Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Ikmin]

Interesting shots but you really need to have an old and new photo of same scene to meet 'obligations' of this great thread.

I might have worded my captions weirdly, but these photos are taken from roughly the same spot. Is that not in line with every other post on this thread?

 

[DSC]

I might have worded my captions weirdly, but these photos are taken from roughly the same spot. Is that not in line with every other post on this thread?

I misunderstood your captions - the area REALLY has changed! "Roughly the same spot' is usually the best we can do! Thanks for posting.

 

[adma]

So, before the high level bridge, Bloor took the Old Mill pathway?

 

[thecharioteer]

Wellington Street West (west of Yonge):

1910, Ontario Club on the right:

1912:

Aerial view (lower left hand corner). 1950's?

1967. The Club was demolished in 1969:

Now:

 

[Blovertis]

In case anyone thinks Toronto is uniquely bad at architectural preservation:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1864390007135297946

 

[adma]

In case anyone thinks Toronto is uniquely bad at architectural preservation:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1864390007135297946

"Grass is greener", you know.

That said, judging from how certain Toronto examples would have seemed implausible a generation ago (Meighen, Simpson, etc), I'm wondering whether this reflects a modern-day "post-preservationist" hubris, i.e. the same mindset that's made McMansions common in neighbourhoods where the decorum of leaving well enough alone was once the rule. Renewing something "dated" with something "fresh", almost as a gesture to "own the hysterical preservationists"--a sod-you to those Architectural Revival/Architectural Uprising-type sites where they celebrate the replacement of "horrid" 60s/70s modernism with trad retro "beauty matters" etc etc. Altogether, it's sad when our preexisting urbanscape gets wrecked on behalf of today's dumbed-down culture wars where neither side seems much interested in the actual *history* of what was there previously...

 

[thecharioteer]

On the other hand, sometimes (but rarely) the direction goes the other way:

San Antonio:

 

[Tim MacDonald]

I didn't quite get this right since it was only when I was over the area that I realized I had a 1986 photo and it might be cool to try a now and then type thing.
1986-City of Toronto archives

December 15th 2024

 

[Northern Light]

Then: (not dated)

Taken from: https://scontent.fykz1-2.fna.fbcdn....u-ovNmi8acA7yrESTP2sDfiqv4cI8cUOg&oe=677A596F

Now: (streetview 2018)