Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Mustapha]

Today - all baseball caps ............some mistakenly worn backwards!

'Mistakenly'?

 

[Goldie]

'Mistakenly'?

According to recent statistics, those "worn backwards" today are the ones with the brim at front.

 

[thecharioteer]

Then. NE corner Wellesley and Bay. Wellesley Public School. A couple of 'Then' views for us today.

This handsome building was erected - in the flowery language of the day - in 1874. It lasted until the mid 60s when it was replaced by the Sutton Place Hotel. I'm not sure if I 'did' this one already in the past.. if I did, this is a rebroadcast.

Now. August 2013. Soon to be 'The Britt' condo.

http://torontofamilyhistory.org/kingandcountry/archives/955

Remember that when the Wellesley Public School was built, it was in the heart of a residential neighbourhood at the corner of St. Alban's Street (now Wellesley) and St. Vincent Street (now Bay), surrounded by houses, kitty corner to the grounds of the Convent of St. Joseph, and just up the street from the Central Presbyterian Church at Grosvenor (a victim of the Terauley Extension which extended Bay from Queen to Davenport). Remnants of the old neighbourhood still remained up until the 1930's as can be seen in the pic below from 1934:








Seen just north of the school in the above pic, at the SE corner of St. Joseph and Bay was St. Luke's Church, designed by Darling & Curry:



Convent of St. Joseph:



Photo by Michel Lambeth of the convent, 1960:

 

[r937]

(aside from the VW Beatle).

just to be a little pedantic (yeah, i know), it's spelled Beetle

the other spelling originated with some pop group in england in the 60s

 

[Goldie]

When my son was six he named his pet rabbit - Volkswagen.

 

[thecharioteer]

Views from the Canada Life Building, Queen & University:









http://www.smarthousetoronto.com/smart-house.html

 

[Mustapha]

Views from the Canada Life Building, Queen & University:


http://www.smarthousetoronto.com/smart-house.html

[Smart] micro cars, micro [Smart] condos... I don't normally give too much thought to new developments but this one is intriguing for its unit sizes and prices. Not for couples with or soon to have children but for young singles and single seniors there seems to be a market for this price bracket. I expect a lot of overseas/out of town parents with the cash will be buying these for their children attending school in Toronto.

 

[Mustapha]

No Then and Now content today. I ran out of Now pictures. I could grab a Google street view 'still' if I knew how, but I don't.





Here is a couple years old Urban Toronto article about the disappeared Yonge Street Arcade and it's still extant Cleveland Ohio counterpart.



http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2011/12/skyline-international-leaps-across-border-and-lands-incleveland



It piqued me enough to bucket list and go see the Cleveland Arcade. I had the opportunity recently on my way home from visiting family in Columbus OH.

Here are the pictures. There are actually TWO arcades, across Euclid Avenue from each other [nearest cross street is 4th street, if you're thinking of going].

Cheers,

-Moose.

And the slightly less grand one, just across Euclid Avenue:

Bonus Material!:



And wait, that's not all. For those of you with an interest in what I call 'Lost Chinatowns' [defunct Chinatowns], I had the opportunity to visit the long depopulated Cleveland Chinatown. All that is left is a very grand building, long derelict but recently renovated by Asian interests and now looking for tenants. My grandfather mentioned to me that by the 1960s most of the 'gum san' families left Cleveland for what was hopefully better opportunities in other Chinatown centres such as New York, Chicago and Boston.

By the by there is a new 'Asiantown plaza' here:

http://www.asiaplazacleveland.com/

Not sure if it's worth a stop but I needed a shrimp chip fix and they had them. Lot's of Hong Kong Cantonese voices so there's the stamp of approval for ya'.

 

[nostalgic]

The Cleveland Arcade is stunning but... where are the people?

 

[ShonTron]

The first arcade posted is now part of the Hyatt Regency hotel, so it's largely used for hotel functions.

The Terminal Tower has a large indoor shopping mall (Terminal City) which isn't dead, but isn't too great either. It opened in 1929 (IIRC), and might have replaced much of the old Arcade's function. The old Higbee's department store that was part of the Terminal City mall (the department store in A Christmas Story) is now a casino.

 

[junctionist]

North York Centre has a number of postmodern office towers that have retail arcades in their atria. They're not as elaborate, but it's interesting to uncover the historical inspiration for that postmodern architectural element.

 

[dazednconfuzed68]

There was also a streetcar restaurant on Eglinton East in the Bermondsey area although I can't place it's exact location anymore. They closed the business and hauled it away about 20 years ago.

Don't get me going about the Constellation aircraft that was parked in front of the Constellation hotel on Dixon for a short period about 20 years ago. That was a beautiful aircraft.[/
QUOTE]





The restaurant was La Pentola and was located at 1679 eglinton ave east. They moved across the road to a new location on credit union drive. I was working at Parkway Honda when the building was leveled in the summer of 96?.

 

[Mustapha]

There was also a streetcar restaurant on Eglinton East in the Bermondsey area although I can't place it's exact location anymore. They closed the business and hauled it away about 20 years ago.

Don't get me going about the Constellation aircraft that was parked in front of the Constellation hotel on Dixon for a short period about 20 years ago. That was a beautiful aircraft.[/
QUOTE]


The restaurant was La Pentola and was located at 1679 eglinton ave east. They moved across the road to a new location on credit union drive. I was working at Parkway Honda when the building was leveled in the summer of 96?.

Thank you dazednconfuzed68!



By the way everyone, there is a 'street photography' themed exhibit in the lobby of the Toronto Archives.

http://www.toronto.ca/archives/pdf/life-on-the-grid.pdf

Many of the pictures are from the 1980s and 90s, an era that most of us can relate to. It was neat to see images of street scenes that are 20 years old and remembering businesses long gone but feeling as if I had just gone into them last week.

 

[Goldie]

EUREKA!
After considerable searching, here's a copy of my 1982 Kodachrome of a PCC relic that was in a field at the N/W corner of Warden and Steeles (Markham).

Also found this related Web page: http://transit.toronto.on.ca/streetcar/4006.shtml

 

[Anna]

EUREKA!
After considerable searching, here's a copy of my 1982 Kodachrome of a PCC relic that was in a field at the N/W corner of Warden and Steeles (Markham)...

I was just about to mention that one, when up popped a photo. Thanks for all the searching.

I don't know if any one else has mentioned this but Forumer 'One Nut Kruk'?! pointed out to me that more aerial photos have been put up on the Toronto Archives website, and you don't need the MrSid plug-in that everyone hates so much/can't use to see them. They're in jpeg2000 format, they include bits of Markham/Vaughan/Pickering and are for the years 1947, 1953, 1957, 1962, 1971, 1983 and 1992.
http://www.toronto.ca/archives/aerial.htm
Happy Thanksgiving weekend everyone.

Here is said streetcar in situ in 1983