Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Traynor]

I'm intrigued by your speculation regarding the cause of that stain on the building - a taxi stand.
I'll suggest that it could also have been caused by a nearby manhole in the sidewalk or road that released the damaging smoke.
I wonder if any city engineer has an opinion.

Yikes! Manholes release steam at best! They better not be belching black-particle laced smoke. What do you think is going on in our sewers? Strange mole people circled around small campfires? LOL

 

[Goldie]

Some interesting comments by an early immigrant:

David Cragg’s First Impressions of Toronto June 1833

This was found at:
<http://www.barbaradickson.ca/index.php?page_id=5>


“The streets, the name set up at every corner. The houses numbered. The number set over the door in fair figures. One side 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc. The other side 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. Streets wide. In some places a row of trees before the house doors. A foot path on either side of the street ten feet wide, some places flagged, some boarded, some nothing but soil. Streets not paved or Mac-Adamed. Very dusty when dry, desperately mucky when it rains. Very little sweeping of the footway and the steps at the doors, only some smarter houses and shops. Windows never cleaned since the house was made. Horsemen all go a-gallop through the dust and mud. Wagons and carts go along trot, loaded or empty. Wagons of hay at the rate of seven miles an hour. 50 or 60 stone for two horses. Oxen not so fast.

“People very civil, never a misbeholden word or skittish remark made upon one another, travel the streets as you will. An Englishman now and then may come up and say, “Let’s have a hold of your hand. I see you are an Englishman.” Same as neighbours from Cumberland or famers of Cornwall. Shops all called stores, many public houses and all the grocery stores sell drams and beer as well as many others. In some streets every house is a store of some sort. I almost think there are more stores than customers. Stables confined to one spot. Markets begin in the morning. Things as dear as in Lancaster. A very deal of building going forward, a hundred houses or more. I should think at this time. No pigs have I seen in York. Cows a good number, rather small Irish looking and apt to be good milkers, all wear bells. Land about is bad and sandy up to the top. The bush close to the town. In places thick, heavy, rank with pine. Many thousands of feet of wood per acre.”

 

[LowPolygon]

"The Maxwell Car" dealer ------ Didn't Jack Benny own a Maxwell?

i came across this--this would have been the new model on offer in 1919--only $985! i wonder if that was expensive back then....

 

[Mustapha]

i came across this--this would have been the new model on offer in 1919--only $985! i wonder if that was expensive back then....

And I came across this; it's in US dollars though. Can't vouch for it, lets call it a guideline.

http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm

Anyways, the answer is $11,254.00. A cheap car compared to today's cheapest Kia car; but I think earning power was quite a bit less then. A quick spin around the internet comes up with a figure about $1,200.00./yr. So, the Maxwell was a dream for most.

I remember gramps telling me that his first job (in an abattoir) in Toronto in 1918 paid $1.00 a day.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The first owner of my little Riverdale semi bought it for around $1,800 in 1909.

Interesting description of 1833 Muddy York, Goldie. I haven't read that one before.

 

[Traynor]

For comparison, according to Wikipedia, the Ford Model T (the common man's car from 1908 onwards) sold for:

"Price

The standard 4-seat open tourer of 1909 cost $850 (equivalent to $20,091 today),[21] when competing cars often cost $2,000-$3,000 (equivalent to $47,274-$70,911 today);[citation needed] in 1913, the price dropped to $550 (equivalent to $11,819 today), and $440 in 1915 (equivalent to $9,237 today). Sales were 69,762 in 1911; 170,211 in 1912; 202,667 in 1913; 308,162 in 1914; and 501,462 in 1915.[22] In 1914, an assembly line worker could buy a Model T with four months' pay.[19]

By the 1920s, the price had fallen to $290 (equivalent to $3,191 today) because of increasing efficiencies of assembly line technique and volume. Henry employed vertical integration of the industries needed to create his cars."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T

 

[Mustapha]

Some interesting comments by an early immigrant:

David Cragg’s First Impressions of Toronto June 1833

This was found at:
<http://www.barbaradickson.ca/index.php?page_id=5>


“The streets, the name set up at every corner. The houses numbered. The number set over the door in fair figures. One side 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc. The other side 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. Streets wide. In some places a row of trees before the house doors. A foot path on either side of the street ten feet wide, some places flagged, some boarded, some nothing but soil. Streets not paved or Mac-Adamed. Very dusty when dry, desperately mucky when it rains. Very little sweeping of the footway and the steps at the doors, only some smarter houses and shops. Windows never cleaned since the house was made. Horsemen all go a-gallop through the dust and mud. Wagons and carts go along trot, loaded or empty. Wagons of hay at the rate of seven miles an hour. 50 or 60 stone for two horses. Oxen not so fast.

