Toronto 400 Front Street | 195.75m | 59s | State Building Group | Kirkor Architects

I see we're digressing momentarily from the thread topic, LOL.

I've played a role.........

But I'm squeezing in one more digression before we all agree to get back on point....

Here's my then and now from above: (Front Street, looking east-north-east, from just east of John Street)

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Northern Light said:
I see we're digressing momentarily from the thread topic, LOL.

I've played a role.........

But I'm squeezing in one more digression before we all agree to get back on point....

Here's my then and now from above: (Front Street, looking east-north-east, from just east of John Street)

View attachment 330405

View attachment 330404
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Incredible scenes! I remember much of that wasteland. Even as a child it looked utterly bizarre to me...

To think that 400 Front is the last remaining bit of those massive former railway lands about to be filled in, finally stitching the area together...
 
Towered said:
Incredible scenes! I remember much of that wasteland. Even as a child it looked utterly bizarre to me...

To think that 400 Front is the last remaining bit of those massive former railway lands about to be filled in, finally stitching the area together...
Click to expand...
All of you talking about vaugly remembering this stuff as children lol. This building was demo'd 25 years before I was born lol.

On the topic of what is now to be built. these towers look awful.
 
Bjays92 said:
All of you talking about vaugly remembering this stuff as children lol. This building was demo'd 25 years before I was born lol.

On the topic of what is now to be built. these towers look awful.
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Youngin! LOL

I think @Towered and I are in the same age range..... (I'm mid-late 40's)

I can just barely remember some of this. I remember a train crossing Front and Spadina when I was little. My dad would take me to the Spadina bridge to watch trains, and hold me up over the opaque barrier until his arms got tired.
There was more variety of rollingstock then......less GO, more VIA, but also alot of CN and CP passenger livery, plus the freights. Different colours were very important at that age! LOL

****

Most of this area was parking by the time I have any tangible memory of it.
But I do remember being driven through the area and thinking it was grungy and seemingly near abandoned. Dad also took me on 'construction tours' by car about once every 2 months........on weekends.
Back then, Toronto, south of Queen was pretty dead on a weekend.
 
I've got to admit, the discussion going on in the past couple of pages about this site's history is 100% more interesting than anything we're going to be seeing go up on this site. It's a pleasant breath of fresh air and is a good distraction to avoid thinking about the developer's horrid plans for this area.
 
Bjays92 said:
All of you talking about vaugly remembering this stuff as children lol. This building was demo'd 25 years before I was born lol.

On the topic of what is now to be built. these towers look awful.
Click to expand...

I have to say, I thought you were older based on your handle. Why Bjays92 if you were not alive for that series?
 
Freight trains running the streets of Downtown Toronto, just blocks from our financial towers? What a juxtaposition. These images are breaking my young mind.
Northern Light said:
There was..........

Can't find a pic of that exact spot..........

But just to the north, here is the rail yard that used to exist at King and Simcoe, where Metro Hall and Roy Thomson Hall are today:

View attachment 330112
From the City Archives, as noted on pic.

Old Blog TO story w/this pic in it: https://www.blogto.com/city/2013/09/how_toronto_turned_a_rail_yard_in_to_roy_thomson_hall/
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Northern Light said:
Nope, that's where they were.

I remember.

Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

Triumph T100 Huzzah! Well done.
urbantoronto.ca urbantoronto.ca

******

View attachment 330101
from: http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/im...&cright=Isobel+Harry&mkey=74783&link_id=11543
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ProjectEnd said:
Heyoo! Photo of demo in progress 'dated' June 27, 1977:

f1526_fl0042_it0025.jpg

@AHK @Northern Light @innsertnamehere @Towered
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When the streetcar network was first built in the 1800s, the TTC's predecessors decided to use tracks that were a slightly different width than the tracks used in the national railway system. This was done specifically to prevent freight trains from ever using the TTC's streetcar network to navigate the city. Seeing these images, I now completely understand their thought process.
 
Ottawan said:
I have to say, I thought you were older based on your handle. Why Bjays92 if you were not alive for that series?
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Bjays92 was acc a mistake, it was supposed to be Bjays93, which at the time when I was making my internet alias was the last major sports championship a Canadian team had won. Being an avid sports that's what I decided to go with, I did bjays92 by mistake but I've just kinda gone with it ever since (this was like my gamecenter account on iPad all the way back in like 2010) now I just sorta use it for everything lol
 
marcus_a_j said:
View of the site (and surrounding area) from the TD Centre sometime in the late 60's
View attachment 332377
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I would suggest it's 1968 or later; the large parking lot on the left of the photo was a CN Yard/facility. To my understanding, they shuttered it in 1967. I would assume (don't know) that it would have taken a year to remove all track/buildings etc and pave a parking lot.
 
marcus_a_j said:
There are more clues from other photos as to the date if one was inclined. I posted a series here: https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threa...to-dominion-centre-observation-gallery.32489/
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Assuming all the photos were taken at the same time, we can narrow down the time range substantially.

We can see that the Simpson Tower looks complete, that was 1968.

We can see that the St Lawrence Centre looks complete, that was 1970.

We can the Sheraton Centre under construction, it would open in 1972.

So that puts the photo series somewhere in the 1970-71 range.
 
Northern Light said:
Assuming all the photos were taken at the same time, we can narrow down the time range substantially.

We can see that the Simpson Tower looks complete, that was 1968.

We can see that the St Lawrence Centre looks complete, that was 1970.

We can the Sheraton Centre under construction, it would open in 1972.

So that puts the photo series somewhere in the 1970-71 range.
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I'm ancient.(1961). So I remember it, although I was a child living in SW ON, we came into the city a lot.
 
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