Lost Toronto

 

I accidently stumbled across a really cool blog called Lost Toronto on the weekend that compares present day Toronto architecture to what existed in the late 1800s – early 1900s. I haven't shown any of the "afters" here in my post as I wanted to simply recreate my morning commute to work starting from Parkdale to Yonge Street and beyond with "befores".  Have a look at the site – if you love this sort of thing, you will get lost in it for hours.

 

Looking east on Queen towards the Dufferin underpass

The Gladstone looking east

 

North side of Queen just east of the Gladstone, 1931

 Queen & Lisgar

Queen West just east of Ossington c1919 – north side. Black Dog Video is here now.

 

Trinity College, 1913. The buildings, all except for St. Hilda's, were demolished in 1956.

 

 Queen & Manning

 
 

Queen & Bathurst, 1935

 

Queen & Bathurst (There's a Starbucks on that corner now)

 

South east corner of Queen & Bathurst where the Big Bop was.

 

Queen & Portland, 1958 – the Epicure Cafe is here now.

 

Queen & Spadina, 1910 - south east corner

 

Queen & Spadina – before the streetcar median was here, there were public bathrooms

 

 

North side of Queen east of Spadina – Le Chateau, the Rivoli and David's Tea are here now

 

Queen and Peter looking east

 

Looking south onto Peter from the north side of Queen. You can see "Peter Pan Lunch" to the left, which is still there today.

To the right under that hoarding, you can now find a GAP.

The CityTV building, which was originally constructed for the Methodist Church of Canada in 1913, was bought by CHUM in 1985.

 

Looking north on Beverly from Queen

 

 

University Ave looking south

 

University Ave looking north towards the Canada Life building.

 

Bay & Adelaide

Queen & Yonge

Yonge & Shuter – to the right is Eaton's

The first Loblaws in 1919

Yonge & Dundas 1922

Yonge & Dundas

Yonge & Dundas 1952

 

 Toronto Street & Adelaide

Dundas & Victoria Street 1923. That building is still there as "Hakim Optical".

 


This charming young butcher was photographed in front of his shop at Bloor & Brunswick in 1921.

Here's the link again: Lost Toronto

Enjoy!