Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Mustapha]

November 15 addition.

In honour of tomorrow's Santa Clause Parade, from the Hudson Bay Company archives:

Then: 1966. Simpson's Queen Street windows.

Now: November 2009.

 

[Anna]

I've got a book that basically does the Then & Now thing and the two outer pictures come from it.

Me too.

In keeping with the Santa Claus Parade Theme, there is a ton of stuff from the Eaton's Archives on the Ontario Archives website - movies, pictures, Punkinhead, letters to & from Santa, & colouring books you can download and do at home...

http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-line-exhibits/index-eatons.aspx

 

[Long Island Mike]

More good Toronto Then and Now pics...

Mustapha:
Those pics from 11/11 of decade street scenes-that 50s pic looks definitely
EARLY 50s to me.
In the 2nd 50s pic there is a 1956 Chevy 2nd auto from right...
In the 60s pic there is a green AMC Rambler on the right,a yellow Studebaker near that man crossing the street and a Ford Fairlane station wagon being unloaded at the corner from the back...
11/13 The bank pic at College/Bathurst is interesting-they were built solid then and look just fine now!
In that Dundas/Elizabeth pic left to right in the back-70s era: Ford Maverick;Buick Electra 225 or Chevy Monte Carlo and a Mercury Comet are in the back. On the left is the tail fin of a Chevy Camaro or Pontiac Trans Am
and that brown car on the left looks like a Japanese import(Toyota or Datsun)to me.
LI MIKE

 

[LowPolygon]

Me too.

In keeping with the Santa Claus Parade Theme, there is a ton of stuff from the Eaton's Archives on the Ontario Archives website - movies, pictures, Punkinhead, letters to & from Santa, & colouring books you can download and do at home...
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-line-exhibits/index-eatons.aspx

thanks Anna! there are some really good photos on that site...

 

[Mustapha]

... colouring books you can download and do at home...
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-line-exhibits/index-eatons.aspx

Finally, some meaningful weekend activity for UTers.

In that Dundas/Elizabeth pic ... that brown car on the left looks like a Japanese import to me.
LI MIKE

That car was quite striking to me too. They were cheap cars and owners drove them into the ground, if the road salt didn't get to them first. Lots of 60s Japanese cars are still on the road in California for some reason, many were purchased there. 60s Japanese iron have quirky styling, lots of character and are nice on the eyes, to me anyways.

thanks Anna! there are some really good photos on that site...

thedeepend, I navigated around that website; couldn't find anything in high rez or colour like you did. Well done and thanks.






November 16 addition.




Then: Spadina just S of Dundas, E side. June 1 1944. There was a building - I can't find a picture of it, that postdated the old house and predated the modern building. Spadina fascinates me - I enjoy walking up and down it and looking at the buildings from all eras represented on it. When one is tired, the snacks, coffee and park benches of Kensington Market beckon.

Now: October 2009.

 

[Spoonman]

Well, now we all know where former Eaton's window displays go to die:

 

[Spoonman]

Then: Spadina just S of Dundas, E side. June 1 1944. There was a building - I can't find a picture of it, that postdated the old house and predated the modern building. Spadina fascinates me - I enjoy walking up and down it and looking at the buildings from all eras represented on it. When one is tired, the snacks, coffee and park benches of Kensington Market beckon.

If I'm not mistaken, there are only a handful of houses (or rather, shells of a house) remaining on that stretch of Spadina (roughly between Front and College) that hearken back to the boulevard's former residential character before it became the epicentre of the city's garment industry, and the changes in built form that ensued.

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Spadina+%26+Queen,+TOronto&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=27.99559,56.513672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Spadina+Ave+%26+Queen+St+W,+Toronto,+Toronto+Division,+Ontario&ll=43.650097,-79.396992&spn=0.007654,0.013797&z=16&layer=c&cbll=43.650478,-79.397149&panoid=OOoUhorZvB6XeHHhe9bT2Q&cbp=12,221.89,,0,-3.4

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Spadina+%26+Queen,+TOronto&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=27.99559,56.513672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Spadina+Ave+%26+Queen+St+W,+Toronto,+Toronto+Division,+Ontario&layer=c&cbll=43.651344,-79.397297&panoid=l21H5wNR2PFKsNGmRq5zAw&cbp=12,65.54,,0,-8.44&ll=43.651199,-79.397442&spn=0.007204,0.013797&z=16

 

[Stumack]

I believe the Japanese car is a 1973 Dodge Colt - it was a rebadged Mitsubishi product first imported for 1971. The beige car on the far side is a 1973 Buick Regal.

Mustapha:

...and that brown car on the left looks like a Japanese import(Toyota or Datsun)to me.
LI MIKE

 

[Long Island Mike]

Dodge Colt: Good observation!

Stumack: I forgot that North American car companies in the 70s had experimental small car makes-like the Mitsubishi-made Dodge Colt.
We all now realize that autos began to get smaller after the two 70s fuel shortages and got bigger again in the 90s when it was plentiful again.
Who would have thought that the Japanese automakers would eventually become stronger then the North American makers back then?
Thoughts from LI MIKE

 

[thecharioteer]

Mustapha: Your Spadina house pic has inspired me to trace two sites which once had large houses: the NE corner of Spadina & Dundas and the SE corner of Spadina & Sullivan.

NE Corner of Spadina & Dundas:

1910:

1921:

View of Dr. Moorhouse's home along Dundas (St. Patrick) looking west 1910:

Same view after road widening:

1968:

Today:

SE corner of Spadina & Sullivan:

1910:

1908 or 1909:

Today:

Looking north on Spadina, east side, south of Dundas, 1906:

 

[Mustapha]

Well, now we all know where former Eaton's window displays go to die:

I failed to make that connection entirely.

SE corner of Spadina & Sullivan:
1908 or 1909:

/QUOTE]

No wonder this place and the Moorhouse mansion disappeared; the lot sizes were huge.







November 17 addition.


Then: 1961.

Now: November 2009.

 

[Aaron]

No coppers, no bills. It's always somethin'!

 

[jaborandi]

Looking north on Spadina, east side, south of Dundas, 1906:

[/QUOTE]

Is that house with the bay window north of the second set of pillars the same as the one below?

 

[thecharioteer]

It looks like it is; same bulbous roof over the bay, same brackets under the eave. The passage of time (38 years) wasn't really good to the old girl, was it?

 

[LowPolygon]

Apparently, the TTC had a problem convincing the docile Toronto folk to use the newfangled tokens. Things got so bad they sent a photog out to "document the resistance".