Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Mustapha]

Then and Now for April 25, 2013.




Then. June 26, 1918. Broadview and Queen looking N.

Now. September 2012.

 

[k10ery]

Two days of Now photos with preserved buildings, and nary a low-rise PoMo monstrosity in sight. What a pleasant break from the Toronto reality! (But thanks Mustapha for documenting all of this - both the good news and bad news photos.)

 

[Goldie]

I'm sure many of you have already heard about the amazing discovery of the previously unknown photographer, Vivian Maier.
She recorded street life in New York and particularly, Chicago during the 1950s.
This trailer for a new documentary film will be appreciated by all "street" photographers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o2nBhQ67Zc

 

[Mississauga Slim]

Another "half-house."

This corner is the site of the original St. Cyril & Methody church. Now it's at Dundas & Sackville. Here's a picture of my Grandparent's wedding there. The caption says its 1918, but its really 1933.

 

[Mustapha]

Two days of Now photos with preserved buildings, and nary a low-rise PoMo monstrosity in sight. What a pleasant break from the Toronto reality! (But thanks Mustapha for documenting all of this - both the good news and bad news photos.)

PoMo... may not be long in coming. That Green P parking lot is a tempting piece of property. And Green P can still have their parking space cake and eat it too - just move the spots underground. There's a precedent for this.

 

[Mustapha]

I'm sure many of you have already heard about the amazing discovery of the previously unknown photographer, Vivian Maier.
She recorded street life in New York and particularly, Chicago during the 1950s.
This trailer for a new documentary film will be appreciated by all "street" photographers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o2nBhQ67Zc

'She could generate this moment, and then she's gone."

Fascinating. I take the occasional picture - see one below - in black and white to try to capture something interesting, but she had an 'eye' for sure. Looking forward to the documentary. Thank you for the link Goldie.

 

[Mustapha]

This corner is the site of the original St. Cyril & Methody church. Now it's at Dundas & Sackville. Here's a picture of my Grandparent's wedding there. The caption says its 1918, but its really 1933.

Mississauga Slim. What a breathtaking picture. Besides being topical, it fills me with regret that I never asked the wedding photog to do this at my wedding; and it again never occurred to me to do this at my daughters wedding. I have most certainly filed this at the front of the mental cabinet for my sons weddings.

Do your various family members have prints of this? I'll bet it makes for fascinating reference down to the present. 'There's your grand aunt Jasmina when she was a girl.'

The Slim family; all 200 of them, in nineteen hundred and thirty three. Thank you Mississauga Slim.

 

[Mustapha]

Then and Now for April 26, 2013. Eighty years after Mississauga Slim's grandparents Big Day.



Then. York Street, looking N from just N of Front. Royal York Hotel on the right. No rhyme or reason for this one; other than I like the happy family, their stiff sided suitcase and the old bus. I love those old buses - I'll see them junked in the countryside somewhere and I'll make a hop over a fence for a look. Anyone here like to travel by bus? Between Erie and Buffalo awhile back an Ethiopian lady let me have some of her lunch. The paroled prisoner beside me - just a kid - I gave him fifty bucks. Oh, the picture date - I'm guessing 1960-ish.

Now. September 2012.

 

[thecharioteer]

Greta pic, Mustapha! Do you think that brick building on the other side of York Street in the Then pic is what's underneath the cladding of the Strathcona Hotel?

 

[Mustapha]

Greta pic, Mustapha! Do you think that brick building on the other side of York Street in the Then pic is what's underneath the cladding of the Strathcona Hotel?

Heya thecharioteer,

Thank you!

Usually cladding is a giveaway of something ancient hiding underneath.

The Strathcona is a bit of an enigma. Its website says it is 'privately managed.' There is no history given for the hotel. I remember walking by this place in the 70s when I had a summer job in the area. Rumour then was there was a floor set aside for visitors to Canada who weren't allowed in - they would be incarcerated here until the next flight to their home country...

The long gone Lord Simcoe Hotel looms in the left distance in the Then picture.

 

[Mustapha]

Heya the weather is fine. Get out if you can.

If you can't,

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/spare/0700.shtml

The Trolley Buses page is especially nice; to me, anyways.

 

[Mississauga Slim]

Mississauga Slim. What a breathtaking picture. Besides being topical, it fills me with regret that I never asked the wedding photog to do this at my wedding; and it again never occurred to me to do this at my daughters wedding. I have most certainly filed this at the front of the mental cabinet for my sons weddings.

Do your various family members have prints of this? I'll bet it makes for fascinating reference down to the present. 'There's your grand aunt Jasmina when she was a girl.'

The Slim family; all 200 of them, in nineteen hundred and thirty three. Thank you Mississauga Slim.

Thanks Mustapha! We do have prints of this picture, and lots of others from the period as well. They are all from the same photographer. "Daylight Studios" I think. They must have done huge business. Probably many Toronto families, yours included, may have pictures from this studio. In this photo I was impressed that the photographer could get everyone arranged in a semi-circle and with the shorter kids in the front. The photographer must have had some logistical chops because, as you know, it's not too easy to get large groups of people arranged like that.

I remember my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. It was far from where this picture was taken - at the Bristol Place Hotel, near the airport! My grandmother's wedding dress was on display. You can't see too well in the picture, but it was white silk and silver satin. It was very beautiful, as she was.

 

[Mustapha]

A Then and Now, of sorts... 204 Perth Avenue Toronto. An acquaintance has finished his renovation and asked some friends over to look around.



Then 2011. The property as purchased. That's an old truck back there with part of an old truck on top of it.

Now. April 2013.

 

[nostalgic]

"Then" looks like a bomb site! Congratulations to your friend for having the vision to see it through to the now.

 

[Ex-Montreal Girl]

An early street in East York;

This one has been bugging me since Goldie posted it as I know the terrain very well.

Yesterday I was driving down Donlands and passed this Victorian, now painted a hideous yellow, denuded of its verandah, and partly surrounded by a low-rise warehouse building. But it's the right age and, I believe, in the right location to be the farmhouse in the distance on the right. On Donlands, west side, just south of Somers. I couldn't get a decent shot myself as the light was against me but these from street view are pretty good, considering the access to the house is all but blocked.