Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now

[Edward Skira]

February 3 addition.

Yonge and Elmwood in North York, looking NW.

Then: 1960s?.

While the Dairy Queen is cool what's more interesting to me is across the street. Those gates sure look like the entrance to a cemetery. Yet the cemetery is a block to the west, and today, that is North York Blvd. They obviously severed the land at some point. Why was this done and were there graves that had to be moved? Would love to know the history of this piece of land.

 

[Stumack]

Good catch about the cemetery entrance - I think that's clearly what it is. North York Blvd. has a reverse curve to align it with Elmwood - the parking lot of the Board of Ed. building appears to be the original alignment of the entrance. There is a set of pillars over at Beecroft Rd. that look like they may be the ones in this photo relocated.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=...0cUC4g2DjTDyVgIJwc_HJw&cbp=12,258.68,,0,10.37

 

[Mustapha]

The site where I found that 1833 description of Toronto also has an interesting history (many photos included) of the GECO munitions plant that was in Scarborough during WWII.
I recomment this history to anyone interested in Scarborough's early days:

http://www.barbaradickson.ca/index.php?page_id=16

I was thinking about WWII while reading the link and started a Youtube search for videos of Toronto's history and came across this: a Youtube video of London UK in 1927 [No vids of Toronto, only vids made from compilations of mostly Toronto Archive images]. It's in colour, which makes it interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwahIQz0o-M&feature=player_embedded

 

[Mustapha]

Good catch about the cemetery entrance - I think that's clearly what it is. North York Blvd. has a reverse curve to align it with Elmwood - the parking lot of the Board of Ed. building appears to be the original alignment of the entrance. There is a set of pillars over at Beecroft Rd. that look like they may be the ones in this photo relocated.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=...0cUC4g2DjTDyVgIJwc_HJw&cbp=12,258.68,,0,10.37

 

[Mustapha]

February 4 addition.

Then: Boulton Street Public School. NE corner of Boulton and First. This isn't far SE from the Broadview and Gerrard intersection. The Toronto Archives notes for the photo gives a date of "192-?". There isn't a successor school; they wound up our little school at some point.

Now: November 2009. This location is the schoolyard of Eastdale Collegiate.

 

[Dilla]

I lived in this house (25 Huron) for 3 years. I still get my haircut there, the large room at the front is now Mark Andrew Hair Studio. Mark used to work at Toni and Guy, but now he works in the comfort of his home for a mere $35 (for men). He'll often offer me a beer or a glass of wine while he plies his trade. It's always a delightfully civilized outing.

 

[Miss Sadie Thompson]

Here's a close up.

Can't tell you the memories this thread is bringing back. So glad I found this site, although for some reason it makes me feel old, when I usually feel like that teen who used to skip school to go downtown and hang out at Sam the Record Man.

Anyway, this terminal was known to me as "Hogs Hollow". When I was a child, my mother would take us downtown to Eatons/Simpsons from Woodbridge by walking to a church in Pine Grove, where a "special" zone bus would take us to Blondin Loop in Weston (the loop no longer exists and is in the area of the off-ramp to Weston Road from the 401).

From Blondin we'd catch the 93 Wilson bus which would take us from the beginning of Wilson (to the west it turned into Albion Road) for its entire length (at Yonge it turns into York Mills). At Avenue Road the bus would meander along Yonge Blvd. and I'd marvel at the mansions.

Arriving at Hogs Hollow, we'd await the trolley car which would take us southbound on Yonge to Eglinton subway station, where we'd hop on and continue to Queen. There would be a quick visit to Woolworths for lunch and then we'd scurry around Eatons and Simpsons quickly so we could make the arduous trip back in time not to miss the Pine Grove bus (last one was at 4pm). I remember the bus tickets were 4 for a quarter.

Funnily enough, a client bought the building beside Loblaws which now operates as Trappers Restaurant, but it wasn't until looking at your picture that I realized I was back at Hogs Hollow loop. It brought a little tear to my eye (similar to the one I had when my mum gave me a spanking because I was whining about the trolley car taking too long to arrive at the loop).

I suppose change is indeed progress and working in First Canadian Place I do appreciate the many conveniences of the modern city, but it's nice to go back to those carefree days of childhood and rekindle memories of a familiar landscape. Thanks so much!

 

[thecharioteer]

Welcome to the site, Miss Sadie! I enjoyed your reminisces (as one who also remembers when bus tickets were four for a quarter and you could have lunch at Woolworth's).

 

[Miss Sadie Thompson]

I wonder if the architect's other works are extant? Would be cool to find out.

