Toronto New Landmark - Canada's National Ballet School

I think it would be interesting to look at our new heritage. Believe or not, I think there is some good ideas out there that are working out just beautifully!

My first example is the National Ballet School, on Jarvis Street. Not only the married old buildings with new ones, but they also included interesting details - such as the music notes in the large windows OR, if you looked closer to the motif of the 2 top condo towers, you noticed that they are in fact keyboard, like a piano.

I think this is a good example of a project that include many type of buildings for many type of uses, but still keeping it pleasing as an urban ensemble.

What do you think?

Queen Street West, Gladstone Hotel, dates unknown

No idea when this postcard was made... but it shows some interesting details about the Gladstone Hotel.

The Gladstone Hotel is the oldest continuously operating hotel in Toronto. It was originally built in 1889 as a stylish hostelry across from the then existing Parkdale railroad station which serviced the Grand Trunk, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), and the Canadian National Railway (CNR) companies.

It was designed by George Miller, the architect of the Lillian Massey building of the University of Toronto, many other public buildings in the city, as well as a large number of formerly grand residential buildings in the Parkdale neighbourhood. 

The Hotel was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style - in the period a popular style for public buildings such as train depots, churches, and libraries. The architectural style of the Gladstone is characterized by the rough cut stone and brick and by the dramatic arches over the windows and porch entrances. The Hotel tower is also characteristic of the style. The cupola was removed in 1930 due to disrepair.

The Gladstone is a fine example of a Victorian Hotel with intact plaster moldings in the grand hallways. The two restored pillars in the hotel's Melody Bar are unique in Toronto in that their faux marble finish was rendered in true European fresco technique. No other architectural pillars such as these exist in Toronto. The meticulously restored Victorian elevator is one of the last hand-operated elevators in Toronto.

Too bad  the corner tower lost the cupola... it was quite something! Even the top brick details of the two facades is a bit different...

The good thing about the Gladstone is that it's still an hotel, even after all these years. The owners are actually pretty concern about the place, and they've been doing a lot of work to keep it in good shape.

A+ for the Gladstone!

Bathurst & Front Street, 1960 - 2009

This shot is interesting for the background. Look how Toronto grew up since 1960!

The Fairmount Hotel used to be THE tallest building of this shot. Nowaday, the skyline is changing almost every month, with all these new projects and condos in the works...

If you pay attention to the 2 pictures, you will sii that the building at the left is still there, but had some renos - you will also find the same street lights! For the rest, it's all pretty new!

Vanished Toronto - the Trinity College

To follow the previous post on Trinity Bellwoods...

I think it could be interesting to cover buildings and heritage from Toronto that are no more standing in our city. I will call this "Vanished Toronto". I know, very original!

So, back on the Trinity College, here a picture on the top showing the school as it was in 1929. Nowadays, the tennis court of the Trinity Bellwoods are were the foundation are... deep in the ground. I saw somwehre that there is A LOT remaining of the base of the school, because they had to fill the creek  to make it equal with Queen St.

Back to the origins of its story...

The old Garrison Creek emptied into Lake Ontario at the site of Fort York, and the land north and west of the fort was set aside as a military reserve. As the town of York grew around the fort, the military reserve was gradually sold off in lots to retiring British officers and friends of the military command. British Army Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Smith is said to have bought 1000 acres (4 km²) of land here in 1801, which he called Gore Vale after Lieutenant-Governor Francis Gore; the Vale in the name referring to Garrison Creek ravine.

Much of the current park land was originally purchased from a Mrs. Cameron of Gore Vale in 1851 by Scottish-Canadian Bishop John Strachan, an influential Anglican deacon who wanted Toronto to have a private school with strong Anglican ties, partly in opposition to the recently secularized University of Toronto. Buildings were soon constructed and students began attending Trinity College in 1852. After federation with the University of Toronto in 1904 and completion of the downtown Trinity campus in 1925, the school left this location. The original buildings were then sold to the City of Toronto and most were demolished in the early 1950s. Of the college itself, only the stone and iron gates now remain, at the Queen Street park entrance facing south on Strachan Avenue, although the former St. Hilda's College building, (the women's residence of Trinity College) still overlooks the northern half of the park on the western edge. It is now a seniors' residence, John Gibson House.

In the 1950s Garrison Creek was entirely buried and the creek ravine backfilled around the Crawford Street Bridge, raising the surface of the northern end of the park to almost the height of Dundas Street. The steep drop from this upper level to the lower part of the park has become a popular local toboggan run in winter. Picnic tables and small barbecues are also provided here for summertime use, and public washroom facilities.

Queen Street West -Trinity Bellwoods Gates 1917-2009

An landmark on Queen Street West. "Meet me at the gates of Trinity Bellwoods"!

When this winter image was shot in 1917, the gates were actually leading to the Trinity College, who later got annexed to another Toronto University.

Torontonians where strongly against the demolition of the old gotic College... so the city placed the Kiwanis in it. Couple years later, they left too, leaving the college structure in a real bad state. It got razed in the 1950's.

We still have the gates to remember though. But they got painted cream... for some reasons I would prefer to see them dirty and unpainted. But that's just me.

Building Story - the Spadina Hotel

Everyday, I walk in front of these two old buildings and I'm wondering... what if these walls could talk! Well, actually they do - here's what I found on Wikipedia:

The Spadina Hotel is youth hostel located at Spadina Avenue and King Street, just south of Chinatown in Toronto. Built in the late 1873, the three storey Victorian building features a small clock on the east facade. In the early 1900s it was the Hotel Falconer and shared the corner with another hotel, the Power House Hotel on the southeast corner. Over its history it has been home to many notable residents. In the 1960s and 1970s it was a centre of the Queen Street West music scene, and saw such visitors as Leonard Cohen and the Rolling Stones. On the ground level the Cabana Room was a central venue to the strip. The Jack Nicholson film The Last Detail was also partially filmed at the hotel.

The hotel was renamed the Global Village Backpackers in 1997 and the once seedy motel is now a youth hostel to Toronto, Ontario. With 190 beds (four people per room) it is the largest youth hostel in Toronto.

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WOW! Talk about something hidden! I am convinced that most of torontonians tha see these two old fellows don't even realize how historical they are.

Crazy colours though!

I can see you!!!

Ok... I am not alone!

Not that I was expecting to re-invent the wheel with "Now & Then - Views of Toronto". It's actually nice to see that there is other people in this city who are interested enough to persue researching archives and unveal our city history for our own good!

Check out this great blog: Toronto Before - A step into the past. They are blogging there since 2006... and they have great now and then pictures as well!

I will have to be very good at my Before/After - now that it's clear that there's competition! Hehe!

;)