[LowPolygon]

When children were taken to the Islands for their health:

Very interesting—thank you! There is something strangely moving about the idea of crowds gathering to watch the departure and return of the children in June and September. The image of people gathering to watch (and encourage) a parade of sick children in hospital beds seems to belong to another kind of public life--and sense of community--that has long since departed.

The idea of the value of “fresh air” was certainly a part of a larger story—that of an increased awareness of the health benefits of sunlight, physical exercise, waste disposal, clean running water, and even body cleanliness itself; an awareness that developed as the link between germ theory and the spread of disease began to be understood, especially with regards to the poor (the 'Great Unwashed'). The discovery of viruses in 1892 added immeasurably to this awareness.

In Toronto, there were justifiable anxieties in the first decade of the 20th century focusing on the role of public drinking water in the spread of disease, and a push to replace the ‘public drinking cup’ with a fountain that would arc a stream of water directly into one’s mouth.

One a related note, it seems there was an ‘open air experimental school' that opened in June 1912 in Victoria Park, an initiative that came directly out of the hygiene reform movement, and had similar goals to the Lakeside Home.

 

[LowPolygon]

The demolished Queen street hospital reminds me a bit of the Imperial War Museum in London, which was the former Bethlem Royal Hospital - which specialised in the mentally ill.

yes--the origin of the world 'bedlam'

IWM has a fantastic archive! i spent a week there once looking at their Boer War and WW1 material--it was total heaven!

 

[thecharioteer]

And what we would call "wetlands" today, at the mouth of the Don, was perceived as a pestilent marsh throughout the 19th Century, something to be eliminated in the name of public health:

 

[LowPolygon]

“From the 1870’s, sewage outfalls and water intakes remained located in the same place: Lake Ontario. As the untreated sewage flows increased as a result of urban growth, so too did the need for the protection of the lake water suppliesâ€



The Ver Mehr Filter, built between 1914 and 1918, was Toronto’s first water filtration plant.

 

[Long Island Mike]

Deepend: Back on March 24th you posted information and articles from the Toronto Star - March 1,1966 on the proposal to construct a group of office towers and call it the Eaton Centre.
I wanted to mention this sooner but I could not recall the exact location and date of this ephemera from the 60s-I found it all quite interesting!
I never knew about this 60s era plan-and how Toronto would have lost Old City Hall except for perhaps the bell tower. After losing the Registry Building constructing New City Hall perhaps planners thought finally that new is NOT always better...
I feel that the 70s era Eaton Centre Mall could be one of the most successful Downtown shopping malls in any city-bucking the trend up to that point of suburban malls over Downtown shopping.
I also like the comparisons with other atrium-type places and older Eaton's stores in Toronto...
This is a great example why I am a member of UT - in certain sections like this one I learn something new practically every time I look! If I left anyone else out thanks to you all!
Long Island Mike

 

[thecharioteer]

The photo essay on the Ver Mehr Filter was fascinating, deepend. It's always been a very mysterious presence on the Islands.

The Islands themselves have always played a role in the Toronto psyche, both as a retreat from the City and as a spot to view the City. It's hard to realize today how man-made the Islands truly are. The following map from 1884 (with the evocative title "Island of Hiawatha") illustrates this and in itself is a work of art. Forgive the size, but the details are exquisite:

 

[LowPolygon]

The following map from 1884 (with the evocative title "Island of Hiawatha") illustrates this and in itself is a work of art. Forgive the size, but the details are exquisite:

extraordinary! thank you for posting that map. please don't apologize for the file size--as far as i'm concerned, the bigger the better when it comes to Toronto ephemera and photographs! as you know, finding hi-res and larger file sizes of historic materials online is always a challenge, so its great to see something so detailed...

 

[thecharioteer]

One can also see on the Island map land already allocated to the "Water Works Department", 30 years before the construction of the filtration plant (imagine that, a city that plans for the future!).

 

[LowPolygon]

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[LowPolygon]

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[Mustapha]

.

That's UC97; a captured WWI U-Boat doing a post war tour of the great lakes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM_UC-97

 

[seemsartless]

That's UC97; a captured WWI U-Boat doing a post war tour of the great lakes.

From Wikipedia:

She was exhibited to raise money for Victory Bonds in the United States and the Great Lakes and was sunk as a target by Wilmette on Lake Michigan 20 nautical miles (37 km) off the coast of Highland Park, Illinois on 7 June 1921. Here are two shots from the Toronto Archives:

The last photo is another good example of how much Toronto's waterfront has been expanded south as the building was the very new Toronto Harbour Commission building, on the water at the time.

 

[seemsartless]

I've geotagged some more photos of the Toronto Harbour Commission building... I like the field across the street in the following photo where the submarine was 11 years earlier:

and then an areal photo from the 1930's:

 

[LowPolygon]

I've geotagged some more photos of the Toronto Harbour Commission building... I like the field across the street in the following photo where the submarine was 11 years earlier:

and then an areal photo from the 1930's:

thank you for contributing those--very interesting!

i wonder what the initial plan was for that big empty field of grass across the road from the THC building? its meticulously well kept...

 

[LowPolygon]

That's UC97; a captured WWI U-Boat doing a post war tour of the great lakes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM_UC-97

thanks for the ID, Mustapha--i wasn't aware of the back story here....