LowPolygon
Senior Member
anyone know what that big whiter bunker thing is on the NE corner Bay and Elm St? some kind of garage connected to the auto dealers on Bay? you can also see it here in this aerial...
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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now
- Thread starter Mustapha
- Start date
anyone know what that big whiter bunker thing is on the NE corner Bay and Elm St? some kind of garage connected to the auto dealers on Bay? you can also see it here in this aerial...
adma
Superstar
I believe it was indeed an auto dealership--Elgin Ford?
adma
Superstar
Yeah, City Nights posters--a true visual icon of "People City"-going-on-Yacht-Rock-era Toronto (and probably hiving off that 70s Znaimerian visual vibe). Basically, rendered obsolete by the advent of Now, et al.
thecharioteer
Senior Member
Peeking out in the background of the 1950 photo of Elm Street are the spires of the old Elm Street Methodist Church, designed by Henry Langley:
As written on the TPL website (http://ve.torontopubliclibrary.ca/toronto_sanctuaries/elm_street.html):
Elm Street Methodist Church was established to accommodate the expanding membership of Richmond Street Methodist Church. In 1852, land was purchased on the north side of Elm Street between Yonge and Terauley (now Bay Street). A rough cast building was constructed on the new site and the church operated at this location until the structure was destroyed by fire in September 1861. The insurance settlement allowed for construction of a new building on Elm Street, but the continued growth of congregation soon necessitated expansion of the church. In spring of 1877, Langley, Langley and Burke were hired to expand the existing building. The enlarged church was described in Robertson’s Landmarks of Toronto as early English Gothic, and constructed of white brick with stone facings.
1868:
Drawings by Langley for the expansion:
At its height of popularity, its parisioners included Timothy Eaton. By 1954, it had lost its spires and was eventually demolished:
As written on the TPL website (http://ve.torontopubliclibrary.ca/toronto_sanctuaries/elm_street.html):
Elm Street Methodist Church was established to accommodate the expanding membership of Richmond Street Methodist Church. In 1852, land was purchased on the north side of Elm Street between Yonge and Terauley (now Bay Street). A rough cast building was constructed on the new site and the church operated at this location until the structure was destroyed by fire in September 1861. The insurance settlement allowed for construction of a new building on Elm Street, but the continued growth of congregation soon necessitated expansion of the church. In spring of 1877, Langley, Langley and Burke were hired to expand the existing building. The enlarged church was described in Robertson’s Landmarks of Toronto as early English Gothic, and constructed of white brick with stone facings.
1868:
Drawings by Langley for the expansion:
At its height of popularity, its parisioners included Timothy Eaton. By 1954, it had lost its spires and was eventually demolished:
Tewder
Senior Member
[/IMG]
Is that a fly tower in the background?
thecharioteer
Senior Member
I believe that addition was constructed when the building was renovated by the Elmwood Club in the 80's.
Anna
Active Member
That's what/who I thought it was too.
These, as well as some of the 80's era photos Mustapha posted come from a series called Capital works - Yonge Street and Elm Street [between 1977 and 1998] but I'm not sure of the dates on the individual photos.
Now you see it
Now you don't
adma
Superstar
Boy, it had a deadening effect on the streetscape--not that Elm was *prized* at the time, of course. (Though it was a very high-style-50s/60s-modern-a-la-Parkin kind of deadening; if it were in a suburban parking lot, it'd be cherishable.)
Also interesting to see in the latter photo that Vinyl Museum already existed next to A&As.
Also interesting to see in the latter photo that Vinyl Museum already existed next to A&As.
LowPolygon
Senior Member
i really love the way the low white and grey brick rectangle sets off the pure form of the Ryerson Library.
in any case, its too bad it wasn't torn down later--then we might have been spared the late 80's ersatz pomo clunker that presently squats on the site.
thecharioteer
Senior Member
Old Angelo's: purportedly Toronto's oldest Italian Restaurant and one of Ernest Hemingway's watering holes....
Aaron
Active Member
Quite oddly, one of my favourite shows when I was a kid was something called Night Moves/Walk/Ride, which was shown in the wee hours of the morning on Global. As a St.Catharines boy, it really kicked off my fascination with the 'Big City' which culminated in my moving there in the mid-90's.
Anyway, consider it an in-motion then, from 1986, showing some of the places discussed over the past couple days...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrWdMcxxZts
Anyway, consider it an in-motion then, from 1986, showing some of the places discussed over the past couple days...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrWdMcxxZts
seemsartless
Active Member
Wow, thanks! Taking 'reality TV' right back to its core. Funny to consider what the 'Night Walks' cameraman must have looked like, wandering the subway with enough equipment and batteries back in the mid 1980's to get TV quality video. Does anyone have links to more details about the show?
Aaron
Active Member
androiduk
Senior Member
^ I used to have that on TV regularly as background when I was reading. It's amazing how many people still comment on it. Would love to see a contemporary version.
adma
Superstar
True, though in all likelihood inadvertent.
in any case, its too bad it wasn't torn down later--then we might have been spared the late 80's ersatz pomo clunker that presently squats on the site.
Actually, for what it is, I don't mind said office/condo mixed-use clunker (one of Minto's first projects in Toronto?)--though maybe it'd get more present-day respect if it were built a decade earlier and in dark red brick a la the Bay/Charles Towers. (Sooner or later, two-toned red granite with green trim will get its defenders again.)