[thecharioteer]

Yonge Street Mission 1912
View attachment 131527

One would have thought this pic was from the 1930's not 1912, a period which I had always assumed was a good one economically in Toronto.

 

[thecharioteer]

The Mission in 1950:

 

[ShonTron]

Wow! Amazingly panoramic. I get a much better idea now of the lay of the valley, the O&Q spans are crystal clear in the distance just right of upper centre. Depth of field is amazing.

Needless to say the rails and telegraph wire are intact, a glint of light showing the latter. It appears that the Belt Line and Cdn Northern share the same RoW to the west of the river, but separate tracks, albeit I'm still looking for definitive map or photographic proof of that.

This leads me to believe it to have been the case:

THE TORONTO BELT LINE RAILWAY COMPANY
(property acquired by Canadian National Railway Company December 31, 1943).
Inactive since December 31, 1943.

[...]
View attachment 131475
https://s3.amazonaws.com/content.si...3d3ef499934d53ca95da7b74980b29f9f2a872fee7806

Yeah, the Canadian Northern took over part of the abandoned Belt Line ROW through the Don Valley, and had tracks going in two directions, splitting apart near where the DVP/Don Mills interchange now sits : north to Capreol via Richmond Hill and Parry Sound, and east to Ottawa via Orono, Port Hope, Belleville and Smiths Falls. The eastern section was abandoned in the 1920s and 1930s (with a few exceptions: a spur in Scarborough follows the route, the Napanee-Smiths Falls section lasted later into the 1980s, and the Smiths Falls-Ottawa section is now owned by VIA), but the northern section is the GO Richmond Hill corridor, and from Richmond Hill north, the CN mainline.

 

[steveintoronto]

Yeah, the Canadian Northern took over part of the abandoned Belt Line ROW through the Don Valley, and had tracks going in two directions, splitting apart near where the DVP/Don Mills interchange now sits : north to Capreol via Richmond Hill and Parry Sound, and east to Ottawa via Orono, Port Hope, Belleville and Smiths Falls. The eastern section was abandoned in the 1920s and 1930s (with a few exceptions: a spur in Scarborough follows the route, the Napanee-Smiths Falls section lasted later into the 1980s, and the Smiths Falls-Ottawa section is now owned by VIA), but the northern section is the GO Richmond Hill corridor, and from Richmond Hill north, the CN mainline.

As one has to, I stared at that pic endlessly, I do with a lot of them in this string. I don't know if it's to make up for something missing in this life, or an attempt to regain something lost in the last. I'm continually intrigued to look for hints of the 'quality of life' in many of them, it can be misleading, often is, as we witness even today in the news and media.

But I'm still struck with the 'Tom Sawyer' factor. The World was a much more open and adventurous place back then...for better or worse, or both.

So staring at that magnificent panorama, wishing to see an even greater enlargement (the detail is there to reveal more, the pic quality/resolution is stunning) I deduced the Northern tracks running into/through what must have been the 'pulp and paper factory' on the Don. The flat cars and a single box car (looking remarkably similar to the string further south, must have been all new stock at that point) sitting idle are the give-away. But I think I detect even more tracks, whether spurs or mainline is the question?

Further to the Yonge Street Mission:

One would have thought this pic was from the 1930's not 1912, a period which I had always assumed was a good one economically in Toronto.

Besides being fascinating portals into the past, architecturally as well as societally, and I too was taken aback at the "1912" era of the former pic...still trying to suss whether that's a transitory clientèle or economically depressed, what truly made a profound point was the story the banner told in the 1912 pic: It was a positive, helpful, uplifting message.

Take a look at the 1950 one. And I do drink occasionally, played far too much in bars as a younger musician, and with few exceptions, find them pathetic, lonely drug dens. At least with heroin the junkies keep it to themselves. With that acerbic comment (and I do enjoy drinking occasionally), see what the "mission" had become next to the Bermuda Tavern. How incredibly sad. Abstinence is just as vicious. I've run out of words to add to that, just that I keep looking at both, and for all the apparent need in the 1912 pic, it seems to be far more relatable.

Once again "Evocative Images" indeed. Yonge Street has hopefully hit bottom and on the way back up. Now to only get rid of the hideous Eaton Centre...

 

[steveintoronto]

One would have thought this pic was from the 1930's not 1912, a period which I had always assumed was a good one economically in Toronto.

Just had time for a cursory Google as per "Ontario economy 1912", sometimes the hits come brimming with answers, sometimes not, and the latter pertains at this time!

