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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

Originally Posted by ronnieg
Also, just up the street on Carlaw from Colgate Palmolive (by the way, they renamed "Natalie" Street "Colgate" in 1935 when they built the factory) was Reliable Toy factory. My mom worked there for 24 years from 1948. Many of those factories in the east end are either torn down or turned into condos (Wrigley). You know what it is like when you are a kid, your sense of smell is much more distinct than it is as we get older. I lived across the street from a Dunlop Tire factory, but depending on which way the wind was blowing, I also got a whiff of the soap smell from Colgate Palmolive factory, and the smell of fresh baking bread from Brown Bros. factory at Logan and Eastern (Now Weston). Many fine memories!

In 1943 my family decided to pull up stakes from a quiet little neighbourhood in Winnipeg and seek their fortune in booming Toronto, being an agreeable little 8 year old I decided to throw in my lot with them. Our first residence in town was a second floor flat at 456 Carlaw, first house north of Gerrard (it is still there), plunk in the middle of the olfactory delights mentioned elsewhere in this thread and a symphony of sounds like I had never heard before in one place at one time. A steady stream of CNR 4100's crawling up the grade to Danforth station and beyond, the Fire Hall that was seemingly on constant call and the TTC which at that time ran up Carlaw as well as on Gerrard providing endless skreeching and clunking at all hours.

I don't think I slept for the first week.
 
In 1943 my family decided to pull up stakes from a quiet little neighbourhood in Winnipeg and seek their fortune in booming Toronto, being an agreeable little 8 year old I decided to throw in my lot with them. Our first residence in town was a second floor flat at 456 Carlaw, first house north of Gerrard (it is still there), plunk in the middle of the olfactory delights mentioned elsewhere in this thread and a symphony of sounds like I had never heard before in one place at one time. A steady stream of CNR 4100's crawling up the grade to Danforth station and beyond, the Fire Hall that was seemingly on constant call and the TTC which at that time ran up Carlaw as well as on Gerrard providing endless skreeching and clunking at all hours.

I don't think I slept for the first week.

As a kid growing up in the 70's, we would often get down there from Broadview & Danforth. I always thought that intersection, now blocks away from me, was very unique, interesting.
 
You're welcome Gebbois. The downtown is confusing; grid pattern but water on all sides. I don't get there often enough to get my bearings.

It's interesting that that's on the Province's site. Most of the dead tree version of The Province is maybe a step up from the Toronto Sun (though sports coverage is good).

I haven't been into BC Place yet since it re-opened but it looks magnificent from the outside, at least from a distance. Closeup I still expect it's the same concrete bunker look.

The Burrard Bridge "then" photos aren't dated but they look late 40s-early 50s by my guess. In the "then" most of the boats at Granville Island were fishing boats - now they're mostly (expensive) pleasure boats, though there is still a fishing dock down there, and the boatyards are still doing well. The railway trestle beneath the bridge ran sort of diagonally across False Creek from what's now expensive-condo-Yaletown to what's now Vanier Park (both industrial areas back then). It's long gone but a remnant of the embankment is still there on the south side.

I worked in the Standard Life building at Howe and Dunsmuir for half a year before the company I was with moved - across the street to the northwest corner.

Megabite Pizza looks as bad as Toronto's Pizza Pizza signs but they're not quite as bad in real life, and not as ubiquitous. Fresh Slice is the low point of pizza here - they're all over the place and the pizza is abominable, even by $2 pizza standards, but at least the signs aren't as bad.

The PNE shot must have been taken just before opening time; I expect that even in the 30s it would have been pretty busy most of the time. But there wouldn't have been the mixture of faces then that there is now.

The below-ground skating rink at Robson Square (situated immediately behind the now Art Gallery) looks infinitely better since they "daylighted" it.
 
ronnieg's remark about the Weston bread bakery on Eastern rang in my head this afternoon as I walked by the Silversteins bakery on McCaul just north of Dundas. I do recall the nice smell from the Weston bakery is much stronger... I think Westons is a larger operation too.
 
