More Lost Toronto in colour

[Urban Shocker]

A century from now the ancient category of "grant-supported art" will be as instantly recognizable as impressionism or cubism ... though I think they'll still be able to distinguish the work that speaks for itself from that which needs to be explained.

 

[Mustapha]

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[LowPolygon]

you found one----BRAVO!!
its absolutely gorgeous! i have a dream that someone will reconstruct that facade EXACTLY as it was! and serve the EXACT same pie.

 

[LowPolygon]

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[ReiwaMagi]

Poor buildings on the NE corner of Dundas.

They will never know what hit them nearly 25 years later..

At least some the properties that occupied those buildings got integrated into the Toronto Life building, including the Theatre which became an AMC.

Too bad the Arcade didn't..

 

[adma]

Interesting to be reminded that the brick-paver treatment of Yonge sidewalks (now battered, dog-eared, and itself in replacement mode in spots) was a deliberate urban-improvement gesture of the 1980s. But even more interesting...

...is how, in this picture, those mystery forgotten Moderne-era buildings on the Aura site are still extant.

 

[thecharioteer]

Also missing is the landscaped median south of College, surely one of the most confused, inappropriate gestures to emerge from the young Urban Design Department. A better design would have expanded the sidewalks against Eatons College Street to match those north of College and south of Gerrard. A double row of trees could have been planted Parisien-style in this expanded zone, creating a grand promenade between College and Gerrard. Instead we got something more worthy of North York.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Poor buildings on the NE corner of Dundas.

They will never know what hit them nearly 25 years later..

At least some the properties that occupied those buildings got integrated into the Toronto Life building, including the Theatre which became an AMC.

Too bad the Arcade didn't..

The "5 Big Hits" at the Biltmore (and Rio) for one admission price which were mostly B grade action/horror/martial art films with a badly censored sex film thrown in can't hold a candle to what plays at AMC. The Biltmore had great ambiance (and a balcony), even though it often smelled of urine. Ah the good 'ole days...
It's great to see photos of these much missed cinemas. I haven't spotted the Cinema 2000 yet, HMV stands there now.

 

[Mustapha]

you found one----BRAVO!!
its absolutely gorgeous! i have a dream that someone will reconstruct that facade EXACTLY as it was! and serve the EXACT same pie.

Thank you. I merely entered "Bassels" into the archive search engine.

Your dream will NOT come true.. That pastry chef is long retired.

We can only buy McCains frozen pie and cry into it.

 

[Long Island Mike]

The 70s Era in Toronto...definitely interesting pics!

came across some fantastic photos of toronto in the late 60's-mid 70's on the flickr site of bobolink aka robert taylor.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobolink/sets/72157594158035127/

obviously the photographs are © by him. Here is a selection of his images:

deepend: Neat pictures of toronto in the 70s and 80s...i noticed these:
1-first canadian place under construction back in the mid 70s...
2-neat gooderham flatiron pic from the back...70s?
3-looking e towards union station-td towers and the royal york hotel stand out...it is before the cn tower was constructed and i note the so-so condition of the track areas...early 70s?
4-yonge street looking north...the heart of it all where toronto is concerned...
5-nathan phillips square and new city hall with a rally of some sort in progress...neat central toronto aerial pic!
6-outdoor running track-where?
7-neat skyline pic-td centre,cibc,toronto star and royal york hotel stand out here...
8,11-interesting churches from the air-where?
9-interesting railway lands pic-i note the john street roundhouses,the gardiner expressway and a CP rail long distance train entering toronto with two f series locomotives and 12 cars...70s before the cn tower?
10-ttc peter witt tour tram streetcar-i remember reading that it was available for charter...
12-old restoreable buildings-where?
I will post more on later pics from this era soon...i certainly liked these! Li mike

LONG ISLAND MIKE p.s. This post's text was changed somewhat in posting this...

 

[yonderbean]

Though I've seen the likes before, after viewing Mr Taylor's photos it really struck me just how miserable and derelict much of downtown Toronto had gotten in the postwar decades. Most of our heritage gems were grimy relics surrounded by parking lots and brutal concrete hulks. The contrast with today is stark. We have a ways to go, but its like the city's been reborn in recent years!

 

[lightarchitect]

food building

food building

 

[west_end_kid]

The great image above of the Food Building prompted me to make my first post on this site.

Here are two images that I took at the CNE around 1972 when I was 11. The first is of the Midway taken from the long gone Shell Tower. Its too bad they dismantled the the Alpine Way. The second image, Ontario Place although not 'lost' looks somewhat different these days. I think this was the first or second year it was open.

 

[LowPolygon]

thank you lightarchitect and west_end_kid for your contributions! good colour images of toronto in the 60's-80's are hard to come by online---because the best ones are all in people's photo albums! the toronto city archives hasn't digitized all that many images from that era.....

 

[junctionist]

thank you lightarchitect and west_end_kid for your contributions! good colour images of toronto in the 60's-80's are hard to come by online---because the best ones are all in people's photo albums! the toronto city archives hasn't digitized all that many images from that era.....

I know what you mean. I've found a great collection of photos from the late 1970s into the 1990s on this Flickr user's photostream. For anyone who likes looking at historical photos of Toronto online, the collection is a must-see. They're photos taken by an archivist, perhaps working at the City archives. They're mostly black and white but feature aspects of Toronto rarely photographed by the public: storefronts, abandoned buildings, and Victorian residential and industrial areas. For instance, there are some great photos of Mill Street and the Distillery District in the 1980s when it was an unrefined and dirty industrial area. I also found old photos of the Stockyards by search for photos on St. Clair Avenue West, which I found meaningful as a Junction resident.