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Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now
- Thread starter Mustapha
- Start date
FAW
New Member
July 2014. Fairview looking N from Evelyn.
The routing of the Toronto Suburban Railway Crescent line was from Keele and Dundas, west on Dundas, south on Gilmour Avenue, east on St John's Road, south on Fairview Avenue to Evelyn Crescent. The track on Gilmour, St. John's and Fairview was single track in the middle of the road. At the time, St John's Road was called Louisa Street, but it was renamed to avoid confusion with the Louisa Street in downtown Toronto.
Today, Fairview is still wider than neighbouring streets, as may be St Johns between Gilmour and Fairview and its associated intersections. For many years the former track allowance was paved differently than the rest of the streets and this was very noticeable, but this distinction disappeared when the roads were reconstructed after the 1950s.
Toronto Lad
New Member
March 25 addition.
Goldie sent me the 1912 Toronto archive picture below of Bathurst street going into and out of Nordheimer ravine. He suggested I check to see if the hill was still that steep nowadays. Always curious myself I decided to go have a look. Note the line of hydro poles. View is looking north.
What a great picture! I've never seen this one before.
It's contemporary with this one, which looks like it would be looking south from the bridge:
Two old "Nows and Thens" from a history of the Township of York;
The "new" bridge (replaced, I believe in the 80's by the current one):
I hope it's alright to dig up the old posts I missed and add a little info.
When they rebuilt the Bathurst street bridge in the 80's they demolished the entire old bridge in one go, not half at a time like they seem to do these days to keep traffic flowing. Just prior to demolition they put up a huge two lane Bailey bridge, steel with a wood deck. It was built on the west side of the new bridge and traffic had to take a bit of a circuitous route to get on and off the Bailey at both ends.
As I remember it there was no issue at the north end of the bridge but at the south end there was a house owned by the Morin family, at what would be the south west corner of the new bridge, that had to come down for the cars to get by.
You can see this house in the 1954 picture above which is taken looking west with the house on the other side of the bridge on the left, you may remember this family had a son who would later become famous in Canada, Guy Paul.
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the lemur
Senior Member
Toronto Lad
New Member
I wouldn't call this evidence but I did read it here;
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/transit-toronto/conversations/topics/23053
kbdid
Senior Member
the lemur
Senior Member
I assumed the jog was similar to the situation in Little Italy with Montrose and Dewson: an underground creek.
Gilmour appears on old maps to have been discontinuous where it now meets Maher with a sort of traffic circle - I can imagine streetcars going around it but that probably wasn't the case.
thecharioteer
Senior Member
Thanks for the repost, Toronto Lad. Forgot I posted these a long time ago! Regarding the house at the SW corner of the bridge (just north of the Heathdale corner): not sure if we're talking about the same house, but I remember a large Tudor house, set back and fronting Bathurst. It was owned by the Canadian Legion (General Wingate branch) and my father (ex-RCAF) used to go to meetings there. It was expropriated by Metro to allow for an off-ramp for the planned Spadina Expressway and the site remains empty today. Same house you're referring to?
From a planning report on the Spadina Expressway 1961:
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adma
Superstar
I'm wondering if the jog has more to do with different, and non-cooperative, subdivision plots...
thecharioteer
Senior Member
Toronto Lad
New Member
Thanks for the repost, Toronto Lad. Forgot I posted these a long time ago! Regarding the house at the SW corner of the bridge (just north of the Heathdale corner): not sure if we're talking about the same house, but I remember a large Tudor house, set back and fronting Bathurst. It was owned by the Canadian Legion (General Wingate branch) and my father (ex-RCAF) used to go to meetings there. It was expropriated by Metro to allow for an off-ramp for the planned Spadina Expressway and the site remains empty today. Same house you're referring to?
From a planning report on the Spadina Expressway 1961:
I find that very interesting, thank you for that thecharioteer.
To the best of my knowledge there was only one house in that location and my recollection is like yours that it was a Tudor style house set back facing Bathurst, the entrance to the driveway is still discernible as you drive by today, I think we must be talking about the same house, which apparently has an interesting history that I personally would like to hear more about.
We moved to Connaught Circle in May of 1973 and my younger brother attended Cedarvale PS, where he and our neighbors went to school with Guy Paul. I know his family lived in that house and I always assumed the family owned it but I must say I never knew that as a fact. I do know that it wasn't demolished until some time after we moved to that house in '73.
Given the above I would have to assume the house was expropriated in the run up to construction of the extension as you note, but not torn down, then perhaps it was city of Toronto property that the family rented?
About the cedarvale ravine, I was quite interested in that map you posted when I first saw it and the way a "grand" drive was planned for the ravine. For many years I walked into that park by going straight off the end of Heathdale instead of turning, following right on the path of what is shown on that map as the road to the ravine.
As detailed on the map it's a long sweeping right turn that gradually drops down to the lowest elevation in the park. The interesting thing is that you naturally end up taking the exact path of the map because of the way it has been graded and the shade cast by the mature trees that lined the route on both sides.
From the first time I walked through that park I've always felt like at one time Heathdale must have run straight down into the park and not turned a sharp 90 and south to Windley and Vaughan, and that somewhere just under that grass was old pavement.
Toronto Lad
New Member
Judging by the 1972 voters list for St Paul's, two houses are missing from Bathurst St. today, 1608 and 1610.
Mustapha
Senior Member
Then. 'View of storefronts along Yonge Street on the east side, opposite Elm Street. November 4, 1975.'
Now. July 2014.
Now. July 2014.
adma
Superstar
Sad (?) to report, the Little House of Kebob's is closed, and the "new" lower portions of the signage was removed last I saw...
AlbertHWagstaff
Senior Member
Who was Kebob?
Sorry, couldn't resist putting on the r937 hat.
The soon to be former Mayor would have enjoyed the discrount drug store I'm sure.