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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

Let's get back to Toronto.
The CNE is just around the corner - a great place for photography!

xTNCNEMidway.jpg
 
August 2 Then and Now.







Then. 'June 22, 1953. Looking N from 619 Sherbourne st.' Bloor st is in the distance. A 'sylvan' Sherbourne street scene.


113.jpg





Now. June 2011. The rather grim looking stone and iron fence is now gone. The church steps are still on the right and the TD bank branch is still in the upper left hand corner. The boulevard is gone due to street widening.


114.jpg
 
Mustapha said:
thecharioteer,

In your 1862 picture: we - well, me anyways :) - have forgotten how close the waters edge was in Toronto's earliest days. We extended the shoreline southward by landfill and built industry and rail on it - all well and fine. I'm wondering if we might have had a more attractive waterfront if at least some of the original contours were left intact. I'm imagining an unmolested Yonge street pier that survived down to the present.
Click to expand...

I got down to Ft. York yesterday for Simcoe Day and went on a walking tour that focused on the changes to the shoreline. We went up on the fortifications and down the set of stairs off of Bathurst St., and for the first time I really got a sense of how the fort met the shoreline and how everything related to the harbour and the town of York. One interesting note was that before the railroads came, there was apparently some thought of preserving the shores as a park.

Another particularly interesting bit was peering down into the excavations on the east side of Bathurst, where they've unearthed evidence of the railway spurs and piers. The guide had a drawing of Toronto in the late 19th century that showed how the railways peeled off to the east of the fort and down right onto the piers. (If I could find that image, I could do an interesting Then and Now...)

And the third interesting bit? I'd always thought the hollowed-out bits around one of the blockhouses and the magazine were defensive, when in fact they show the original ground level within the fort.
 
FAC33 said:
One interesting note was that before the railroads came, there was apparently some thought of preserving the shores as a park

...

The guide had a drawing of Toronto in the late 19th century that showed how the railways peeled off to the east of the fort and down right onto the piers. (If I could find that image, I could do an interesting Then and Now...)
Click to expand...

I happen to be doing some research about Front and Bathurst, so I coincidentally have these map extracts handy... these may be of interest to you (you can find larger versions via the Toronto Archives):

Then (hypothetically):
1837 Plan of Bonnycastle, approved by Sir Francis Bond Head: note 'Ontario Terrace' is 'Reserved for the Public as a Promenade'...
BonnycastleIMG_3695.png


Then Again (about half a century later):
1890 Goads Insurance map showing the rail lines going down to the Northern Railway wharves... [also note how the shoreline has moved over 50 years!]
1890goadsfull.png


Now (well, late 2000s): (see google maps if you want one with labels)
fandb2010ish.png
 
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FAC33 said:
I got down to Ft. York yesterday for Simcoe Day and went on a walking tour that focused on the changes to the shoreline. We went up on the fortifications and down the set of stairs off of Bathurst St., and for the first time I really got a sense of how the fort met the shoreline and how everything related to the harbour and the town of York. One interesting note was that before the railroads came, there was apparently some thought of preserving the shores as a park.

Another particularly interesting bit was peering down into the excavations on the east side of Bathurst, where they've unearthed evidence of the railway spurs and piers. The guide had a drawing of Toronto in the late 19th century that showed how the railways peeled off to the east of the fort and down right onto the piers. (If I could find that image, I could do an interesting Then and Now...)

And the third interesting bit? I'd always thought the hollowed-out bits around one of the blockhouses and the magazine were defensive, when in fact they show the original ground level within the fort.
Click to expand...

Here's a sequence of maps:

1818:

ftyork1818map.jpg


1862:

ftyorkmap1862.jpg


1884:

ftyorkmap1884-1.jpg


1910:

ftyorkmap1910-1.jpg


1924 (seems to have some sort of overlay on it):

ftyorkmap1924-1.jpg


1947:

ftyork1947.jpg
 
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"Gentlemen! You can't fight in here; this is the WAR ROOM!" QUOTE President Mufty. - Dr Strangelove.


FWIW, check out the occupant at 540 Front Street West. Goad's 1903. (SHOULD READ MIGHT'S TORONTO CITY DIRECTORY .)
(LOL)


Regards,
J T
 
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Great maps and aerials. A few shots up - I'm not sure if I'm mistaken, but that fence on the right at 619 Sherbourne....I think it might have been saved and moved down to the corner of Sherbourne and Wellesley, where the hospital entrance was. Where the Rekai centre is now. I'll see if I can find a picture.

At the other side of the harbour:

harbourcommission.jpg



So evocative and surreal.
 
CanadianNational said:
A few shots up - I'm not sure if I'm mistaken, but that fence on the right at 619 Sherbourne....I think it might have been saved and moved down to the corner of Sherbourne and Wellesley, where the hospital entrance was. Where the Rekai centre is now. I'll see if I can find a picture.
Click to expand...

It wasn't. That fence goes back to the time when Wellesley Crescent was lined by Victorian mansions, one of which, "Homewood", became part of the original Wellesley Hospital:

1942:

TorontoStJamestownAerial1942-1.jpg


I0013973.jpg
 
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CanadianNational's picture set reminds me that the west side of Homewood looked just like the east side of the street until high rise development in the 1960s. I remember this because I had cousins living on the west side. The contrast between the old east side of Homewood and the newer west side means nothing to those who haven't the memories but to those that do it's still a bit strange to remember what was there - the houses, the rooms in them; backyards and expansive front porches.

When I view a photo of a place that isn't there anymore, and the people in it are no longer children or young - or gone - I'm reminded of Carl Sandberg's quote: 'I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.' :)

I debated whether using the happy smiley or the sad smiley; I wanted to use the bittersweet smiley but I can't find such a thing.
 
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