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Is this what you’re looking for?

s0376_fl0005_it0084.jpg
 
Hey UTer's

I have a question. I remember that there was an image posted of the area just below Queen/Spadina from the late 1800's/early 1900's. In this image, there was a gentleman walking into the underground restroom that used to be there.

I have searched for this image on the forum but I can't seem to locate it (it was in this thread I believe).

Would anyone be able to point me to where it is?

Thanks!

From a search of the Toronto Archives photo database for 'lavatory':

s0376_fl0005_it0084.jpg
 
BINGO! You must be some kind of wizard.

That view is looking NNW if memory serves, correct? I work at Spadina/Wellington now so I've always wondered about this one.
 
December 25 addition.




*★Happy★* 。。★Holidays★ 。* ★to Everyone here at Urban Toronto★
° 。 ° ˚* _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•*/______/~\。˚ ˚
˚ ˛ •˛• | 田田|門|




Then. "March 24, 1933. Tracks E of Bathurst street."



s0372_ss0079_it0672.jpg





Now. November 2010.




DSC_0817.jpg
 
December 26 addition.





Then Yonge and Dundas on the SW corner looking NE. 1980?? Always had a soft spot for minkeys.


f0124_fl0008_id0206.jpg





Now. December 24 2010.



DSC_0021-1.jpg
 
Wow, that's great!

Thank you seemsartless. Yonge and Dundas/Dundas Square has become one of my favourite Toronto localities.

I originally thought Dundas Square a bit bleak/sterile/windswept, but it has really caught on. Even though it's now winter and not much happening there; people - especially young couples and young families - stroll about, pose beside the Polar Bear light sculptures for pictures, gaze up at the huge signs...

The Square needs its own coffee shop, heated and enclosed for winter, open for summer. Just my opinion.





December 27 addition.




Then. University and Adelaide. Looking N. "1967" according to the Archive notation that accompanies this picture. My gut feel is that it's earlier - there's too many 1950s cars in the picture.



1967.jpg








Now. November 2010.



DSC_0804.jpg





I'm taking a break from my PC for a few days. I'll resume posting Friday Dec 31 around midnight (you might have figured out that I haven't been invited to anyones New Years party :) . )

Another year, where does the time go?

I've been enriched by everyones comments and contributions in this thread over the last couple of years.

I'm grateful to the "enablers" in the form of the Toronto Archives and Urban Toronto. Funny that I've never set foot in the Toronto Archives building on Spadina Road. I need to go.

I'm awed that contributors can find resources I can't, I feel like an amateur researcher sometimes.




I'm reminded that what we are is to a great extent made up from our memories of the past; and no, that's not my original thought.



Thank you.
 
I originally thought Dundas Square a bit bleak/sterile/windswept, but it has really caught on. Even though it's now winter and not much happening there; people - especially young couples and young families - stroll about, pose beside the Polar Bear light sculptures for pictures, gaze up at the huge signs...

Funny is, as an apparent success, it tilts against *two* hot political-cultural windmills a la 2010: the lefty-pinko No Logo-ists, and the anti-Gravy-Train-ists (remember how none other than King Kyle stickhandled Y-D Square's creation)
 
Then. University and Adelaide. Looking N. "1967" according to the Archive notation that accompanies this picture. My gut feel is that it's earlier - there's too many 1950s cars in the picture.



1967.jpg








Now. November 2010.



DSC_0804.jpg

Almost certainly, the concrete pole at the SE corner, and the now-rusty metal pole on the NE corner, and a few others are identical in the two photos.

But the real giveway of an early 60s date may be the rails and "this stop not in use" in the foreground, the shelter and trailer in the sidewalk up ahead, and--what's going on in the median? Is that a steam shovel behind the No Parking/Stopping signs? Did the Adam Beck memorial (temporarily?) vanish? Methinks we've caught the University subway line (opened 1963) in mid-construction. (Funny: there's all those familiar archival photos of Yonge Street being torn up c1950, yet this may be the first *University*-line construction photo I've encountered.)

Another pre-67 giveaway: the upper floors of the Shell building at 505 University didn't exist yet.
 
December 26 addition.

Then Yonge and Dundas on the SW corner looking NE. 1980?? Always had a soft spot for minkeys.

f0124_fl0008_id0206.jpg

I remember this guy and that monkey like it was yesterday. I never paid him much mind though, he just seemed to be a fixture in the area though he only seemed to be around on weekends if I recall.
There were a few other regular street performers in this area. I also remember a young boy (perhaps early teens) back in the late 70's to mid 80's who used to do a ventriloquist act with a dummy that was nearly as large as he was. He was farily good. He disappeared for a several years then re-appeared for a time. I saw him one day in the mid, perhaps late 90's on Yonge south of College Street performing in that small area south of the Ellington condos and he was then a hard-looking grown man but I recognized his face. The act didn't work so well anymore.
 
Then. University and Adelaide. Looking N. "1967" according to the Archive notation that accompanies this picture. My gut feel is that it's earlier - there's too many 1950s cars in the picture.

1960 by the white licence plates. The two newest vehicles are the panel van in the foreground (1960+ Chev) and a 1960 Ford in the far parking lot.
 
Almost certainly, the concrete pole at the SE corner, and the now-rusty metal pole on the NE corner, and a few others are identical in the two photos.

Another pre-67 giveaway: the upper floors of the Shell building at 505 University didn't exist yet.

So... the poles are... totemic. :)

Shell Building. I had no idea this was so. Fascinating.
 
I remember this guy and that monkey like it was yesterday. I never paid him much mind though, he just seemed to be a fixture in the area though he only seemed to be around on weekends if I recall.
There were a few other regular street performers in this area. I also remember a young boy (perhaps early teens) back in the late 70's to mid 80's who used to do a ventriloquist act with a dummy that was nearly as large as he was. He was farily good. He disappeared for a several years then re-appeared for a time. I saw him one day in the mid, perhaps late 90's on Yonge south of College Street performing in that small area south of the Ellington condos and he was then a hard-looking grown man but I recognized his face. The act didn't work so well anymore.

Somewhat related to this: about a year ago, a couple of young Asian girls in Harajuku costume assembled outside the Queen street entrance to the Eaton Centre to promenade about. I only saw them the one time.
 

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