Posts Tagged ‘davisville’

a Midtown circuit

Posted: March 1, 2021 in construction, locations, old buildings
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 Yonge, Eglinton, Avenue, Chaplin.

Some habits die hard and some rules aren’t meant to be broken including the unwritten rule that a photowalk begins at a coffee shop.  Was it the best. coffee. ever.?  I’m not sure.  It was good; it would have been even better if I’d been able to drink it inside!  Also good is the fact that there are independent coffee shops that are still open and I hope that they survive (and thrive?) until the summer.

sign on sidewalk advertising a coffee shop that says best coffee ever also mulled wine

below: Long north up Yonge Street from Lola (L O L A Lola), towards Eglinton.  Back to Midtown.

looking northup Yonge Street, from Lola Rd., towards Eglinton Avenue

below: Yonge and Manor Road, looking northeast.  One of the remaining Midtown buildings that date from the original development about 100 years ago.   In 2016/2017 a massive list of buildings in this area was put forward as considerations for “Main Street Block” heritage designation including this one at 2075 Yonge at the corner of Manor Road East.   In the resulting report, mention is made of “the three-storey scale, the glazed commercial storefronts with apartments in the upper floors, and the elaborate Tudor Revival styling typical of those dating to the interwar era in North Toronto.”  I haven’t done any more research to determine if any of these buildings were actually added to the heritage register.

at the corner of YOnge and Manor Road, looking north east

below: Northwest corner of Yonge and Eglinton.  Still mired in Crosstown construction.

intersection of Yonge and Eglinton

below: Walking west on Eglinton through a maze of cones and detours.

Eglinton Ave west sidewalk through Crosstown construction, lots of orange and black cones, pedestrian detour signs

below: Looking back towards Yonge and Eglinton.

Eglinton Ave west sidewalk through Crosstown construction, barriers on both sides, narrow, tall buildings at Yonge and Eglinton in the background

below: Consulting.

behind that metal bars of a construction barrier, workmen are consulting a paper

below: Part of the pedestrian detour on the north side of Eglinton takes you through Eglinton Park. This photo is from May 2020 so you can’t see the ice and snow that was there a few days ago!

Pedestrian detour for crosstown subway and l r t construction, orange sign with arrow pointing right, leading pedestrians through the park

below: View of the city, looking east towards Yonge Street from Eglinton Park (May 2020)

view of city skyline from Eglinton Park - looking east towards Yonge & Eglinton. Tennis courts in the foreground

below: Decorated hoardings at Eglinton Park.

green plywood hoardings around Crosstown construction, with artwork on them, painted designs on wood

below:  Rendered drawing of the future Avenue Road Crosstown station.

picture on green hoardings, an image of what Avenue Road subway station is going to look like when its finished

below: Avenue Road Crosstown station as it is now.

metal support beams for construction of new Avenue Road subway station, Crosstown
below: What it looked like in early May last year. Not much change is there?  I was disappointed to see how Eglinton Avenue looks just the same as it has for years.  At the surface it appears that there has been no progress. I’d love to be able to see what was/is happening down below as I know that the work didn’t stop for Covid.

Photo from May 2020, construction of Avenue Road subway station

red octagonal stop sign that now says stop racism

below: No running, no diving. Sigh. Although it makes sense that there’s no diving in the shallow end, it’s just another reminder that this has been a year of “no”.

outdoor waterslide at an outdoor pool closed for the winter, sign that says no running, no diving

below: One of the many architectural styles on Avenue Road

square residence on Avenue Road, two storey, duplex or fourplex, snow,

three older houses on Avenue Road, winter time

below: Chaplin Crescent views

houses in winter, large tree, with tall condos in the background.

below: And back to Yonge Street –  For lease, a former Starbucks at Yonge and Davisville.  This is one of 25 locations in Toronto that closed at the beginning of February and one of the approximately 300 closed across Canada.   This was always a busy place but maybe it was dependent on commuter traffic as it is by the Davisville subway station.  The list of 25 closed Starbucks’ is heavy on mall locations and those on the heavy commuter routes.

 

Starbucks, now closed, in an older building at Yonge and Davisville, for lease sign iin the window

The building started its life in 1894 as J.J. Davis’ general store and post office built on land owned by John Davis ­— the same Davis that gave the name to the tiny community of Davisville.  When I was researching the building, I found the following three photos.  First, J.J. Davis Store, ca 1900.  Home of the Davisville Post Office 1894-1913.

