Canadian skylines of the past

[Beedok]

Those pics do a decent job of reminding folks that in some cases 'demolishing slums' actually was demolishing slums in some cases. I think a lot of people look at grand old victorian homes and think 'how could anyone have found these to be slums' when in reality those are still standing because they weren't slums. There were lots of areas with improper infrastructure, poor safety code compliance, and whatnot back in the day, and a lot of them were demolished for a reason. Certainly the US went a little overboard, but for the most part the pictures I've seen show that most Canadian urban renewal efforts made some sense. I don't agree with the auto-centric ideals of the time, but major redevelopment was needed in many areas.

[Chadillaccc]

Unbelievable how much has changed in only 42 years... it was such a "town" back then... people were even running across the Centre Street Bridge for gods sake!

• Video Link

[J.OT13]

Ottawa 1972

Originally Posted by drawarc

Ottawa postcard from ebay, I'm guessing mid 70s:

Source:http://www.ebay.com/itm/Canada-Ottawa-Ae...ctables_Postcards_MJ&hash=item20dea04bc4

[franktko]

Couer de la Capitale, oh yeah! Nice picture

[MonkeyRonin]

Toronto in 1968, mostly streetcars:



19680510 43 TTC 4344 Dundas St. @ Keele St. by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680706 10 TTC 9146 Keele Station Loop by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680707 06 TTC 4676 Queen St. @ Church St. by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680510 04 TTC PCC's on Queensway by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680510 27 TTC 4437 Bloor St. @ Quebec Ave. by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680510 62 TTC 4649 Luttrell Loop by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680707 27 TTC 4546 Bathurst Ave. @ Dundas Ave. by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680707 30 TTC 9142 4442 Oakwood & St. Clair by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680511 17 TTC 4334 King St. @ Bay St. by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680707 01 TTC Subway Davisville Yard by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680707 16 TTC 4668 Queen St. @ Coxwell Ave. by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680706 03 TTC 4478 Dundas Ave. @ Bay St. by davidwilson1949, on Flickr


19680511 21 TTC 9045 Dundas St. near Weston Road by davidwilson1949, on Flickr

[SignalHillHiker]

Ga...ma...hu...strrrrbbbb....

LOVE those!

[MolsonExport]

very cool Toronto streetcar set.

[shappy]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Toronto in 1968, mostly streetcars:



19680510 43 TTC 4344 Dundas St. @ Keele St. by davidwilson1949, on Flickr

This one is really cool. Streetcar service to the Junction switch to trolley in May 1968 - if this photo is properly dated then this must have been pretty close to one of the last streetcar runs to this area.

[niwell]

Great pics! I wish the Dundas car went up into the Junction still - the area would be much more accessible.

[Monolith]

Yes, excellent Toronto streetcar set!

I really wish Vancouver had kept theirs.

Granville St. ~1953

Granville Street, Vancouver, BC by SwellMap, on Flickr

[MolsonExport]

^great shot.

[SignalHillHiker]

1880 - Memorial University Archives





















I believe if we were part of Canada at that time we would have been the fourth or fifth largest city in the country, just behind:

1. Montreal
2. Toronto
3. Quebec
4. Halifax

But we would've been out of the Top 10 in the early 1900s.

[J.OT13]

What was the population in the 1880s?

[SignalHillHiker]

No one knows for sure (our census documents did not survive) but it is estimated to have been approximately 30,000, but possibly more. We know it was 10,000+ in 1815 because crossing that milestone was recorded. And we know it exceeded 25,000 in the early 1870s because that was also recorded in other documents.

There's also the question of whether we defined a community the same way as Canada did at the time.

When we joined in 1949, for example, we said St. John's had 45,000 people. But Canada's first census found 111,454 in what is an area that covers less than our current CMA.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I believe if we were part of Canada at that time we would have been the fourth or fifth largest city in the country

Just for reference, Canada's 10 largest municipalities in the 1881 census:

1. Montreal, Quebec: 140,747
2. Toronto, Ontario: 86,415
3. Quebec, Quebec: 62,446
4. Halifax, Nova Scotia: 36,100
5. Hamilton, Ontario: 35,961
6. Ottawa, Ontario: 27,412
7. Saint John, New Brunswick: 26,127
8. London, Ontario: 19,746
9. Portland, New Brunswick: 15,226
10. Kingston, Ontario: 14,091


Note that Portland was a suburb of Saint John, so it really would have been a city of 41,000, possibly making it the fourth largest city. Other cities had adjacent suburban municipalities at that time as well though, so using their current city boundaries for example, Montreal would have had 189,168, Quebec 80,249, and Halifax 67,917 (but then these would also include rural populations). Not sure of the exact number for Toronto, but I'd estimate around 120,000-140,000.


