Canadian skylines of the past - Page 104

Darkoshvilli · #**2061** Posted **Mar 3, 2016, 10:14 PM**

That must be 30-31 because the Aldred building is still being built^^

Rico Rommheim · #**2062** Posted **Mar 3, 2016, 10:51 PM**

I don't see the architects building either.

Dr Awesomesauce · #**2063** Posted **Mar 5, 2016, 6:25 AM**

What a great aerial. So much has changed - really hard for me to identify any landmarks aside from the Royal Bank. Took me ten minutes to find Notre Dame...

MonkeyRonin · #**2064** Posted **Mar 5, 2016, 6:38 PM**

1953

http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=23318

KnoxfordGuy · #**2065** Posted **Mar 5, 2016, 9:59 PM**

I love how dirty everything is! I've never seen a picture of 50's Toronto in such detail!

Darkoshvilli · #**2066** Posted **Mar 5, 2016, 10:42 PM**

Thats a very, um, brown looking city.

Rico Rommheim · #**2067** Posted **Mar 5, 2016, 10:53 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darkoshvilli

Thats a very, um, brown looking city.

It still kinda is...

biguc · #**2068** Posted **Mar 5, 2016, 11:00 PM**

Glenn Gould's Toronto, everyone.

ssiguy · #**2069** Posted **Mar 6, 2016, 5:13 AM**

What a ghastly looking place Toronto was.

hipster duck · #**2070** Posted **Mar 6, 2016, 7:40 PM**

6 years of deferred maintenance during the war and burning high sulfur coal as a heating fuel will do that to a city. It's no wonder that so many old buildings were demolished in the 1950s. The ornamentation and stone construction of Victorian buildings really soaked up all that grime and coal dust, making them look especially shabby.

Toronto wasn't even all that bad compared to other cities. In Pittsburgh you could see the air from the street:

Source

kool maudit · #**2071** Posted **Mar 7, 2016, 7:45 AM**

I like Toronto's look in that photo. It's muscular. Look at those rail lines swarming in to feed the beast.

north 42 · #**2072** Posted **Mar 7, 2016, 2:48 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

1953

http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=23318

A bit of a Cleveland vibe going on.

flipv · #**2073** Posted **Mar 7, 2016, 5:57 PM**

And that folks, that dirty, sooty Toronto is what laid the foundations for surpassing Montreal as Canada's economic engine.

I think it looks beautiful IMO.

MolsonExport · #**2074** Posted **Mar 7, 2016, 6:29 PM**

^that plus a little bit of Quebec nationalism. Although it probably would have happened regardless.

Montreal also looked quite brown/grey during those years.

'

turcotyard

caltrane74 · #**2075** Posted **Mar 7, 2016, 6:30 PM**

Man, Toronto was dirty!!

shappy · #**2076** Posted **Mar 7, 2016, 6:36 PM**

Wow the soot is intense! "Big Smoke" indeed...

MolsonExport · #**2077** Posted **Mar 7, 2016, 6:37 PM**

Toronto Postcard 1910

chuckmantorontonostalgia

MolsonExport · #**2078** Posted **Mar 7, 2016, 6:40 PM**

lessignets

hipster duck · #**2079** Posted **Mar 7, 2016, 7:00 PM**

^^re: 1910 postcard

Toronto's problem has always been that they concentrated all their great buildings in the same area. More specifically, Toronto's financial district grew on top of its old financial district and stately banking halls were replaced with glitzy banking towers. In that pic, only a handful of buildings still survive.

Contrast that to Montreal and Vancouver, whose centre of gravity moved westward sparing areas like St. James street or Gastown.

yaletown_fella · #**2080** Posted **Mar 7, 2016, 10:58 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hipster duck

^^re: 1910 postcard

Toronto's problem has always been that they concentrated all their great buildings in the same area. More specifically, Toronto's financial district grew on top of its old financial district and stately banking halls were replaced with glitzy banking towers. In that pic, only a handful of buildings still survive.

Contrast that to Montreal and Vancouver, whose centre of gravity moved westward sparing areas like St. James street or Gastown.

+1

I wish the 50s-90s financial district was built further west so that more of the banking halls could be preserved.