Looking northeast along Bloor St W at Lansdowne Ave in the Junction-Wallace Emerson neighbourhood of Toronto.
The left foreground of the archive photo shows part of the Imperial Bank of Canada, later CIBC, in a building that was once on the corner. In the centre background of the vintage image, at the northeast corner, is a Tamblyn Drugs, a chain of Canadian pharmacies founded in 1904 by Gordon Tamblyn. Several of the buildings along this stretch of Bloor St W, from Lansdowne Ave to St Clarens Ave, still stand today.
The archive photo also shows the streetcar lines that once ran along the two streets and features a President’s Conference Committee (or PCC) streetcar. This type of streetcar was introduced to the TTC fleet in 1938, with a total of 140 cars added that year at a cost of $3 million.
Then and Now
SOURCE
- City of Toronto Heritage Register
- Heritage Toronto
- Ontario Heritage Trust
- The Globe and Mail Newspaper Archives: Sep 2, 1938, pg 9
- TTC: Historic PPC Streetcar back on track
- Photo: Denise Marie for TorontoJourney416
- Vintage Photo: City of Toronto Archives
- City of Toronto: Maps
- Toronto City Directory courtesy of Toronto Public Library