The owner.. 'Dr. Moorhouse', seems apt for your Psycho house - a character right out of central casting. He might have looked as gothick as his house.




March 6 addition:

The 'old' photo has been shown here on prior UT threads and elsewhere on the webz but I had my camera while in the neighbourhood. Perhaps people who haven't visited Toronto and look at this thread might like to see what the 'now' location looks like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Toronto_Star_Building

She was only around for forty years.

Thanks for the welcome.

I'm sitting in an office in the "after" right now, lamenting that it couldn't be in the "before". What character and as attractive as the Royal York. What a tragic, early death for such a lovely building.

 

[Urban Shocker]

That 1927 ( the year my Mum was born, in London ) The Open Road colour film of London was part of a travel series about Britain produced by Claude Friese-Greene:

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/585816/

 

[thecharioteer]

Thanks for the welcome.

I'm sitting in an office in the "after" right now, lamenting that it couldn't be in the "before". What character and as attractive as the Royal York. What a tragic, early death for such a lovely building.

Aside from the architectural merits of the Toronto Star Building, urbanictically for a few years in the late 60's and early 70's, it framed the TD Centre plaza in a way that FCP has never been able to accomplish, by way of materials, contrast, grade-related uses, even colour.

 

[Earlscourt_Lad]

That 1927 ( the year my Mum was born, in London ) The Open Road colour film of London was part of a travel series about Britain produced by Claude Friese-Greene:

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/585816/

The British Film Institute has posted a good many of these on YouTube, I think they use BFI as their name. Worth a look.

 

[NomoreaTorontonian]

Can't tell you the memories this thread is bringing back. So glad I found this site, although for some reason it makes me feel old, when I usually feel like that teen who used to skip school to go downtown and hang out at Sam the Record Man.

Anyway, this terminal was known to me as "Hogs Hollow". When I was a child, my mother would take us downtown to Eatons/Simpsons from Woodbridge by walking to a church in Pine Grove, where a "special" zone bus would take us to Blondin Loop in Weston (the loop no longer exists and is in the area of the off-ramp to Weston Road from the 401).

From Blondin we'd catch the 93 Wilson bus which would take us from the beginning of Wilson (to the west it turned into Albion Road) for its entire length (at Yonge it turns into York Mills). At Avenue Road the bus would meander along Yonge Blvd. and I'd marvel at the mansions.

Arriving at Hogs Hollow, we'd await the trolley car which would take us southbound on Yonge to Eglinton subway station, where we'd hop on and continue to Queen. There would be a quick visit to Woolworths for lunch and then we'd scurry around Eatons and Simpsons quickly so we could make the arduous trip back in time not to miss the Pine Grove bus (last one was at 4pm). I remember the bus tickets were 4 for a quarter.

Funnily enough, a client bought the building beside Loblaws which now operates as Trappers Restaurant, but it wasn't until looking at your picture that I realized I was back at Hogs Hollow loop. It brought a little tear to my eye (similar to the one I had when my mum gave me a spanking because I was whining about the trolley car taking too long to arrive at the loop).

I am amazed you had to come all the way across on Wilson to Yonge Street to get downtown. Wasn't there public transport in from Weston?

I grew up four blocks south and two blocks west of the Hoggs Hollow loop. During the war Loblaws was across the street from where it is now and it was our nearest "grocery store" (self-service but certainly not a supermarket). It was a long trek when your legs were only four years old.

Does anyone else remember the radial cars that ran out of the north side of the Hoggs Hollow loop? They went a long way north in the twenties, but only as far as Richmond Hill in later years.

 

[Urban Shocker]

I remember the quaint, loopy old Hoggs Hollow terminal when I arrived in Toronto in 1970, lived in Willowdale, went to York Mills Collegiate, and headed downtown at weekends with school friends. Then, suddenly, it was gone ... and a few years later we were living at Yonge and Lawrence and there was a brand new subway entrance at the end of the street - Bedford Park Avenue. That was about the same time they were demolishing buildings in the financial district for First Canadian Place, building Commerce Court, and planning Royal Bank Plaza. An exciting time, when the old city was giving way to the new. And, in parallel with all that, downtown neighbourhoods such as Cabbagetown were starting to be gentrified.

 

[dbailey62]

Yep, still there Traynor. The caramel dip cone is mighty fine on a summer day.

I miss that old sign. It was always such a treat as a kid to be taken the few blocks from Greenfield up to Elmwood to visit the Dairy Queen.

I still live in the neighbourhood and it really is nice that something from my childhood still exists there. I actually live on Elmwood now.

db