It's interesting that that's on the Province's site. Most of the dead tree version of The Province is maybe a step up from the Toronto Sun (though sports coverage is good).

I haven't been into BC Place yet since it re-opened but it looks magnificent from the outside, at least from a distance. Closeup I still expect it's the same concrete bunker look.

The Burrard Bridge "then" photos aren't dated but they look late 40s-early 50s by my guess. In the "then" most of the boats at Granville Island were fishing boats - now they're mostly (expensive) pleasure boats, though there is still a fishing dock down there, and the boatyards are still doing well. The railway trestle beneath the bridge ran sort of diagonally across False Creek from what's now expensive-condo-Yaletown to what's now Vanier Park (both industrial areas back then). It's long gone but a remnant of the embankment is still there on the south side.

I worked in the Standard Life building at Howe and Dunsmuir for half a year before the company I was with moved - across the street to the northwest corner.

Megabite Pizza looks as bad as Toronto's Pizza Pizza signs but they're not quite as bad in real life, and not as ubiquitous. Fresh Slice is the low point of pizza here - they're all over the place and the pizza is abominable, even by $2 pizza standards, but at least the signs aren't as bad.

The PNE shot must have been taken just before opening time; I expect that even in the 30s it would have been pretty busy most of the time. But there wouldn't have been the mixture of faces then that there is now.

The below-ground skating rink at Robson Square (situated immediately behind the now Art Gallery) looks infinitely better since they "daylighted" it.

I was last in Vancouver in 2005.. stayed at the Hotel Georgia - was unrenovated; radiator heat, I see in Google streetview it's to be a condo soon. Wonderful building, not much to look at, but great bones and 'substance'.
 
Then and Now for Oct 24.


Then. Nov. 1, 1899.. a real oldie today. 'New cedar block pavement, Harbord Street' looking W to Robert Street. Cedar blocks - I wonder why this form of pavement never 'took off'?

226NewcedarblockpavementHarbordStreetRobertStreettoSpadinaAvenuenov11899.jpg



Now. June 2011.

227.jpg
 
'New cedar block pavement, Harbord Street' looking W to Robert Street. Cedar blocks - I wonder why this form of pavement never 'took off'?

I am assuming it's made up of vertically-placed blocks of Cedar or softwoods (Pine, etc.). It looks pretty solid, but I don't know how well it would perform under very rainy conditions, and snow. I am guessing rather slippery. Coupled with modern technologies, I wonder if it might be a solution for something:

[video=youtube;jkVBg_-OviI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkVBg_-OviI[/video]

Party like it's 1900!
 
"'New cedar block pavement, Harbord Street' looking W to Robert Street."
QUOTE Mustapha

Also see (BING) Nicolson Cedar Block Paving - Chicago.

Also take note of the continued slate roofing on at the least one of the properties.

BTW, the use of the present "Green Dreams" become a nightmare when applied to slate roofs.

After having had applied insulation to the "warm-side", the resulting ice buildup in the slate

envelope will destroy it. (Be careful for what you wish.)


Regards,
J T
 
Puts me in mind of a travelling fellow that just came back from York. He was wandering down one of the fine plank sidewalks, when he spied a hat laying in the mud. Seeing it was finer than the one he had on at the time, he made to lift it from the mud with a stick, and was startled to discover a Head beneath. Being the gentleman he was, he offered his assistance, but the head declined, declaring, "That's quite all right sir, I'm on Horseback! (Muddy York)
 
Given how many millions of termites we have crawling around in the soil, I doubt that they'd pass up the opportunity to chow down on a cedar road once the resins in the wood had broken down.
 
Then and Now for Oct 25.

Then. 303 Bay street. c1909. A wwwebster sourced picture.

http://www.thenationalclub.com/

232303Bayc1909.jpg




Now. June 2011.

233.jpg

Those elitist, private clubs are certainly unique structures.
I know of only one other in the downtown area.
I'm sure some of the members are very nervous these days.

Here's the north side of the National Club before Trump blocked the view.

NationalClubNwall.jpg


And The Toronto Club at Wellington & York.

TorontoClubsleep-over.jpg


TheTorontoClub.jpg
 

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