Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Mustapha]

We get weekly delivery of milk etc now from Dairyland/Saputo in Vancouver.

Interesting to see the change in the trees - most then and nows there are more trees in the current photo, at least in already-developed locations. That parking lot looks a lot barer and starker now.

Ah, Vancouver. Silent trolley buses. What a great place you live in. And cold milk to the door too.

 

[Mustapha]

That's a fantastic technique!
I love it.
Where can I get the software?

Good question. Contact the newspaper.

http://www.nytimes.com/content/help/contact/directory.html#paper

I wonder if the Urban Toronto webpage would support it/run it, whatever it is.

 

[Mustapha]

August 10 Then and Now. Spadina Crescent part IV.




Then. Continuing our walk around this - rare for Toronto - circular road - we get a sense that while things may not have been idyllic, traffic-wise, it wasn't hurried here on this Friday September 3, 1948 late afternoon.

Now. May 2011. The homes on the left/west side on still there. The University of Toronto has done a good job replacing all the homes on the right/east side with various University buildings. A nice old late 70s era vintage Mercedes comes hurtling at us on worn springs or shocks or both.

 

[Mustapha]

I am liking the NYC TANs. Great way to show them!

It's probably some sort of 'Flash' app. It is very cool.

 

[Mustapha]

August 11 Then and Now.




Then. It's still September 3, 1948. Spadina Crescent walkabout, Part V.

Now. May 2011. Pictures of the original Lord Landsdowne school (the 'new' one is peeking at us from the left) are unobtanium.

 

[thecharioteer]

August 11 Then and Now.




Then. It's still September 3, 1948. Spadina Crescent walkabout, Part V.

Now. May 2011. Pictures of the original Lord Landsdowne school (the 'new' one is peeking at us from the left) are unobtanium.

I found some pics of the original school (1888) from the Panda Archives, still standing while the new school was under construction (completed in 1961):

1947:

 

[Urban Shocker]

Knox College - one of the few local buildings designed to be enjoyed as a view terminus from both directions. Wish we had more ... though access to such islands can be tricky.

 

[thecharioteer]

Nice article here on Lord Lansdowne School:

http://robertmoffatt115.wordpress.com/tag/schools/

 

[Mustapha]

I found some pics of the original school (1888) from the Panda Archives, still standing while the new school was under construction (completed in 1961):

1947:

Amazing find, thecharioteer.

Amazing also that the best view of Lord Landsdowne is from the sky -it's hidden from all of us.

Lastly, perhaps not amazing but certainly very interesting - the 1961 school was built on land purchased by expropriation - and the students in the old school watched as their new school was built alongside.

 

[Mustapha]

Knox College - one of the few local buildings designed to be enjoyed as a view terminus from both directions. Wish we had more ... though access to such islands can be tricky.

As the junctionist mentioned, lights would go far, I will add that the grounds need a sprucing. The parking lot on the back is more dreadful than parking lots go - Browning Avenue said as much - I will add that some of the vehicles there would be right at home in a car junkyard, not sure why this is.

Funny you mentioned access, Urban Shocker. There is a light on the east side of the Crescent, but it's the speed of the cars around the circle that make access tricky. They are very fast - not there an eyeblink ago, here right now fast. The limit here is 50km, so that means everyone is taking the Crescent at 60km... too fast.

 

[Mustapha]

August 12 Then and Now. Spadina Crescent walkabout. Fini.




Then. That home on the left has a lot of character. That seems to be a covered porch/deck up on the third floor.

I do believe that we may be seeing a tantalizing glimpse of the original Lord Landsdowne.

Now. May 2011. Our old home was for a period in the 90s a funeral home for the Chinese community. The manager was an Irishman. Trust me on this. Since I took this picture in May, it has received a renovation outside and inside, I'm not sure what the new business is going to be.

By the by, several cemeteries in the Toronto area [Mount Pleasant, Pine Hills, they may be others] have built 'Visitation Centres'. I do believe this has made it tough for the funeral industry. Formerly they would have provided this - viewing and visitation at their in-house 'chapel' would have been one of their core services. The advantage of the visitation centres at the cemetery is that burial follows in the grounds immediately after the service so there isn't that funeral cortège journey. Come to think of it this can't help the limousine industry either.

Could some of those trees in the background be the same trees in both pictures? Hmm.

 

[thecharioteer]

That funeral home was the original location for Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel, which still serves the Jewish community from its present location at Steeles near Dufferin. When it became a Chinese funeral home, I remember it had the poetic name "Wing On".

 

[J T CUNNINGHAM]

"Then. That home on the left has a lot of character. That seems to be a covered porch/deck up on the third floor."
QUOTE Mustapha.


H Benjamin & Son
508 Spadina Avenue.
KI ngsdale 8920.

AKA Park Memorial Chapel.
Now: Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel
2401 Steeles W.
(Third Generation)


Re the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries is a nonprofit Trust, therefore does not pay any taxes.


Regards,
J T aka The Undertaker.

 

[Mustapha]

That funeral home was the original location for Benjamin's Park Memorial Chapel, which still serves the Jewish community from its present location at Steeles near Dufferin. When it became a Chinese funeral home, I remember it had the poetic name "Wing On".

Wing On was further north at 665 Spadina. It has also closed down. A Google street view shows it operating - with mourners gathered outside - readying for someones final earthly journey.

I'd forgotten about it, thanks for mentioning it thecharioteer. I must ask my dad what Wing On actually meant in Chinese. I'm just a jook sing.

 

[thecharioteer]

Mustapha: The elusive photo of the original Lord Lansdowne School, in the book Spadina Avenue by Rosemary Donegan:

Which also contains this map c. 1860:

The circle itself fascinates me. Intended originally as a park, a Georgian gesture in the relentless grid, a la John Nash's Mayfair:

1842:

1857:

1862: