[Conrad Black]

Thanks for the Beth Tzedec info. Fascinating.

 

[Mustapha]

January 5 addition.


Then:


St. Thomas street, looking SSE from just S of Bloor.

Don't know the date; guessing it's the 80s from the car.

Now: October 2009.

 

[androiduk]

^ I miss St. Thomas from that time period. There were three restaurants with large patios and Bemelman's was right around the corner. Now, it's relatively dead.

 

[wwwebster]

What would be very helpful would be to access the set of municipal aerial photographs that were taken during this era (the kinds used in Phase I Environmental Surveys). Any of our master researchers know how to access these on-line (Anna, wwwebster?)

Sorry for the late reply; I was offline over the holidays. Unfortunately, I have no special stash of Toronto aerials in my bag of tricks, only London, Ontario:

http://geography.uwo.ca/maplibrary/airphoto/london42/google/google_index_1942.htm

 

[Aladone]

The Walker House Remix

Wow, I haven't logged on to here in awhile! I have been on here for more than an hour catching up. Great posts - bathurst - dupont, rossin house/prince hotel and of course Mustapha's daily Then and nows. Here's another what could have been remix. Enjoy..

The Walker House - What could have been

 

[Mustapha]

When Adam Vaughan spoke at the Noxon book launch about a year ago he said that he'd been told ( by Morden Yolles, I believe ) that one of the reasons the local Jewish community embraced architectural Modernism - Dickinson's design for Beth Tzedec for instance - was because Hitler banned the Bauhaus, and that was a fine reason to support it. Also, the reason a number of Jews went into engineering was because of quotas at Canadian architectural schools that excluded them.

When the [Jewish] Primrose club was still around I got to hang a bit there with friends and their parents on occasion. Once in awhile it surprised me that some Jewish folks had very "Anglo" names. I suppose a family ancestor might have changed the name to avoid discrimination?

The "PARK" sign in the newer photo is a sadly watered-down recent replacement for something which had an odd "60s contemporary Fractur" polygonal font...

And note that there is only one sign; not the several that require careful study before parking ones car.

Wow, I haven't logged on to here in awhile! I have been on here for more than an hour catching up. Great posts - bathurst - dupont, rossin house/prince hotel and of course Mustapha's daily Then and nows. Here's another what could have been remix. Enjoy..

The Walker House - What could have been

Alden, very very cool.

With the right management perhaps the old Walker could have worked as a boutique hotel. We'll never know.

^ I miss St. Thomas from that time period. There were three restaurants with large patios and Bemelman's was right around the corner. Now, it's relatively dead.

Me too. I honeymooned at the Windsor Arms.



January 6 addition.

Then: Looking S on Spadina from Bloor.

Now: October 2009.

Then: Looking E along Bloor from Spadina.

Now: October 2009. And there's a Pizza Pizza... an opportunity to get adma's knickers in a knot. [Sorry mods, please delete if you feel necessary].

 

[androiduk]

^ Kinda curious, those two before pix. The guy in the suit with the clipboard is in both shots and in front of him in both shots is an empty pop bottle.

 

[Edward Skira]

Good eye. No wonder you take great shots. It is an odd thing isn't it?

 

[Aaron]

Very odd. Unless there's some sort of reasonable explanation. Was he consuming it?

Random tidbit: I was very close to renting the apartment above Pizza Pizza back in '96, when I worked a night shift down the street at the Shopper's. It was a spacious hole in the wall.

 

[androiduk]

I wonder if it's an old photography trick and the bottle is used as some kind of reference for the photographer.

 

[Aaron]

Maybe it's an early, traveling Gnome-type gag.

"Where's my bottle of soda? Bloor and Spadina?!"

 

[junctionist]

It's interesting to see what looks like a newspaper and magazine kiosk in the before photo "Then: Looking S on Spadina from Bloor." They're still around in many European cities selling magazines, cigarettes and other such basics, but no longer in Toronto.

 

[adma]

Interesting in shot #2: Britannica House (151 Bloor) already existed.

Interesting in shot #1: that news/refreshment(?) kiosk on the left--very European...

 

[Mustapha]

Interesting in shot #2: Britannica House (151 Bloor) already existed.

Interesting in shot #1: that news/refreshment(?) kiosk on the left--very European...

The kiosk was run by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind - CNIB. In my youth, one could occasionally find blind people - men - war veterans perhaps? - working in tuck shops in government buildings and on military bases.



January 7 addition.


Then: Yonge street looking S from Yorkminster Park church. Heath street in the distance. Marquees for the Hollywood and Hyland theatres dimly in the distance.

Now: October 2009. I should have stood in the middle of the street for this but for the traffic.

 

[NomoreaTorontonian]

Was that pop bottle showing in any of those photos of the Bank of Nova Scotia (Spadina & Bloor) a few weeks ago? I wonder if the whole collection was taken about 1961-62 when the Bloor subway was still at the blueprint stage?
(I was working at an office on that corner way back then.)