Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[nicksam368]

Winter vs Summer
winer & summer by Nick SAM, on Flickr

 

[adma]

Adma: You are correct on 'new' Dundas St bridge. I was there today, plaque states: " 1927, 1973, 2009 ". Upper deck completely new, piers, although completely refurbished, are ostensibly original. Still trying to find a good article on the bridge, have found a number of references stating (gist) "Information is hard to find" on it. It must have been quite the structure when first erected.

There seem to have been a flurry of interwar "high level bridges" spurred by leapfrogging suburbia and the advent of motor travel--Bloor & Dundas across the Humber, the Leaside and O'Connor bridges, Bayview over the Don, the Avenue Rd Extension (now part of the 401), and Kingston/Hwy 2A over Highland Creek, among others...

 

[steveintoronto]

There seem to have been a flurry of interwar "high level bridges" spurred by leapfrogging suburbia and the advent of motor travel

I was thinking about that..."1928...how could they be that modern?"....which is complete hypocrisy on my part as I was just praising that time period a few posts back. So I had to get a little analytical with myself.

A good part must have been the "Roaring Twenties" and ample if not eager financing for such projects. And as you state, probable advances in concrete forming and design. I'd love to read the story on this bridge and the others, including the railway ones, like the CP bridges over the Rosedale ravines, albeit they came a bit earlier.

I've got to thank this forum string for sparking interests that have lain idle for many years. Can you imagine how exciting that era must have been for engineers and architects? Railways had to play a huge part in driving that level of engineering.

I'm getting very restless to get back into photography, and as much as I've expressed wonderment at some of the masters with view-cameras and slow emulsion film, and how I want to do that, it's essential to work on composition before taking that step. I got good decades back, mind you that was 2 1/4" format, but I've resolved to buy a digital camera, so when my compositions fail, lol...just erase and try again. And one of the things I'd love to do is take pictures of "Now" for some of the "Then" I've posted previously.

I love it! I'm still transfixed by many of the pics posted here and in the other pic forums. I'm looking starting tomorrow for a reasonably priced used digital camera. I'm not going to try and take pics with a cell-phone. It just ain't right...

 

[Red October]

Not a "then and now" like we're used to, but still a pretty cool look at the 1-year progress of Southcore, from pictures I took on last year's Ride for Heart as well as yesterday:

2016:

2017:

 

[Rascacielo]

2011 vs 2017 from Tommy Thompson Park

 

[Mustapha]

Is anyone here into vintage bicycles? This years vintage bike show will be in Trinity Bellwoods park again.

July, that's July 30th 10am to 5pm.

Here's a link to last years show.
http://www.communitybicyclenetwork.org/2016-toronto-vintage-bicycle-show/

The website hasn't been updated since last year but some nice person there told me this years date. Gawd I hope they don't change their minds. I love this event.

 

[Mustapha]

Non Toronto subject material at the link. It's New York City related and is just a great great now and then video.

https://thescene.com/watch/thenewyo...rk-city-then-and-now?source=player_scene_logo

 

[Goldie]

John H. Richardson house, Kingston Rd. -- 1908

Now number 21, "OLD" Kingston Rd.

 

[adma]

*Incredibly* well preserved--original-owner lineage? (And not a smidgen of too-clean gentrification/restoration, either.)

 

[Goldie]

I've just discovered a "real-estate" video that was made in 2015 of the above home -- includes interior shots

 

[Mustapha]

wow Goldie, 21 Kingston Road.. it's like preserved in amber. I wonder if it sold in 2015. It wouldn't go cheap. And the new owner has a million dollar reno just to bring it up to a reasonable mod con spec.

 

[Mustapha]

A good, no..great; summer solstice - June 21 - evening for me.


A walk along Dundas West and coming across antique signage in two locations, at Ossington, and a few paces to the west. Something I always look out for.


And a fortuitous chance encounter with 'the spontaneous prose store' lady. Whom for a very small fee created a customized prose just for me; on her antique typewriter, whilst a unlit cigarette dangled stylishly from her mouth.

I asked for something in the Haiku style. She let me start off with the first sentence, and took it from there. Wonderful result.

That old watch.. I helped my gramps pick it out at Simpsons Yorkdale. This would have been about 1966. He didn't wear it for very long.

What is it with old watches and typewriters; or any other small mechanical things such as cameras, pens, or larger things like old cars - that can ignite passion, discussion or at least a sideways glance. For myself, part of the fascination may be that the minds and hands that created them, the factories that made them, and the original owners may be no more, but in the hands of certain of us descendents, they still have utility and usefulness.

A kind of " 'limited' machine immortality", if you will.

 

[Koolgreen]

I just was thinking on the weekend about an old coffee table butane lighter our family had....It occurred to me that we had a few of them in the sixties but are obviously obsolete in this day and age..They were beautiful works of art to me ..and as a kid loved flicking them on to view the flame.....

 

[Goldie]

Great item Mustapha!

I hope you have a close-up photo of the poet at her typewriter.

By the way, there are plenty of those beautiful, old devices in antique shops today:

 

[Mustapha]

No Goldie, I didn't get a closeup of the poet at work, but she was using a portable typewriter; a smaller flatish thing. Very very banged up.