Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[AlbertHWagstaff]

Looking south from Davisville Station, 1984 and 2013.

 

[Mustapha]

Looking south from Davisville Station, 1984 and 2013.

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The sensory experience of those old subway cars. Windows that you, yes you, could open. The noise in the tunnels, especially the Union station bend. If there were any vibration bushings, they were long gone by the 70s.

 

[Mustapha]

I went to the Toronto Archives site and typed 'Chinatown' into the search box. I had done that before. This time, the picture below came up. Its description: 'VJ Holiday, Chinatown, reading news. August 15, 1945.' The Registry building is in the distance, so this is the west side of Elizabeth Street looking north.

I think I can just make out the faces of Stalin, Chiang Kai-Shek, and Truman in the newspaper. The clarity of the photo is amazing, as is the style - street/reportage photography with people as subjects. Not your usual Toronto Archives stuff. If my gramps were still around he would know these men. And I wish I could read Chinese.

 

[Light]

I went to the Toronto Archives site and typed 'Chinatown' into the search box. I had done that before. This time, the picture below came up. Its description: 'VJ Holiday, Chinatown, reading news. August 15, 1945.' The Registry building is in the distance, so this is the west side of Elizabeth Street looking north.

I think I can just make out the faces of Stalin, Chiang Kai-Shek, and Truman in the newspaper. The clarity of the photo is amazing, as is the style - street/reportage photography with people as subjects. Not your usual Toronto Archives stuff. If my gramps were still around he would know these men. And I wish I could read Chinese.

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Wow, they cleared out Chinatown to put up NPS which looks kind of tired in that second picture.

 

[Goldie]

Wonderful "real life" image of 1945 Chinatown, Mustapha. Good find!
It reminds me so much of this photo I made in Vancouver in 1977:

 

[r937]

Pottery Road, south from [Stevenson] Bayview, near Moore

Then: 1955 via http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-PICTURES-R-4688&R=DC-PICTURES-R-4688

2017: today

building atop plateau at right in both pictures is Bennington Heights Elementary School...

Pottery Rd roadbed still there, now part of Bennington Heights Park, extending all the way to the CP tracks

 

[Anna]

Even older Pottery Road ran parallel to the railway tracks - from the foot of what is now Bayview Heights Drive

1947 aerial

 

[DSC]

Here are some photos of Queen & Parliament, note horse trough and the underground public lavatories!]

Here is a photo posted today by skycandy on http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...east-parliament-development-site.21101/page-2

 

[Mustapha]

Jim's Restaurant 897 Queen East.

Then. Summer of 2015. The pic is black and white because it was taken by black and white film - a side hobby of mine.

Now. Today. A nice old example of the sign painters art blinks in the sunlight. Its fate - soon to be entombed in darkness again.

 

[Mustapha]

More Jims Restaurant.

 

[enelemcee]

The sensory experience of those old subway cars. Windows that you, yes you, could open. The noise in the tunnels, especially the Union station bend. If there were any vibration bushings, they were long gone by the 70s.

Another thing I miss about the red Gloucester cars was when it would pass over an 'X' or 'Y' track or space in the third rail and the cars would go dark one by one!

 

[Goldie]

Scholes' Hotel, 201-203 Yonge St., 1945

 

[Koolgreen]

i like that the hydrant is still there....I like that blonde (carol wayne) walking northbound.....and I wonder when the windows were built on the south side of that building??? Would they not have been facing the wall of scholes?

 

[Goldie]

i like that the hydrant is still there....I like that blonde (carol wayne) walking northbound.....and I wonder when the windows were built on the south side of that building??? Would they not have been facing the wall of scholes?

Excellent observations, Koolgreen.
There appears to be a walkway between the buildings for access to other doors.
Perhaps the bank (with windows) was built before the hotel.

 

[r937]

Like when it was out on a pier...

fans of this building (hi @Goldie) will be pleased to know that conditions of its sale announced today include provisions that it will "be restored and maintained as part of any future development plan."

see PortsToronto to Sell Head-Office Property at 30 Bay Street to Oxford Properties and CPPIB