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 […]
Category: Features
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 […]
Deja Views: A look back to Queen and Lee in 1995
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 […]
Deja Views: The view at Queen Street East and Woodbine Avenue has changed in the past seven years
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 […]
Deja Views: ‘Happy motoring’ with Esso on Queen Street East in the Beach
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 […]
Eye on Business: Kleen Windows in the Beach celebrates 40 years of service
By JESSE GAULT Bill Whyte, founder and owner of Kleen Windows, has been successful in cleaning windows by building relationships with customers, working for fair prices and getting the job done well for the past 40 years in East Toronto. In 1982, Whyte said he doing window cleaning and similar work for a friend and […]