k10ery
Senior Member
Except that photo is probably from the 30s or 40s, so I don't see how they could have been at the Hippodrome in 1915. Maybe the original de Leon sisters retired and these ladies inherited the business.
Yikes. This is the first time I've seen a photo of Oak Hall. No Mean City shows a render that is much cleaner and simpler and writes "Only a very modern, progressive firm would build such a building."
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OK. For some reason, it looks familiar. I lived three blocks from there on Thorncliffe Ave, from 1969 to 1977. Actually, if anybody has any pictures of what we called the "Lookout", I'd love to see that. It's the municipal "ending" of Chester Hill Road. It has a concrete & aluminum fence that stops on the hill right above the DVP. That view was my train set as a child. You can spend hours there just watching what's going on..."
perhaps he meant the Todmorden House, which was on the site where Sobey's is nowHe also remembers the old Broadview Hotel surounded by a fence, as well as a blacksmith on the site of the current Sobey's.
Royal Drive: In doing some research on the Queen's first visit -- as a princess in Oct. 1951 -- she and Philip did an extended tour of the city via automobile. One of their stops was Riverdale Park (I found an old NFB film) and then they left via "Royal Drive." My best guess is that Royal Drive was the eastern end of Winchester which used to cross the valley and is now the on-ramp just west of Broadview to the DVP north. Can anybody confirm that? Or do I have it wrong?
For those who are interested, here's a link to that NFB film: http://www.nfb.ca/film/royal_journey The Riverdale Park sequence is at the 15 minute mark or so.