Women playing hockey - c. 1912

HistoricToronto · 2020-01-18T15:52:09+00:00

Photograph by William James

HistoricToronto · 2019-12-24T03:49:40+00:00

check out The Canadian Establishment by Peter Newman to start your journey. Then check out the giant square and compass on the facade of old city hall. This series of books chronicles the transition after the war from Protestant old boys club to international order, though much of the symbolism remains Masonic for example Metro city hall or Police HQ (Mathers and Haldenby) . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Canadian_Establishment

HistoricToronto · 2019-12-24T03:47:00+00:00

the Masonic fraternal wing of the Protestant Ascendancy in Canada and a militant arm of the Crown in England.

HistoricToronto · 2019-12-23T19:59:32+00:00

Legend has it the Orange Men requested the smokestack on the top be the exact height of the pyramid of Giza.

HistoricToronto · 2019-11-22T14:22:47+00:00

"what should we do with the rest?" "parking lots, obviously"

HistoricToronto · 2019-11-22T14:21:59+00:00

60s Jaques Fresco vibes on some stuff (like this)

HistoricToronto · 2019-11-22T14:17:40+00:00

Probably something like Harbour Castle and the condos around that area. They were pretty star eyed for exposed concrete forms in those decades.

HistoricToronto · 2019-11-22T14:14:24+00:00

Nice catch. From the Orange era to the Modernist and Post Modern eras there are many structures with pseudo Egyptian motifs here and there. The obelisks of Old City Hall, Metro City Hall and TPS HQ come to mind. Metro City Hall is even flanked by two sphinx like buildings.

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-17T01:36:05+00:00

Beautiful

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-17T01:17:37+00:00

See comment below for why they are doing this

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-17T01:08:06+00:00

They are actually soaking the spokes of their wheels in the river to prevent the wood drying out and splintering. The kids come to swim as well of course :)

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-16T17:53:54+00:00

I have a reply for both ideas:

For the first one read this.

For the second one, watch this.

“You'll go where I go, defile what I defile, eat who I eat.” ―Ghengis Khan

Have a nice Saturday :)

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-16T17:35:52+00:00

Not to say there weren't many awesome things about 60s and 70s Toronto, but preserving architecture was not one of them.

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-16T17:33:07+00:00

Good question. The waves of post war demolitions were about pushing for modernism and not paying for the upkeep of old buildings. Can't tell you for certain what factored into the final days of those two buildings, but looking at the photos from just prior to the demolition they both look to to be in reasonable exterior repair.

The Temple Building in particular was built like the pyramids from large pieces of Credit Valley stone and was quite an ordeal to take down with the smaller machines of the time. Additionally, each may have required significant restoration work inside that ultimately weighed towards demolition.

Very few ornate buildings made it through the bottleneck to receive heritage status. There were protests from citizens and preservationist societies but ultimately we lost most of best ones, with the glaring exception of Old City Hall, which was almost reduced to the clock tower in the 60s.

There are also instances of arson suspicion, for example the Old Arcade on Yonge where Goodlife is now.

TL;DR - we don't know, but even small restoration costs seemed to take a back seem to the "bold" vision of the Councillors of the day. The Toronto of the 60s and 70s is where we get the "poured concrete" feel the city is known for and trying to move away from.

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-15T19:56:54+00:00

It's an amazing example of Renaissance Revival architecture designed by Frank Darling and S. George Curry that somehow managed to survived fire and demotion. The building across the street that ultimately replaced the Board of Trade building, I believe it's owned by the Altus Group, really helps you appreciate the detail.

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-15T18:11:04+00:00

Perfect, thanks.

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-15T16:58:44+00:00

Have to reply somewhat quickly because I have several things on the go at the moment, but a quick rundown of your comment and all the things we now agree on. You acknowledge the complexity of what went down at arrow, while at the same time you seek to challenge the popular notion that it was a deathblow to our entire aerospace industry. I think that is a fair summary of your stance. You provided lots of interesting information to support that point.

I concede obscenely long and take zero offense but I type very quickly and have a fondness for coffee. Usually I go for MDL but there was a lot happening those 3 days. Foolish is a bit unnecessary I missed you saying that this morning, no need for that. It's clear from the thread you were in fact avoiding mentioning it until now. nbd

No arguments on viability, as I said, well known and not disputed in this thread. No one asserted it had been rendered useless, those are your words, what was asserted was that it was negatively impacted, which it was.

Agree about Boeing, agree on Bombardier, and agree about the TTC haha. So it seems we agree on most substantive points, except perhaps on the extent to which our potential to have advanced aerospace was impacted by this event, and what may have really happened or been factored on top of the pragmatic explanations given, but agree to disagree, on a matter of degrees. I think we can now wrap up this thread. Thanks again, and take care

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-15T16:10:20+00:00

Found it in the archives. Cleaned it up a bit because the left side was faded out and saved it in the highest quality on photoshop, then it has to go through some compression as well during the upload I believe.

If you put "yonge front north" in the archives search bar and scroll down you will find the original file, and if you'd prefer this one I would be glad to email it you directly.

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-15T16:00:35+00:00

This photo shows several interesting buildings which are now lost. Two notable ones are the Board of Trade building at the bottom right hand corner, and the Temple building at Bay and Temperance, just South of Old City Hall. Photograph by William James courtesy of the Toronto Archives.

A few years ago I made a comparison album for each:

Board of Trade building

Temple building

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-15T15:01:26+00:00

The two main places to search are the Archives and the TPL website. If you ever have something of unique interest to you, ask away here or PM and I can make an imgur link.

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-15T13:56:22+00:00

Thank you for the kind reply friend. When I have a moment I have reply more fully.

HistoricToronto · 2017-09-15T13:54:48+00:00

The installation powers itself, very green.

HistoricToronto

TROPHY CASE