Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[JasonParis]

Good to see them still operating in all those cities...and now more!

 

[adma]

Here's a "now & then" of Bloor from the Park Plaza, scanned from a Globe article early '70's. showing Holt Renfrew (no apostrpohe or S) in it's original Bloor Street location. The "then" shot is probably 1950's.

Early 50s, at that--sometime after the University was built and before Holt Renfrew moved here c1955. (It's hard to discern the status of the Yonge subway, or its streetcar traffic islands.)

Interesting to note that the corpus of the c1955 Holts is still evident in the side wall of the ex-Famous Players building. Oh, and I miss the Britannica House lettering...

 

[Mustapha]

I certainly agree with "Long Island Mike" that dated photographs add significantly to our understanding of history. Let's try to add dates whenever possible.
In fact, the date of our 'Now' photos will also be puzzling in the future - 10, 20 or 30 years down the road.

Strangely, I've been remiss - actually, I hadn't even thought about it when I started out in this little online hobby - in not noting the date of the 'Now' photos. They are generally taken about 2 weeks before I post them here. Goldie, LIMike, I'll try my best in future.



August 28 addition.


Bathurst looking N towards Queen.

 

[jaborandi]

Strangely, I've been remiss - actually, I hadn't even thought about it when I started out in this little online hobby - in not noting the date of the 'Now' photos. They are generally taken about 2 weeks before I post them here. Goldie, LIMike, I'll try my best in future.



August 29 addition.


Bathurst looking N towards Queen.

Not a lot has changed! Has anyone noticed the peculiar column capital on the far east side of the building at the NE corner wot is currently being renovated. Somewhere along the way, the original Corinthian capital went walkabout and was replaced by an odd ziggy-zaggy replacement of the same general massing but without the fine carving. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to substitute a deco-ish Egyptian looking thingy.

 

[condovo]

1930 (note Holt Renfrews on NW corner):

1939:

Doesn't the sign actually read 'Holt, Renfrew & Co.' rather than 'Holt, Renfrew's Co.?' Looks more like an ampersand than an apostrophe-S to me. The ad you posted from 1934 seems to confirm as much.

Also, I find the streamlined cars from the late-thirties to be quite beautiful and still modern-looking seventy years on. Would love to get my hands on one of them. Thanks for the pics.

 

[Mustapha]

Lots of conversations around UT lately about utility poles. It's indeed strange how long lived some of the steel ones are. If only they could speak.



August 29 addition.


Queen looking N up James.

 

[NomoreaTorontonian]

1910. One horse and cart, one car, two bicycles, and somebody crossing the street with two meals "to go". Not everything has changed.

 

[RedRocket191]

1910. One horse and cart, one car, two bicycles, and somebody crossing the street with two meals "to go". Not everything has changed.

Just the hats.

 

[Edward Skira]

And the lack of people.

 

[Mustapha]

Just the hats.

And the relative silence then. The lack of cars probably made for a quiet city. I imagine you would have heard a only murmur of voices as all the people left those Eaton factories. No gunning car engines, horns, Harley bikes doing their noisemaking.

 

[Goldie]

McDonald's

A recent comment about McDonald's reminded me that I had this old Scarborough photo on file.
I shot the "Now" pic today.

 

[condovo]

Just the hats.

And the corsets.

 

[Goldie]

camera angles

Has anyone else noticed that many of the old photos were taken above street level - and very effective as such?
I expect they were shot from the tops of trucks, buggies or vans.
Our 'Now' shots are usually taken at street level.

 

[grey]

The people are still there; they've just gone inside.

 

[CodeMonkey]

Canadian Domain Ride(Toronto Zoo)

May not be Toronto of the 50's, but it feels so long ago since the Toronto Zoo monorail was last running i thought it deserved it to be consider Toronto of the past .


circa. 1986

2009