However, all is not as it may seem for that period, and either the crowd (demand) showing in the 1912 pic were just transitories heading to a new life north or west in otherwise good health (they look reasonably well dressed and in good shape) or they may indeed be economic refugees: (Edit: They may have come to Toronto to enlist)

UofT Rotman School of Management
CASE STUDY

The Forgotten Credit Crisis of 1907
[...]

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjDqbmzor_YAhWa0YMKHaCHB_gQFghDMAQ&url=https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/-/media/Files/Programs-and-Areas/CanadianBusinessHistory/Forgotten_Credit_Crisis_of_1907_10-29-14.pdf?la=en&usg=AOvVaw3oclLiPcj0WPuu1oKcahYy

Every picture tells a story, but there's always more to be found researching the context. As to how much of this conflates with the First World War, along with the rote story of Ferdinand et al is a good question...

 

[thecharioteer]

Just had time for a cursory Google as per "Ontario economy 1912", sometimes the hits come brimming with answers, sometimes not, and the latter pertains at this time!

However, all is not as it may seem for that period, and either the crowd (demand) showing in the 1912 pic were just transitories heading to a new life north or west in otherwise good health (they look reasonably well dressed and in good shape) or they may indeed be economic refugees: (Edit: They may have come to Toronto to enlist)

UofT Rotman School of Management
CASE STUDY

The Forgotten Credit Crisis of 1907
[...]

View attachment 131534

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjDqbmzor_YAhWa0YMKHaCHB_gQFghDMAQ&url=https://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/-/media/Files/Programs-and-Areas/CanadianBusinessHistory/Forgotten_Credit_Crisis_of_1907_10-29-14.pdf?la=en&usg=AOvVaw3oclLiPcj0WPuu1oKcahYy

Every picture tells a story, but there's always more to be found researching the context. As to how much of this conflates with the First World War, along with the rote story of Ferdinand et al is a good question...

Very interesting, steveintoronto! I also looked up the economic climate in Toronto in 1912. Found this on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_Canada):

The economy of the rest of the country improved dramatically after 1896, and from that year until 1914, Canada had the world's fastest-growing economy.[21]
R. C. Brown and Ramsay Cook, Canada, 1896–1921 A Nation Transformed (1974)

 

[steveintoronto]

The economy of the rest of the country improved dramatically after 1896, and from that year until 1914, Canada had the world's fastest-growing economy.[21]
R. C. Brown and Ramsay Cook, Canada, 1896–1921 A Nation Transformed (1974)

Excellent research! That may account for the 1912 crowd looking so relatively well dressed and healthy. The question remains though, why such a large crowd? I'll see what I can dig out later when the intellect is focused on 'tags'. The answer may be Toronto centric rather than more generally.

On a different note, one wonders just what the "breakfast" consists of back then?

 

[steveintoronto]

On a different note, one wonders just what the "breakfast" consists of back then?

lol! Pray, and Ye Shall Receive!

https://static.torontopubliclibrary.ca/da/images/LC/tysm_010.jpg

There's a treasure trove of pics on the "Mission" at TPL:
http://www.virtualreferencelibrary....ion+(Toronto,+Ont.)--History&view=grid&Erp=20

I think we'll have the answer to the size and nature of the crowd with further digging. This is intriguing! Note the quality of the sandwiches and the delivery. I'm not overtly religious, but this was clearly 'God's Work' being done.

Note also the amount of 'starched white collars' in the crowd. These maybe men in transition, but not necessarily on hard times. Fascinating...

 

[r937]

I deduced the Northern tracks running into/through what must have been the 'pulp and paper factory' on the Don.

yes, the Belt Line tracks curved north just before reaching the Brick Works

but the other reference to the Northern tracks near DVP and Don Mills was a different line -- it branched off the CN mainline just east of the Leaside bridge, at Todmorden station, then went up the Taylor Creek ravine (track bed still clearly visible for much of it)

 

[thecharioteer]

lol! Pray, and Ye Shall Receive!

https://static.torontopubliclibrary.ca/da/images/LC/tysm_010.jpg

There's a treasure trove of pics on the "Mission" at TPL:
http://www.virtualreferencelibrary.ca/search.jsp?N=38537&searchPageType=vrl&Ntk=Subject_Search_Interface&Ntt=Yonge+Street+Mission+(Toronto,+Ont.)--History&view=grid&Erp=20

I think we'll have the answer to the size and nature of the crowd with further digging. This is intriguing! Note the quality of the sandwiches and the delivery. I'm not overtly religious, but this was clearly 'God's Work' being done.

Note also the amount of 'starched white collars' in the crowd. These maybe men in transition, but not necessarily on hard times. Fascinating...

