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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

thecharioteer said:
Is it just me, or does the old Hollywood Tavern look a bit more glamourous than its current incarnation as House of Lancaster, which has all the appeal of a self-storage facility? What would that local lady in her white gloves think about her neighbourhood corner today?
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No, it's not just you. I wonder how long the Hollywood lay derelict before Lancaster came along.

You know, the owners could still have the dancing girls thing or whatever, without the renovation sacrilege. UTers would have shown up to ogle the vintage fixtures.








I had the pleasure of having a drink at this Los Angeles icon a few years ago. It's still going strong. It reminds me a bit of our lost Hollywood.

Formosacafe.jpg









We seem to have some sort of stucco fetish in this city that I don't understand. It's the 'aluminum siding' of the present moment, I guess.
 
androiduk said:
^ What's amazing to me is it doesn't look like a strip club. Self storage facility is right on the money. And despite all the renos, the roof line remains the same.
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What I want to know is what did it look like before the Hollywood Restaurant? Bird's eye views show 3 dormers in the roof.
 
Mustapha said:
I might also add that our house at 2668 Yonge didn't last long. Going by memory, that corner was already a a gas station in the early 60s; and that was torn down and the present park and ventilator building put there as a result of the late 60s extension of the subway north from Eglinton. The workers let us kids look into the pit that is now the ventilator. There was much excitement when a so-called prehistoric horse was found a few feet into the shaft. News people came by too.
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True. And isn't the ventilator building an emergency exit as well?
s0648_fl0239_id0015.jpg
 
Anna said:
True. And isn't the ventilator building an emergency exit as well?
s0648_fl0239_id0015.jpg
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Correct. When the train occasionally slows for some reason southbound between Lawrence and Eglinton, you can see a lighted exit sign.

Boy, that picture brings back some memories. Spent my first 20 years within a couple of blocks of that corner.
 
Anna said:
The description at the archives on this one is Northwest corner of Yonge Street and Alexandra Boulevard.
f1231_it0748.jpg


Taken same day, two different houses, two different corners, it looks like both streets had gates.
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The gatepost has "Alexandra Blvd" attached to it in this picture, so that places 2708 at Alexandra. The house was still there 9 years ago when I last visited the funeral parlour across the road to the south.

#2668 has got to be further south. The gas station in a later picture is the one at Craighurst, one block south. But one of the other pictures shows another gas station at Lytton--no wonder it didn't last long.:rolleyes:

The gates? Mitchell's Directory of 1864 lists James Beaty, barrister, Glengrove, Yonge Street. Just wondering if they came from that time.
 
Mustapha said:
Alexandra, Lytton, all of this was the property of

http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/Snyder.htm

prior to subdivision.

More info:

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2007/ny/bgrd/backgroundfile-7024.pdf

This house never fails to take my breath away. It shouldn't exist but it does, on the largest lot in the area. It was for sale a few years ago; with a stunning website with photos. All for one of the more modest 649 winning jackpots.
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I remember reading that the Duplex house once had a direct view and access to Yonge, most likely prior to the construction of Duplex Avenue.
 
Mustapha said:
No, it's not just you. I wonder how long the Hollywood lay derelict before Lancaster came along.
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I think the Hollywood lasted well into the 70s; and I'm not sure if there was a true "dereliction" interegnum, or more organically one into the other through new ownership. (Quite often strip clubs "happen" that way.)


We seem to have some sort of stucco fetish in this city that I don't understand. It's the 'aluminum siding' of the present moment, I guess.
Click to expand...

The irony being that stucco's the perfect "Hollywood" material (as your shot shows)--and I suspect the older "Spanish revival" building behind the front additions was originally stucco as well, a la Palais Royale/Boulevard Club.

So it's not just the stucco; it's that it (plus other alterations) was used here to brutally, grossly, tastelessly efface even the more, uh, "historic-looking" parts of the Hollywood. Pure proof of the parvenu philistinism behind the flesh trade--the architectural equivalent of obligatory bolt-ons and bald pubes, if you pardon the expression.
 
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I wonder why it took the building of two bridges before some bright individual realized that the hole could simply be filled.

Is there any way to discover the name of that individual (city engineer?)?
 
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