And just for fun, found a list of each province's urban & rural populations in 1881 while looking for those numbers.

Urban / Rural / Total (% urban)

Prince Edward Island: 13,198 / 95,693 / 108,891 (12%)
Nova Scotia: 63,542 / 377,030 / 440,572 (14%)
New Brunswick: 59,092 / 262,141 / 321,233 (18%)
Quebec: 378,512 / 980,515 / 1,359,027 (28%)
Ontario: 575,848 / 1,351,074 / 1,926,922 (30%)
Manitoba: 10,245 / 52,015 / 62,260 (16%)
British Columbia: 9,070 / 40,389 / 49,459 (18%)

Canada: 1,109,507 / 3,271,749 / 4,381,256 (25%)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Canadian_cities_by_census#1881
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo62a-eng.htm

[1overcosc]

Back in 1881 some of Kingston's population would have been in the then-suburban villages of Portsmouth and Barriefield. Both were functioning as suburbs of Kingston by the 1880s. The former was an independent municipality, the latter was part of Pittsburg Township. Between the two of them though it's likely that brings Kingston's 1881 population up to about 15,500-16,000 or so.

Fascinating that Kingston's population was just over half the size of Ottawa's back in 1881. If that ratio was maintained Kingston would have about 600,000 people today. Really goes to show how much Kingston stagnated over the years. With the exception of a period of decently fast growth in the immediate postwar era (1945-1970ish), population growth in Kingston has been pretty flat since 1850.

[MonkeyRonin]

Oh and here's a drawing of Sherbrooke in 1881, which with 12,000 people at the time would have been just shy of making the above list.

[SignalHillHiker]

Wow, it looked beautiful! Seems quite spread out - was that artistic license or was it actually not rowhouses? Most of the old Quebec communities have VERY dense cores.

Take these two shots, for example. This area of St. John's (Riverhead) was only just being settled at that time. So the rowhouse blocks aren't complete, but wherever they do exist, they're attached:

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

No one knows for sure (our census documents did not survive) but it is estimated to have been approximately 30,000, but possibly more. We know it was 10,000+ in 1815 because crossing that milestone was recorded. And we know it exceeded 25,000 in the early 1870s because that was also recorded in other documents.

There's also the question of whether we defined a community the same way as Canada did at the time.

When we joined in 1949, for example, we said St. John's had 45,000 people. But Canada's first census found 111,454 in what is an area that covers less than our current CMA.

Dear God that's a huge difference!

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Just for reference, Canada's 10 largest municipalities in the 1881 census:

1. Montreal, Quebec: 140,747
2. Toronto, Ontario: 86,415
3. Quebec, Quebec: 62,446
4. Halifax, Nova Scotia: 36,100
5. Hamilton, Ontario: 35,961
6. Ottawa, Ontario: 27,412
7. Saint John, New Brunswick: 26,127
8. London, Ontario: 19,746
9. Portland, New Brunswick: 15,226
10. Kingston, Ontario: 14,091

And just for fun, found a list of each province's urban & rural populations in 1881 while looking for those numbers.

Urban / Rural / Total (% urban)

Prince Edward Island: 13,198 / 95,693 / 108,891 (12%)
Nova Scotia: 63,542 / 377,030 / 440,572 (14%)
New Brunswick: 59,092 / 262,141 / 321,233 (18%)
Quebec: 378,512 / 980,515 / 1,359,027 (28%)
Ontario: 575,848 / 1,351,074 / 1,926,922 (30%)
Manitoba: 10,245 / 52,015 / 62,260 (16%)
British Columbia: 9,070 / 40,389 / 49,459 (18%)

Canada: 1,109,507 / 3,271,749 / 4,381,256 (25%)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Canadian_cities_by_census#1881
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo62a-eng.htm

Strange to look at these population figures. The rankings have changed dramatically since those days.

Also interesting to see the urban/rural divide.

Thanks for posting.