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SP!RE

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Hi guys,

For a project I am working on right now I was wondering if anyone knows how/where I could find some old maps of the area around New City Hall, before it was constructed; preferably if it can be found online. I have never used Toronto's archives online, but perhaps someone here has experience with it?

I am especially interested in the grid of small streets that once ran through the site that is now New City Hall, and immediately around it; Elizabeth Street, Hagerman Street, etc. etc.

I own the book "Lost Toronto" so I will be sure to look in there, but any other maps/info would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!
 
Hi guys,

For a project I am working on right now I was wondering if anyone knows how/where I could find some old maps of the area around New City Hall, before it was constructed; preferably if it can be found online. I have never used Toronto's archives online, but perhaps someone here has experience with it?

I am especially interested in the grid of small streets that once ran through the site that is now New City Hall, and immediately around it; Elizabeth Street, Hagerman Street, etc. etc.

I own the book "Lost Toronto" so I will be sure to look in there, but any other maps/info would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

Go to the maestro Plink's site:

http://skritch.blogspot.ca/2012/04/goads-atlas-of-toronto-online.html
 
All of those seem to be maps of the entire downtown but I can't get them enlarged enough to see the details of particular areas. Thank you though, I will poke around that site a bit for now!

Bonus points if anyone can help me find downtown maps from the 1930s or 1940s!
 
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All of those seem to be maps of the entire downtown but I can't get them enlarged enough to see the details of particular areas. Thank you though, I will poke around that site a bit for now!

You have to click on the index map to get the detail plate for the area
https://www.googledrive.com/host/0BwadvTiFXSLcNmNMeEJDeW82Nlk/goad/1924/00009.jpg

Bonus points if anyone can help me find downtown maps from the 1930s or 1940s!

I get bonus points.
http://maps.library.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/files.pl?idnum=948
There may be more on that site.

Mustapha has done quite a few photos of this area in his Miscellany Toronto Photographs: Then and Now thread.
 
You win! Those are perfect, thanks! :)

When my design is finished I'll post it in here so you guys can see what this is going into. I'm not sure in what capacity these maps will influence my design but they will show up in one way or another.
 
Bonus points if anyone can help me find downtown maps from the 1930s or 1940s!

Am I too late?

Here's an aerial photo of the City Hall site as it appeared in 1947.
Dundas at top
Queen at bottom
University at left
Yonge at right

Image will be found at:
http://jpeg2000.eloquent-systems.com/toronto.html?image=ser12/s0012_fl1947_it0018g.jp2

CityHallsite1947_zpsc34646e8.jpg
 
Thanks, Goldie, that certainly brings those old maps to life and helps you actually visualize how it was at that time.

The design is a school project, in which we are to imagine that a client is using a site just north of New City Hall, currently a parking lot, for a cartography museum and research centre.

I have some initial ideas for the massing and layout of the building, and architectural gestures that would be appropriate for the site, but thinking far ahead, I'd love to incorporate large wall murals using an old aerial images (or maps) like this one, inside the entry area / reception area of the building. I was doing some thinking earlier today when I realized that the site is an interesting one with regards to the program of the building we are to design, because the street grid / "cartographical" characteristics of the immediate area are dramatically different than they were before the construction of New City Hall.
 
Don't forget some of the pre-Goad maps found on Nathan's website, like the 1842 Cane Topographical Plan of the City and Liberties of Toronto:



http://oldtorontomaps.blogspot.ca/2013/01/1842-cane-topographical-map-of-city-and.html


Or the 1862 HJ Browne Plan of the City of Toronto (detail below):



http://oldtorontomaps.blogspot.ca/2013/01/1862-browne-plan-of-city-of-toronto.html

The 1884 Goad shows the neighbourhood (the "Ward") almost totally residential (pre-Eaton's warehouses, Old City Hall, the Registry office or Shea's Hippodrome):





1910 (view north on Bay from the Temple Building):



1910 (view SW from the Eaton's Warehouse):



In the "modern" era, one of my favourites is the last Goad Atlas of 1924:





1930's (view from the Canada Life Building):

 
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BTW, the city archives recently posted a whole bunch of new aerials (1953, 57, 62,71,83,92) (for those of you who didn't notice already :) ). They vary in quality (and some of them are marked up), but are super fun to browse. Unlike the 1947 aerial set, for the new years the archives doesn't provide the image files directly anymore; instead they've switched a map tiling system which is decent (and arguably easier to use) & you can still make easy screenshots from it.

Contrasting years can be quite interesting...

1957: Parking!



1962: Under construction!



See the aerials page on CTA for other years.

Also incidentally, this spacing article by John Lorinc on the Ward (as well as the sub-linked York U essay mentioned in the article) may make for useful background reading if you're trying to learn more about the context for that area.
 
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I've always been impressed by the vastness and longevity of the Osgoode Hall property.
A fine indicator of the power of "the law."

Too true, as evidenced by the famous 1856 photographs by Armstrong & Beere:

Toronto_1856_-_4.jpg


Toronto_OsgoodeHall_1856.jpg


1868 by Notman (McCord Museum):

Osgoode_Hall_by_Notman.jpg


1880's (TPL):

pictures-r-3860.jpg


1904:

8007189478_784938b11b_h.jpg


1913:

f1231_it0769.jpg


1932:

s0071_it9427.jpg


1953:

s0372_ss0041_it0799.jpg
 

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Too true, as evidenced by the famous 1856 photographs by Armstrong & Beere:

View attachment 19193

What's important about this photograph is that it's clear that Osgoode Hall's east portico is supposed to be York Street's terminating vista. Old City Hall, Osgoode Hall and Queen's Park are a trio of terminating vistas from the 19th century. I'd like to see this vista restored. It would require some pruning and maybe even cutting down a mature tree or two, but it would be worth it.
 

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