[adma]

Yeah, that last image says it all.

The Ford was practically a Monopoly-piece cartoon of a 20s travelling salesman's kind of hotel: tall, plain, rectilinear brick with double lightwells. *Of course* it was a dive; how could it not be.

Strangely uncharacteristic of Toronto, for that matter; like it hopped on a bus from some medium-sized city in upstate New York or Pennsylvania or wherever...

 

[drum118]

Too bad you didnt have a picture of the streetcar track repairs at Dundas/Bay last year to compare with. And the switches where electric in 1923(I think the date implys 1923)? I didnt think that technology was out that early.

I have them and up on flickr some where.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Grandma!!?? Nah! Sure looks like her. My mistake.

 

[Mustapha]

Elizabeth street

There was a thriving Chinatown here up until the southern end (about 1/2 of the Chinatown at the time) was appropriated for New City Hall.

Then, somehow, the 'Downtown Holiday Inn' (it's a UT residence now) managed to knockdown another 25% of THAT.

Then, ... it all drifted away to Spadina Avenue.

Then:

Now:

Then:

Now:

 

[Mustapha]

Then:

Now:

You know,,, that Ford Hotel was quite the landmark in its day ...

 

[LowPolygon]

it looks like the Ford and the Eaton's warehouse were the highest buildings in the hood...

this is one of my favourite shots of the old days:

i mean c,mon! farming at Queen and Bay in 1920?

 

[Mustapha]

the deepend, I know you're kidding but for those who fool easily - folks that how they cleared demolition sites in those days.

 

[adma]

Funny--esp. with its combination of mammoth scale and Chicago School "industrial" aesthetic--how the Eaton's Warehouse gets so little play as "lost heritage", esp. as it lasted right to the Eaton Centre era. Then again, I remember it being grim and gloomy and strangely unlovable--but them's underdeveloped 70s eyes. Imagine if it survived today; then we might just wind up with a Margie Zeidler tour de force next door to an Eberhard Zeidler tour de force...

 

[LowPolygon]

Funny--esp. with its combination of mammoth scale and Chicago School "industrial" aesthetic--how the Eaton's Warehouse gets so little play as "lost heritage", esp. as it lasted right to the Eaton Centre era. Then again, I remember it being grim and gloomy and strangely unlovable--but them's underdeveloped 70s eyes.

I have very similar memories myself, although my strongest childhood ones involve traversing the basement tunnel that ran between the Annex and the main store. Indelible memories of waffles and ice cream!

Imagine if it survived today; then we might just wind up with a Margie Zeidler tour de force next door to an Eberhard Zeidler tour de force...

Amazing to picture. Its so easy to imagine it as a Merchandise Building or Tip Top type of development. The newer building to the north has nice detailing at the top (concrete? ceramic?) that is very similar to the Wrigley buildings...

Anyway its amazing how Eatons dominated the area. Were they manufacturers as well?

 

[Hydrogen]

I have to say, I am loving these retrospectives. Thanks for the efforts!

 

[Mustapha]

I remember the soft ice cream in Eaton's basement too, as well as that brick lined tunnel to the Annex.

I remember well 'Canada's First Escalator' - that ancient wood slatted thing in the Annex.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Me too. When we came to Toronto in '70 we couldn't believe such a thing was still being used.

 

[Mustapha]

Me too. When we came to Toronto in '70 we couldn't believe such a thing was still being used.

Urban Shocker, did you ever hang out at Bassells restaurant? Now that was a cool place with a real 1930s vibe. I miss the Silver Rail too.

 

[Urban Shocker]

No. In that neighbourhood, just the student place upstairs from the Brown Derby mentioned earlier. When did Bassells close?

Nick Bitove was in my grade 13 class at York mills C.I. and I ran into him in the late '70's when he was managing the Big Boy on the east side of Yonge just south of Dundas; his family owned the chain I believe. No idea what happened to him.

 

[W. K. Lis]

At least Eaton's employed Canadian workers in those factory buildings. And the shipping would have been cheap, push the bundles across the street to the store.
Unlike today. Wal-Mart buying from companies who employ near-slave workers in the worker's paradise in the far east, then shipping them on ships, trains, and trucks (and wasting fuel in the process).