“People very civil, never a misbeholden word or skittish remark made upon one another, travel the streets as you will. An Englishman now and then may come up and say, “Let’s have a hold of your hand. I see you are an Englishman.” Same as neighbours from Cumberland or famers of Cornwall. Shops all called stores, many public houses and all the grocery stores sell drams and beer as well as many others. In some streets every house is a store of some sort. I almost think there are more stores than customers. Stables confined to one spot. Markets begin in the morning. Things as dear as in Lancaster. A very deal of building going forward, a hundred houses or more. I should think at this time. No pigs have I seen in York. Cows a good number, rather small Irish looking and apt to be good milkers, all wear bells. Land about is bad and sandy up to the top. The bush close to the town. In places thick, heavy, rank with pine. Many thousands of feet of wood per acre.”

Surely everyone has come across Charles Dickens little blurb about us by now? May 1842.

http://dickens.thefreelibrary.com/American-Notes-for-General-Circulation/15-1

"The country round this town being very flat, is bare of scenic interest; but the town itself is full of life and motion, bustle, business, and improvement. The streets are well paved, and lighted with gas; the houses are large and good; the shops excellent. Many of them have a display of goods in their windows, such as may be seen in thriving county towns in England; and there are some which would do no discredit to the metropolis itself. There is a good stone prison here; and there are, besides, a handsome church, a court-house, public offices, many commodious private residences, and a government observatory for noting and recording the magnetic variations. In the College of Upper Canada, which is one of the public establishments of the city, a sound education in every department of polite learning can be had, at a very moderate expense: the annual charge for the instruction of each pupil, not exceeding nine pounds sterling. It has pretty good endowments in the way of land, and is a valuable and useful institution.

The first stone of a new college had been laid but a few days before, by the Governor General. It will be a handsome, spacious edifice, approached by a long avenue, which is already planted and made available as a public walk. The town is well adapted for wholesome exercise at all seasons, for the footways in the thoroughfares which lie beyond the principal street, are planked like floors, and kept in very good and clean repair."

 

[College Park]

Yikes! Manholes release steam at best! They better not be belching black-particle laced smoke. What do you think is going on in our sewers? Strange mole people circled around small campfires? LOL

Actually, there is a sewer cover in the lane (where trees were planted until last month) that releases a real stink. Try eating a vendor-dog in that miasma...barf.

 

[Traynor]

Actually, there is a sewer cover in the lane (where trees were planted until last month) that releases a real stink. Try eating a vendor-dog in that miasma...barf.

Well, DUH... they are sewers. Our effluent travels through them. One should practically expect a "stink" but not smoke. As far as I know, there is no cumbustion going on beneath our streets. Even the odd deisel generator down there, would have a pipe directing cumbusted materials above street level, otherwise our city workers would be ashpixiated as they tried to do their jobs.

 

[Mustapha]

February 3 addition.

Yonge and Elmwood in North York, looking NW.

Then: 1960s?.

Now: November 2009. The Dairy Queen is still there.

 

[Traynor]

I haven't been on that corner in a while... Is that still a Dairy Queen sign I see at the far right edge of your NOW picture? Almost 50 years later! Now that is brand placement!

 

[Mustapha]

I haven't been on that corner in a while... Is that still a Dairy Queen sign I see at the far right edge of your NOW picture? Almost 50 years later! Now that is brand placement!

Yep, still there Traynor. The caramel dip cone is mighty fine on a summer day.

 

[Aaron]

Yep, still there Traynor. The caramel dip cone is mighty fine on a summer day.

Is that the same as the delightful, butterscotch dipped cone, which they discontinued for reasons unknown?

 

[Mustapha]

Is that the same as the delightful, butterscotch dipped cone, which they discontinued for reasons unknown?

It is, I had one last May at the Broadview location. It's discontinued??

 

[Goldie]

The site where I found that 1833 description of Toronto also has an interesting history (many photos included) of the GECO munitions plant that was in Scarborough during WWII.
I recomment this history to anyone interested in Scarborough's early days:

http://www.barbaradickson.ca/index.php?page_id=16