Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

[thecharioteer]

Here are a couple of interesting pictures of 38 1/2 North St, now Bay Street, just south of Bloor Street - apparently built in 1905 and designed by W.R. Mead - according to the City of Toronto Archives record. Here it is in about 1908 as the Margaret Eaton School of Literature and Expression:

By the 1930's it is Mosher's and had lost the ornate front, and some of the windows, but the building to the north (our right) was still there as well:

Does anyone have any other photos of this building? http://www.heritagetoronto.org/discover-toronto/photos?page=2 has some details, but I wonder what Msher's was... when the building was torn down, etc...

A good find of that rather sad picture of the portico-less school. I posted this pic and map last summer on the "Then and Now" thread along with this lovely description by Eric Arthur from Toronto No Mean City:

"Were it not for the so typical Toronto cottages on both side and the shabby Hydro pole, the central building might be the headquarters, somewhere in Asia Minor, of a mysterious and unrecorded cult. Anything more unlike a school for young girls could hardly be imagined. "Beauty and fitness" is, I am told, a loose translation of the motto on the architrave which must have been a source of bewilderment to taxi-drivers. Except for the Registry Building on Edward Street, this was the swan song of the Greek revival in Toronto."

By 1931, it appears to be gone:

 

[thecharioteer]

Portico a victim of Bay-extension street widening, I presume?

Sure looks like it:

Similarly, the porch of the house to the north:

 

[Urban Shocker]

October 1901: The First Royal Visit to Canada and Toronto

I believe that Edward, Prince of Wales, visited the Canadas in 1860 as a warm-up act for Confederation.

 

[thecharioteer]

I believe that Edward, Prince of Wales, visited the Canadas in 1860 as a warm-up act for Confederation.

I stand corrected, however, the first future monarch of the royal family to visit Canada was actually Prince William (the future William IV), who visited Canada in 1786 as part of a naval contingent. The 1901 visit was unique in being the first visit by a female member of the royal family, the future Queen Mary.

 

[Mustapha]

I always wondered what happened to the Exchange Building on Wellington at Leader Lane, one of the finest Georgian buildings of early Toronto. I found out, by accident, running across some photos on the Toronto Archives site about the fire at the Imperial Bank on Wellington East on March 20, 1941:

1856:

1878:

1941:

If I may, here is my picture of an engraving of The Exchange from my book: "Toronto, a Pictorial Record 1813-1882, Charles P. deVolpi, DEV-SCO Publications, 1965.

Not captured by the camera in order to preserve the detail of the Exchange, is the following text:

"Lithographed by Maclear & Co., Toronto, from drawing by Lucius O'Brien c. 1854." "J. Grand, Architect."

 

[thecharioteer]

Thanks for that Mustapha. Here are a few more that illustrate that at some point those wonderful Doric columns got replaced by arched windows:

And the site remained vacant after the fire, with the balance of the block between Scott and Leader Lane soon to follow:

1867:

 

[adma]

What weirds me out is that not only did this stuff survive into the 50s/60s, it survived so *whole*--classical and iron details and all, few inappropriate depradations. Makes me wonder what they were on to throw it all away...

 

[thecharioteer]

What weirds me out is that not only did this stuff survive into the 50s/60s, it survived so *whole*--classical and iron details and all, few inappropriate depradations. Makes me wonder what they were on to throw it all away...

Not always, as witnessed by the sad decline of the Pacific Building on the NE corner of Front and Scott, from its High Victorian splendour to its stripped-down shell prior to its demolition (interesting side-note: according to the Business Section City map of 1945-56, the Pacific Building was owned by the Trustees of the University of Toronto):

 

[seemsartless]

Thanks everyone, by the way, for the details on the Margaret Eaton School of Literature and Expression. Another lost treasure and interesting story...

 

[Goldie]

Old-Time Tweeting

The beginnings of our Internet passion:

 

[HHC]

So all that was destroyed for the likes of Berczy Park?

 

[DSC]

So all that was destroyed for the likes of Berczy Park?

Actually for a car park that, eventually was bought by the City and became the park.

 

[J T CUNNINGHAM]

Of incidental note, the "west wall of The Gooderham Flat Iron Building", is owned by The City of Toronto,

the above being bonded to it during it's construction. (1892)

Regards,
J T

 

[thecharioteer]

Eric Arthur's book Toronto No Mean City, first published in 1964 by the University of Toronto Press, was the first book that opened my eyes to the architectural history of our city. Written at a time when the razing of the old city was in full swing, it is both a lament and a celebration, beautifully written with numerous photographs and drawings of a city being transformed.

Here are a few excerpts of showing some of the buildings recently discussed in this and the "Then and Now" threads:

 

[thecharioteer]

Postscript to the Art Noveau building at 70 Wellington West. It stood on the north side of Wellington between York and Bay, until demolished for the TD Centre:

Close-up: