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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

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.

I walk by this section of Yonge all the time. The coffee shop under the subway is a great place to contemplate. The windows onto the subway and the tables just inside make for one of the best places to sit in Toronto for the price of a cup of coffee. And when the trains rumble overhead... priceless. :)
 
Then and Now for April 3.



Then. Residence of George Fensom. 84 Chestnut Park Road. c1910. Ellis & Connery, Architects.

52684ChestnutParkRdc1910.jpg



Now. July 2011.

527.jpg


Ellis & Connery were a fruitful partnership; the Annette Street Library is another of their commissions.
 
MIGHT'S TORONTO CITY DIRECTORY 1910.

Fensom George H.
84 Chestnut Park Road.
VP and General Manager, Otis Elevator Co Ltd.

aka Otis-Fensom Elevator Co Ltd.


Regards,
J T
 
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.

Well, eight tracks for a reason, if one considers the scale of the station here...
 
"JT... maybe you missed this... but they DID."

I didn't "miss it", but I do miss Ronald Reagan!


Regards,
J T
 
1931 OTIS-Fensom Manual Traction Elevator @ Kingsmill's Department Store, London, ON (my hometown)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOuMMDulKVM

Thank you wwwebster. Always giving me an entrer... :)

"In 1905, the merger of the Canadian Otis Elevator Company Limited and the Fensom Elevator Company of Toronto created the Otis Fensom Elevator Company Limited. In November 1949, the company was renamed Otis Elevator Company Limited. It is currently named Otis Canada, Inc.

It is not known exactly when John Fensom, a machine shop/mill supply owner and founder of Fensom Elevator Company, decided to specialize in elevator manufacture. The earliest Fensom elevators were operated by hydraulic pressure but, by 1880, the steam engine had been satisfactorily adapted to elevator purposes. The pioneer Canadian elevator installations were primarily for freight.

By 1895, the Fensom Elevator Company manufactured all three basic types of elevators— hydraulic, steam, and electric — and by the turn of the century, the company employed about 100 people. No official records are available, but it is known that one of the first export contracts undertaken were duly produced and shipped to Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

In 1902, Otis was established in Canada by acquiring three small elevator organizations in Hamilton, Toronto, and Montreal respectively. After competing against each other throughout the years, the Canadian Otis Elevator Company Limited and the Fensom Elevator Company Limited merged, thus becoming the Otis-Fensom Elevator Company Limited in 1905."

http://www.cbr.ca/CompanyProfile.aspx?CompanyID=3376

And, another Fensom at Yonge at Glengrove. I get weak-kneed at the sight of bakelite buttons and brass surrounds. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-C0cDRNbZs
 
"I get weak-kneed at the sight of bakelite buttons and brass surrounds."
QUOTE Mustapha.

The "Car" has been subject to an "Alteration" with the side walls and handrails being replaced.

Another "WOW! machine (2) had been installed in the Algoods Building on Sterling Road. Those

units were known as "Tail Twisters" due to their "action for the traction"; something to behold!

The freight, of the above, was large enough to hoist an auto, while the passenger was a somewhat

tiny affair.

Then there is "The Frankenstein Machine" at 360 Adelade W with it's Mercury DC Rectifier!

And last but not least, pre The Era of Oil, hydraulic elevators were operated with water as being

the medium.


Regards,
J T
 
"There is a working Mercury DC Rectifier here in Toronto?"
QUOTE Mustapha.

About 15 years ago there were at least? three which were in working order, with the above noted machine,

as far as I know, continuing to "breathe".

The last "Water Hydraulic" that I saw (1 of 2 - ten years ago.) was at 60 Bathust Street and had been

out of commission for at least another ten.


Regards,
J T


PS So you see Mustapha, with reference to another above post,

I am truely "The Last Person to Let You Down".
 
Then and Now for May 4.


Then. 56 Chestnut Park Road. c1910. Residence of J.B. McCarter. Of course; a wwwebster sourced picture. :)

52856ChestnutParkRdc1910.jpg



Now. July 2011.

529.jpg
 

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