So this afternoon I was in a meeting in Wesley Hall at the U of W, and on the wall were three framed plans for a United College campus, built on the site of the main campus. I'm guessing these plans were drawn up in the 1930s, when Wesley College became United. They both would replace Wesley Hall with a new central building, and the blocks behind it would be lined with buildings, including, oddly, a large building that had the cross footprint facing the liturgical east. Church? One plan showed a conceptual drawing of the Portage Avenue elevation, with a Art Deco-cum-Elizabethan Ivy League building with a central tower.
Obviously this didn't happen, perhaps due to the Depression and later the War, or the fact that this was in the age before His Lloydship. Maybe Bryce Hall was the one componant of these plans that became reality?
Thank you 1ajs...that is a great photo. That is an amazing photo. Unfortunately, the only photos I have were taken on October 30, 2008 after some demolition had already started. I have never had the opportunity to get inside the building and the open house this year was an hour long (from 11am - 12 noon and I showed up at 12:10...Red River was supposed to call me back to let me gain entry but they never did).
I remember sneaking in there in the late 80s...the ground level anyway had the original black cage elevator doors, and I remember ugly green carpet in some of the upper floors.
Eaton's significance was intangible; it was a very handsome building, but the history of the store was more profound than the building itself. I wish it was still standing of course...
Love that postcard, and how within a generation, all those balloom frame houses and stores on Portage Avenue E. and Lombard would be replaced by great buildings of stone, steel and brick.
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