Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Mustapha]

i much prefer frank's version, so wonderfully and appropriately used (if you've seen the movie) at the very end of "space cowboys" with glorious special effects

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_lVI9CjsaE

I have seen the movie, and nothing, nothing wrong at all with Frank's version; probably the version everyone thinks of when they think of this song.

 

[Mustapha]

Then and Now for August 28.






The Northwest corner of Queen and Yonge down through the years.



Then. The Sun Tavern. Prior to 1825. If the sketch is accurate, the Sun wasn't quite on the corner.

Then. Agricultural Hall. c1867. This building stood from 1826ish to 1896. I wonder if that is the Sun Tavern off to the left of the picture.

Now. April 2012. The Knox department store c1896/after c1912 a Woolworths up until c1979 and presently empty looking for a tenant I believe.

 

[wwwebster]

From the January 1896 issue of Canadian Architect and Builder:

Courtesy of Torontoist:

Agricultural Hall was “burnt out†in the Simpson’s fire of 1895:

 

[thecharioteer]

 

[Lenser]

I worked in this building back when it was the Apparel Clearance Centre, in the early 80s. I was a shipper receiver and my corner office on the fourth floor was grand - though little else about the gig was. Too bad the building had been overlooked and allowed to decline; it was quite a looker back in the day. By that time it had already long been clad over in a cheap attempt to "modernize" the building.

 

[Mustapha]

The old Eaton Store: It could have been modernized and attached as a southern anchor to the Eaton Centre. When you think of the 'old school' department stores still in use in New York City - Lord & Taylor, Saks.. I get the feeling I'm walking through the old Eaton store when I walk through these places.

We still have the old Simpsons/Bay store, but the main floor interior, which should take your breath away, doesn't, and the upper floors just look tired.

 

[Mustapha]

Thank you thecharioteer and wwwebster for adding those pictures.

wwwebster's Jamieson catalog page and fire map are most awesome.

thecharioteer's third picture, of Yonge and Queen taken from a long demolished building with parts of said demolished building in close proximity to the camera is quite evocative.

 

[Mustapha]

I worked in this building back when it was the Apparel Clearance Centre, in the early 80s. I was a shipper receiver and my corner office on the fourth floor was grand - though little else about the gig was. Too bad the building had been overlooked and allowed to decline; it was quite a looker back in the day. By that time it had already long been clad over in a cheap attempt to "modernize" the building.

I had forgotten about this business tenant... sometimes a closed business can be a link to ones past memories - in this case you worked there, Lenser, but I still remember shopping at the Woolworths.

Does anyone remember the Marks & Spencer in the Heintzman building? This was c1975 to 85 or so. It occupied several floors. You have to go to London now to shop at Marks & Sparks.

 

[Mustapha]

Then and Now for August 29.


Then. Nov. 4, 1937. NE corner Gerrard and Jones. There is Mr. Beale peering out at us.

Interesting how The Saturday Evening Post - an American publication - is so prominently promoted.

Now. May 2012.

 

[k10ery]

The true successor to the news agent is not that lonely newspaper box, but the DSL subscription advertised behind it.

 

[Hudson8]

A closer look at the Nov. 6th Cover of the Saturday Evening Post on sale that day (seen twice in the "then" photo)

 

[Mustapha]

The true successor to the news agent is not that lonely newspaper box, but the DSL subscription advertised behind it.

Ain't that the truth. From paid papers to forlorn free papers to read free-content-online-from-whomever-you-can.

I remember attending newspaper conferences 10 years ago where newspapers grappled with the loss of traditional advertising (from car dealerships, funeral notices, department stores, even the lowly classified ad was a money maker. I paid $80 I think, for a street sale notice in the Star around 2005. The solution sought back then was to offer free online content to entice readers to buy the actual paper. When that didn't work, the new mantra to stop the hemorrhaging was to increase online ad revenues. Even as they sought this the publishers had a pit in their stomachs that online revenue would never replace the old ad revenues - it didn't.

These last few years some publishers have erected pay-for-content walls but this is too late... that horse left the barn.

 

[Mustapha]

A closer look at the Nov. 6th Cover of the Saturday Evening Post on sale that day (seen twice in the "then" photo)

Heya Hudson8,.. it's online.


http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/


Good publication. I also enjoy Harpers.

While we're on that topic, a regular or even occasional read of The Economist isn't a bad thing to my mind.

 

[Mustapha]

Then and Now for August 30. Where did the summer go?


Then. c1970-ish. Dundas looking W from Mutual. Jarvis in the distance.

Now. May 2012.

 

[the lemur]

So was it Woolworths that put that façade on? When was it taken down?