Looking southwest towards the corner of Spadina Ave and College St in the Kensington Market neighbourhood of Toronto.
The archive photo shows the shops and businesses located at the corner, on Spadina Ave. From left to right, it features the Crescent Grill, Brock’s Billiards, The Homestead Restaurant, and the Royal Bank of Canada. When the vintage photo was taken, the Royal Bank branch building was relatively new, having replaced a structure that had stood at the corner for nearly 80 years.
The Homestead Restaurant closed in the mid-1970s, and the building was demolished a few years later, allowing for the bank’s expansion. RBC closed this branch in the late 1990s. Today, aside from the corner building, which now houses a Rexall pharmacy, many surrounding structures from the late 1800s remain standing.
One other item to point out in the archive photo is the red fire alarm box mounted on a wooden pole. These boxes were first installed on the city’s streets in 1871. When someone pulled the lever, an alarm would sound at the fire department headquarters, which would then relay the alert to the nearest fire hall. The person who activated the alarm was expected to stay at the location, but many would run back to the fire scene, leaving firefighters to search for it since the alarm boxes only indicated a general area. By the mid-1960s, there were calls to remove these boxes for several reasons, including the increasing number of people with phones, the development of modern fire alarm technologies, and the rising costs associated with maintaining the boxes.
Then and Now
SOURCE
- City of Toronto Heritage Register
- Heritage Toronto
- Ontario Heritage Trust
- Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada
- The Toronto Star Newspaper Archives: Apr 1, 1964, pg 5
- Photo: Denise Marie for TorontoJourney416
- Vintage Photo: City of Toronto Archives
- City of Toronto: Maps
- Toronto City Directory courtesy of Toronto Public Library