I went to the Yonge Street Mission’s website and it looks like the photo in question is from the 1930’s, not 1912, which explains the crowds.

https://www.ysm.ca/about-ysm/history/

When one goes through the photos in this section, one sees that the projecting sign changes in the 1920’s (losing the “Jesus Saves” component), making it clear that this pic is not from 1912.

 

[steveintoronto]

I went to the Yonge Street Mission’s website and it looks like the photo in question is from the 1930’s, not 1912, which explains the crowds.

Here's what I read:

Feeding Over 350 Men at the Sunday Morning Free Breakfast
Unknown
Picture, 1912,

Notes
Caption: "Feeding over 350 men at the Sunday Morning Free Breakfast." John Coolidge Davis, founder, at lectern. Page 11 of 23. Title page: "Presented to the Hon. S. H. Blake with Best Wishes from his friend J. C. Davis Sup't. Yonge St. Mission Toronto May 30, 1912." Samuel Hume Blake was one of the original trustees of the Yonge Street Mission.

http://www.virtualreferencelibrary....MDC-TYSM_010&R=DC-TYSM_010&searchPageType=vrl

This is well beyond being a 'soup kitchen' from the looks of things. I remain "intrigued by the crowds" in the 1912 pic outside the Mission.

Just doing a different Google search with different tags, and hit on this:

Toronto of the 1910s is remarkably well documented in photographs. In fact, so much so that what I thought might be a less interesting entry in this series of historical decade posts is anything but. Whether it be the soldiers heading off to war at old Union Station, the style of the signs and advertisements on downtown streets, or just how undeveloped the city was north of St. Clair, the photos below offer a portrait of Toronto that's fascinatingly removed from what the city is like today. And yet, images of the construction of the Bloor Viaduct, current Union Station, and places like the North Toronto CPR Station (now the Scrivner Square LCBO) can't but remind one that for all the demolition that took place in the 60s and 70s, numerous structures from the early portion of the century remain crucial to the city to this day.
[...]

https://www.blogto.com/city/2010/12/toronto_of_the_1910s/

Many excellent pics shown and discussed, and it reinforces the impression that these were 'good times'. For all the imperial largess at work in the world, an individual could, and often did become an adventurer of sorts.

A very important clue from the above, albeit this would be skewed by WW1:
"In 1901 Toronto consisted of 208,000 people, but by 1921, that number had exploded to 522,000."

That's an increase of 2.5 times in one generation (two decades). That's far faster than today!

 

[thecharioteer]

Here's what I read:

http://www.virtualreferencelibrary....MDC-TYSM_010&R=DC-TYSM_010&searchPageType=vrl

This is well beyond being a 'soup kitchen' from the looks of things. I remain "intrigued by the crowds" in the 1912 pic outside the Mission.

Just doing a different Google search with different tags, and hit on this:

https://www.blogto.com/city/2010/12/toronto_of_the_1910s/

Many excellent pics shown and discussed, and it reinforces the impression that these were 'good times'. For all the imperial largess at work in the world, an individual could, and often did become an adventurer of sorts.

Not that pic. I was referring to the first pic Goldie posted of the lineups outside. The YSM’s own website says this pic is from the 1930’s.

 

[steveintoronto]

Not that pic. I was referring to the first pic Goldie posted of the lineups outside. The YSM’s own website says this pic is from the 1930’s.

Well, it's an interesting point for discussion, certainly not the first time in even recent posts that details have been disputed, but I have to defer to direct reference:

Going into the mission for Sunday morning free breakfast
Unknown
Picture, 1912,

Notes
Caption: "Going into the Mission for Sunday Morning Free Breakfast and to hear the Gospel afterwards." Page 3 of 23. Title page: "Presented to the Hon. S. H. Blake with Best Wishes from his friend J. C. Davis Sup't. Yonge St. Mission Toronto May 30, 1912." Samuel Hume Blake was one of the original trustees of the Yonge Street Mission.

Rights and Licenses
Public Domain
Medium
Print
Extent
189 mm x 240 mm
Branch
Toronto Reference Library
Location
Temporarily unavailable. Ask at Hum & Soc Sci Desk 2nd Fl
Call Number / Accession Number
TYSM_002

http://www.virtualreferencelibrary....MDC-TYSM_002&R=DC-TYSM_002&searchPageType=vrl

 

[Goldie]

And a little further east (in the photo below) we can see where those tracks passed under 'old' Don Mills Rd. (taken during DVP construction - looking S.)

 

[r937]

love that photo, Goldie

in the distance, that triangular spot of bare ground is (was) known as Tumper's Hill -- it was completely levelled to provide fill for the DVP, and the 6 "elephants" or "molars", three on either side of the DVP, are located there

the CNOR line passed south of that hill