Yonge Street 1977-Just For Fun

Another postcard courtesy of Ian Brock showing Yonge Street looking north from Dundas.
Just around the time of the clean up of the strip following the murder of Emanuel Jaques.

Dundas and Spadina/ Then and Now

The N/E corner of Dundas and Spadina in 1921, the home of Dr. Moorehead will soon be demolished to make way for the Standard theatre.

Looking north across Dundas sometime in the late 1960's. The car in the foreground is a post 1965 Corvair. The Victory Theatre, formerly The Standard Theatre opened in 1921 and was one of the finest Yiddish theatres in North America. In 1935 it was renamed The Strand and re-opened as a movie house and was again renamed The Victory after the war. It continued to operate as a burlesque house until 1975.

Today.
The Standard Theatre.
Another shot of the Victory from an excellent site, Silent Toronto.

Cameron House/Then and Now

The Cameron House on Queen West just west of Spadina sometime in the 1940's.
Always a favourite hang out for the art school types it's still going strong.
Despite in the infestation of giant ants on the facade.

Queen and Soho/Then and Now

1913 looking N/E from Peter Street. The restaurant in the foreground is the Savoy.
Today. That's the Peter Pan restaurant in the foreground.

Queen West looking east from Soho in the 1970's. Back then this strip was occupied
by several used book stores. The Black Bull (1833) is on the left.

Sometime in the early 1980s as seen by P. Cummins.

2010.

Looking south down Peter from Queen in 1949.

The former Savoy Restaurant is now the Peter Pan.

Queen and MacDonnel/Then and Now

An early postcard of Queen Street looking east from MacDonnel.
This photo could be as early as 1893 the year the Queen line
was converted to electricity.
The same view today. It's too bad that the awnings are all gone.
Stores on the north side are on the "sunny side of
the street". For a number of years I lived in the building with the red spire roof.

Queen and Peter /Then and Now

When I was going to art school back in the late 70's and early 80's Queen West was still pretty
rough. There were a lot of used furniture stores and used book stores.
Compare these two photographs separated by 50 years.
Barney's was still there as late as the mid 90's.
People and styles come and go but the buildings remain.....

Fern Avenue School Then and Now

Fern Avenue Public School was built in 1894.
My Father attended this school in the early 1940's.
Photo courtesy of Chuckman's Postcard Collection
The school as it stands today. The west tower and cupola are gone as well as
the central chimney and much of the ornamental decoration.
A voting card from 1913 courtesy of Chuckman's Postcard Collection.

How Buildings Learn/ The Ryrie Building/Silver Rail

The N/E corner of Yonge and Shuter in 1913. The Ryrie Building (1891) is seen before the
additions that extended the structure south to the corner and the addition of another floor.
Architects drawing showing the proposed changes.
The realization. Not quite as decorative as the plan.
A few years later.
Sometime in the 1930's when Muirhead's Grill occupied the S/E corner

The 1950's when the Silver Rail occupied the space. The cornice is
already gone at this point.
Today

Fern Avenue Then and Now

A shot of Fern Avenue looking east towards the School on the left. The year is
unknown but note the absence of parked cars on the street.
These houses were all quite new when this photograph was taken
Photo courtesy of Chuckman's Postcard Collection.
The trees have grown and so have the cars.

Dundas and Ritchie, Then and Now

This image from 1913 shows Dundas Street West looking West across Ritchie Street.
On the right is the Feather Factory Building (see previous post) and on the left a TTC streetcar is turning south onto Ritchie. Not a car in sight.
Back in 2010 the same view. The Feather Factory has gained an additional 2 floors
while the strip of row houses on the right remains virtually unchanged.

Ritchie Street Then and Now

Ritchie Street off of Roncesvalles looking N/E in 1959

The same view today. The gas station on the corner was converted to
a KFC some years ago and then knocked down to build
the condo, the 5 story Feather Factory building at the end of
the street is also in the process of being converted to condos as well as another
big development on the opposite side of the street.
The Feather Factory Building

The design of the B. F. Harvey Factory involved the work of two Toronto architects. When the original three-storey factory was commissioned in 1910 and built in 1911, manufacturer Benjamin Harvey engaged James Walker, who had received awards for interior and graphic designs. After the Toronto Feather and Down Factory began a long-term occupancy of the site, two floors and a cornice were added according to the plans (1922) of William F. Sparling.

In practice since 1905, Sparling was associated with Samuel Curry during his early career, and gained expertise in designing Classically inspired buildings, including the Toronto Trust and Guarantee Building in the Financial District. Beginning in the late 1920s, he was a partner in the firm of Sparling Martin and Forbes. However, it was during his solo career between 1917 and 1928 that Sparling received his best-known commission for the Masonic Temple (1918) at Yonge Street and Davenport Road. The varied projects that followed included the unexecuted plans for the conversion of Casa Loma into residential apartments.

TTC Garage at Howard Park Then and Now

Here's a TTC bus maintenance garage from June 1928 located on Howard Park
just east of Roncesvalles. Howard Park is named after John Howard who "donated"
High Park to the city in 1873
.
The same building today. Now surrounded by condos and
broken down cars.

Vintage snow plows on Howard Park with the garage on the left in 1924
John Howard

Queen and Fuller/ Then and Now

The N/W corner of Queen and Fuller in 1935.
Note the delivery bicycle leaning against the telephone pole.
The same intersection today. The Fish and Chip shop is long since gone
but there's still a butcher shop in the same location.
The Cattlemen Meat Market opened in 1965 and is still going
strong today.
My Father who grew up in Parkdale writes:
" That butcher shop was a butcher shop in the 1940s (I think it was called Ontario Meats). When I was 12 to 14 I had a job as a delivery boy for the Red & White grocery store on Roncesvalles between Marion and Pearson. It was a small store and the owner would take orders for meat from his customers and then buy the meat from that butcher on a Saturday. I was sent to pick it up, usually on the store's delivery bicycle. I remember the big snow storm of 1944 when I had to walk there through waste deep snow in many places and haul the box of meat back to Roncesvalles. My memory says I carried it (maybe about 20 pounds?), but perhaps I had a toboggan to pull. I do remember it as a strenuous journey."

Occident Hall/Holiday Tavern/The Big Bop

This is Occident Hall at the South West corner of Queen and Bathurst.
The first recorded work of renowned Toronto Architect E.J. Lennox,
"Builder of Toronto"
Built in 1876 as a Masonic Lodge with shops on the ground level.

During the 60's and up to about 1984 it was known as the Holiday Tavern and helped to give the intersection it's now famous name of "F*ck Face City" as coined by Chris Houston. The Big Bop is about to close and be taken over by Crate and Barrel.
Currently there appears to be some restoration of the facade under way.
As of January 2010 the renovations have started with the
removal of the angel stone cladding and gutting years of
insensitive alterations to the interior. It will be interesting to watch the progress.

Parkdale Odeon/ Now and Then

I've lived in the neighbourhood for the past 25 years and had always suspected that this small grocery store was a former movie theatre. A little research on the City's archive turned up this photo.

The Odeon Theatre 1919

The movie or Photo Play showing is Cecile B. DeMille's "Don't Change Your Husband".

Released in 1919 and starring Gloria Swanson.
Another view with the Odeon in the foreground looking east towards Fuller Ave.