By DAVID VAN DYKE This beautiful winterscape of the beach with several of the residences (bottom of Silver Birch Avenue) was photographed sometime in the 1930s. Some of the trees remain! Sadly, the birch trees depicted are long gone. Perhaps they were the inspiration for the street’s name. Do you have an old photo of […]
Category: Features
Deja Views: A look along Kingston Road towards Brookside Avenue in 1927
By DAVID VAN DYKE The view in the photo above is looking eastward towards Brookside Avenue on Kingston Road in 1927. This archival photograph was taken 96 years ago! Many of the buildings from 1927 still stand today. Do you have an old image of Kingston Road you would like to share with us? Please […]
Deja Views: Neville Park Loop memory
By DAVID VAN DYKE Immediately west of the entrance to R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant on Queen Street East in the Beach, you will find the Neville Park Loop. TTC streetcars have been screeching around this east-end loop since 1922. This particular postcard (photo above) was shot in 1966 (the photographer is unknown) and I […]
Deja Views: Looking back to Queen Street East and Kingston Road in the 1970s
By DAVID VAN DYKE The location of these photos is where old Highway 2, also known as Kingston Road, meets Queen Street East. The photograph above was taken in the late 1970s. When was the last time you saw a Datsun? Do you have an old photograph of Queen Street East you’d like to share […]
Deja Views: More than 70 years of Woods Drug Store on Kingston Road
By DAVID VAN DYKE Seventy years ago, there was no way you’d forget to pick up a pack of cigarettes as you strolled up to the Woods Drug Store to collect your new prescription. Things are different now from how they were in 1952, but not so with much of the exterior of this pharmacy […]
Deja Views: Construction on the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant began in the 1930s
By David VAN DYKE What’s beyond the Neville Park Loop before Scarborough? Yes, it’s the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant. The photograph above was taken in 1935, six years before the facility became fully operational. At this particular time, it was Toronto’s largest treatment plant. Today, it produces 30 per cent of Toronto’s drinking water. […]
Deja Views: A look back at St. John’s Norway Cemetery
By DAVID VAN DYKE St. John’s Norway Cemetery was established in the Village of Norway (Kingston Road and Woodbine Avenue area) in 1853. The archival photo above depicts the original chapel of St. John the Baptist Anglican Church. There is no date attached with the image, but around the early 1900s I would think. Do […]
Deja Views: Ahead by almost a century on Wheeler Avenue
By DAVID VAN DYKE There are 98 years separating these two images. These two semi-detached dwellings sit on Wheeler Avenue just south of Norway Avenue. The photo above shows the homes in 1924. The inset photo shows them earlier this year. Is there an old photograph of your house, sitting in a shoebox in your […]
Deja Views: A look back at Wheeler Avenue in 1925
By DAVID VAN DYKE This City of Toronto Archives photograph, above, depicts a house on Wheeler Avenue, just down the hill from Juniper Avenue. It was taken in the summer of 1925. Notice that the road was not paved. With our winters, I fully comprehend the whole idea of a “mudroom” which you can see […]
Deja Views: Scarborough Road and Queen Street East area memory
By DAVID VAN DYKE Thank you Carole Cowan for sending this amazing archival photograph (above) of a house that your great grandfather, Mr. Davis, built in the late 1800s. This image is at least 100 years old and the location is close to the intersection of Scarborough Road and Queen Street East. Do you have […]