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 […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE The heart of the Beach, Queen Street East and Lee Avenue. My thanks to Raymond Montana for sharing this photograph (above) which he took looking west along Queen Street East in the summer of 1995! Do you, like Ray, have an old photograph of Queen and Lee, or of Kew Gardens […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE It’s been more than seven years since I took the panoramic photo at the top of the page. I was standing in front of Fire Station 227 on Queen Street East in the Beach. The Shell gas station, which had been on the northeast corner of Queen Street East and Woodbine […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE Murray Seymour sent me this incredible image along with his text and story. Again, I turn over my pen to our readership. Thank you Mr. Seymour for this time capsule photograph! If you have an old photograph of the Beach, why not share it with our readers and contact me gdvandyke61@gmail.com […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE I thought I’d give writing duties over to Jan who sent me this photograph (above) that her husband took of her in the early 1980s. The facade on this retail space at 1916 Queen Street East hasn’t changed a bit! It was wonderful to meet you and your husband Jan, thanks […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE This archival photo (above) of the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant was captured sometime in the early 1930s. The photo is from the City of Toronto Archives. It wasn’t until 1941 when the treatment plant on Queen Street East at the foot of Victoria Park Avenue was fully completed. It truly […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE Above photo is a panorama I shot back in 2014 of the Alpine Hotel. The insert photo shows a panorama of the location that I took recently. The hotel was built in 1927 and was located on the sunny side of Kingston Road, just east of Victoria Park Avenue. I remember […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE It is the most photographed landmark in the Beach. How many ways can one shoot a white box with a red roof? Well apparently there are plenty. Lorie Murdoch gave us a unique perspective of the Leuty Lifeguard Station in 1982. It has a long history of being moved around, falling […]
By David Van Dyke In 1985, Fauna Coates and her husband purchased a then-condemned cottage on the bottom of Willow Avenue, north of Queen. The cost? $51,000! Certainly, this would never happen in today’s marketplace. Thank you Fauna for sending me this wonderful image. You and your husband did an awesome job restoring this house […]
By DAVID VAN DYKE Lorie Murdoch sent me the wonderful image above. She photographed these businesses (on the sunny side of Queen Street East, just a little west of Lee Avenue) in 1996. Thank you Lorie, I don’t know how many times my son and I strolled into Beach Food Mart to be warmly greeted […]
