More Lost Toronto in colour

[thecharioteer]

Later than 1953. The Shell Tower (1955) is in them.

Good point! The accepted date for the Shell Tower seems to be 1955, but this is the description of the photo on the Ontario Archives Visual Database website:

Digital Image Number: I0005554.jpg
Title: Night view of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE)
Date: 1953
Place: Toronto (Ont.)
Creator: Department of Travel and Publicity, Publicity Branch
Reference Code: RG 65-35
Item Reference Code: RG 65-35-3, 11764-X2829

 

[Uncle Teddy]

Love those CNE shots.

 

[thecharioteer]

Love those CNE shots.

Few more:

1925:

1930's (ah, hats!):

1942: Miss War Worker Beauty Contest 1942, Canadian National Exhibition Grandstand : contestants are grouped by employer.:

Miss War Worker Beauty Contest 1942, Canadian National Exhibition Grandstand : Police Chief D.C. Draper presents ribbon to Dorothy Linham, Miss War Worker 1942

1950: (the Electrical Building; now site of the Direct Energy Building):

 

[Towered]

Those beauty contestants look rather plain, I must say.

 

[GenerationW]

When they're vying for Ms. War Worker, I should hope so!

 

[CityPlaceN1]

Shame about the electrical building.

 

[barit]

That's Toronto fer ya!

 

[adma]

Though the usual caveat: it was demolished in 1972, a quarter century before the DEC came up in its place...

 

[thecharioteer]

Though the usual caveat: it was demolished in 1972, a quarter century before the DEC came up in its place...

Ah, the 60's and 70's in Toronto; demolish first, think later.

 

[ganjavih]

Wow, those photos above are simply disgusting. This is why I can never be a fan of the modern era of city building (or city destroying as it was).

 

[Mustapha]

Great comparison.

 

[Urban Shocker]

What's missing is the third photo in the sequence - Toronto today, with a thriving mixture of residential, retail, educational and cultural uses to buildings, and some nice new parks - much of which was missing in either of those two earlier images of declining industry and transformation to the new Toronto.

 

[Mustapha]

Can anyone here cite why the block except the Gooderham building was razed? I know there is a park there, but is that the reason?

 

[Anna]

Can anyone here cite why the block except the Gooderham building was razed? I know there is a park there, but is that the reason?

I am in the process of reading "Unbuilt Toronto" by Mark Osbaldeston, and there is a whole chapter on the St Lawrence Centre. To make a long story short, the idea was 'urban renewal' and the creation of an arts district (bounded by Church/Jarvis/Front/Richmond) as a 'Centennial Project', but all that was built was the St Lawrence Centre, outside the original site.

There is a picture of the model of "the two building proposal for the St. Lawrence Centre that the city took to tender at the end of 1966. Cutbacks would result in the single building that was built." The second building was on the site of Berczy Park.

 

[Edward Skira]

The current Market Square site was meant to be the CBC HQ along with a massive parking garage.