. There was a online Globe article from about 2006 (no longer online) about this place. It was established in 1940 or so. The son of the original owner still runs it; he's an elderly man himself now.
These criteria may seem esoteric but a look around the pictures at the online Toronto archives shows many businesses of this type and look. They usually had a sign out front proclaiming 'Chinese Laundry'. The words 'Chinese laundry' speak to a long gone cultural history of immigrant isolation and - for the most part - economic poverty. History has moved on and so has the laundry business run by Chinese. Chinese or Asians or anybody, really, may still run the modern successor to laundries - we call them dry cleaners.
For more:
http://csulb.academia.edu/JohnJung/Papers/103029/Fun_Fai_Los_19_Chinese_Laundries_of_the_Deep_South
written by a good friend of mine.
And:
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2011/04/18/chinese-laundry-kids/
I'm actually a 'Chinese laundry kid'.
Hope this helps.
-Moose.
Pub bore mode off.
Pub bore mode on:
The criteria I'm using is a Chinese laundry being defined as:
-established at least since the middle of the last century - 1950.
-is primarily a water wash laundry, NOT a chemical dry cleaners.
-was established by and run by immigrants or their descendants from mainland China who came to Canada before the restriction of Chinese immigration in 1925.
-architecturally speaking, a mostly unimproved, mostly original store space, fixtures and location.
-an unsophisticated naming convention for the business itself.
Chow Keong laundry fulfills all these requirements. There was a online Globe article from about 2006 (no longer online) about this place. It was established in 1940 or so. The son of the original owner still runs it; he's an elderly man himself now.
These criteria may seem esoteric but a look around the pictures at the online Toronto archives shows many businesses of this type and look. They usually had a sign out front proclaiming 'Chinese Laundry'. The words 'Chinese laundry' speak to a long gone cultural history of immigrant isolation and - for the most part - economic poverty. History has moved on and so has the laundry business run by Chinese. Chinese or Asians or anybody, really, may still run the modern successor to laundries - we call them dry cleaners.
For more:
http://csulb.academia.edu/JohnJung/Papers/103029/Fun_Fai_Los_19_Chinese_Laundries_of_the_Deep_South
written by a good friend of mine.
And:
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2011/04/18/chinese-laundry-kids/
I'm actually a 'Chinese laundry kid'.
Hope this helps.
-Moose.
Pub bore mode off.
Mustapha
Senior Member
Thank you for the welcome. You have said other nice things about my work and I am grateful. I hope I am doing this right.
Those links were supplied by wwwebster, the map he supplied in post 4593 shows the first location of the Toronto and York railway terminal. I replied to his post #4606 and 4607. Oldcamera posted #4608 with other photos and a map. These were all on page 308 of this thread. I am involved with railway history and thats what got me to reply. It seemed that wwwebster was confused about why there were two addresses listed for the Toronto and York Railway terminal, 1092 Yonge (the Birch terminal), and 1188 Yonge. The picture I first posted was of the second(1188 Yonge) terminal. When the TTC took over the terminal was moved again to Glen Echo. www.cermc.webs.com The Canadian Electric Railway Map Collection.Here is the CPR crossing at Yonge street before the grade separation.This image shows the CPR lifted onto a temporary trestle and bridge over Yonge.These show how much land was removed at Birch street. First as it was:then as it became(note the temporary stars to the old level doors on the right:
I would post a screenshot of the Google streetview at Birch and Yonge in keeping with a then and now theme, but I don't know how. Faw.
The site of the first Birch terminal is an unbuilt lot on the SW corner of Yonge and Birch then.
Thank you FAW and r937.
For more about Yonge and Farnham and street rail history in this area:
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/showth...-and-Now-Midtown-Yonge-(Rosedale-to-Eglinton)
Mustapha
Senior Member
J T CUNNINGHAM
Senior Member
"You do have a fixation with that business don't you, JT."
QUOTE Mustapha.
Who else on this forum would remember being at the premises of Foster & Trench, 566 Annette Street,
or that . . . some other time . . .
Regards,
J T
(lol)
QUOTE Mustapha.
Who else on this forum would remember being at the premises of Foster & Trench, 566 Annette Street,
or that . . . some other time . . .
Regards,
J T
(lol)
FAW
New Member
I never seem to put enough information in my posts. Yes the terminal was on the s.w. corner, but instead of displaying the height of an empty lot I used the pictures from the archive on the opposite side of Brich street that would display the period building getting taller via exposure of the basement to show Yonge street was lowered. This was why the terminal was moved the first time. I like how the CPR was just two tracks in the oldest photos and again is now just two tracks, but the subway was built to handle 8 tracks. They all thought the railway was forever.