J.J. Davis Store, about 1900

below: The same corner, 1951.  Note the old bus on Davisville (and all the people waiting to get on it!).   The Chaplin Groceteria is now the Fresh Buy Market but the building is almost exactly the same 50+ years later.  The hydro lines have been buried since 1951.

photo of the northeast corner of Yonge and Davisville, back when there was a flower shop on the corner

below: I have been trying to reconcile the information that I found online:

  1.  The J.J. Davis Store was built in 1894,
  2. The first post office was in Davis’s store,
  3. John Davis died in 1891.

Then I found the photo below.  It was taken in 1981 and is of a building, Host Rent a Car, at the corner of Yonge & Imperial (one block north of Yonge & Davisville).   The library notes: “In the 1870s, this was the site of T. G. Crown’s Grocery, Flour and Feed Store and the first Post Office in Davisville.” Davisville Village Walk, North Toronto Historical Society, 1984, p. 5.    Therefore, two stores (that still exist) and two “first” post offices … and a mix-up somewhere.

  I like the fact the T.G. Crown’s store was on Imperial street!

old black and white picture, 1981, of host rent a car shop at Imperial and Yonge, in Toronto, old two storey house

The above three black and white photos are online, from the Toronto Public Library

seating and snow outside the backdoor of a white house with a green roof

With many thanks to Karen for accompanying me.  Sorry, no photo – totally forgot…. We’ll have to make good on our vow to walk again!

demolished – Davisville public school

Posted: February 4, 2019 in construction, old buildings
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I walk past Davisville Junior Public School fairly often…. or should I say, I used to walk past it.

I didn’t think about it too much until I heard that it was going to be demolished – or was it going to be saved?  Maybe I should take some photos of it as apparently it has some architectural value, an early 1960’s Modernist building.   Then, back in November, a construction fence appeared around the property.   One of those metal wire temporary fences that you see all over the city.  So much for saving the building.

 

Photos from November:

west end of Daviville public school with it's coloured panels on the upper floor, basketball nets in front, pavement

side entrance of Davisville public school before it was demolished, modernist archtecture brick building,

back of part of Davisville public school through chainlink fence, before demolition

crooked chainlink fence posts at the corner of a schoolyard, with metal construction fence inside that, school in the background, large paved area in front of the school

The building was also home to the Metropolitan Toronto School for the Deaf as well as Spectrum Alternative School.

red roses stuck in a chainlink fence as a memorial tribute to the school that is being demolished, MTSD 1962 to 2018 where MTSD is Metropolitan Toronto School for the Deaf.

below: Notice on the fence, permit to remove 21 trees.   A new elementary school is being built on the site.  In the meantime (for 2 years), Davisville Junior Public is being relocated to Vaughan Road in what was previously the Vaughan Road Academy.  Originally, the plan was to build the new school on the property (there was a large playground) and then tear down the old (Globe & Mail Feb 2017)

city notice posted on fence, permit to remove 22 trees. Notice that 44 trees will be planted once the building on the site (new elementary school) has been demolished

below: I past by the site for the first time in a few months and discovered that most of the school is now demolished.  Only a small portion by the front entrance remains and I suspect that that won’t be around for much longer.

small part of a school remains, debris scattered on the snow, digger at work in the background, apartment building in the distance

broken fence, plywood fence, and the remains of a school that is being demolished

old front entrance of Davisville public school, lots of snow, broken walls as it is in the proces sof being demolished.

Davisville

Posted: April 12, 2016 in public art
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A walk towards Davisville subway station on a grey day.

below: At the corner of Mt Pleasant and Davisville stands the sculpture ‘Wind Bird’ by Sorel Etrog.  Etrog (1933-1914) was a Canadian artist, writer and sculptor.

 

a bronze sculpture of a thin figure with short arms reaching up. stylized, almost abstract. no facial features on the head that seems to be looking upwards

I have passed this little figure many times and today I finally decided to take some pictures of it and make a walk of it.  I have always thought that she was a forlorn little creature.   With her arms outstretched, empty,  reaching for something that never appears.  She needs a hug or at least a  warm scarf to keep the chill away.

below: After leaving Wind Bird empty handed yet again, I walked west towards Yonge Street.  Off the street and amongst some trees I saw this sculpture.   It is one that I have never noticed before.  A collection of metal pieces is suspended from the top of a lopsided metal frame, more parallelogram than rectangle.

rust coloured metal sculpture in front an apartment building. The sculpture is a large metal frame that looks like a cube but made of parallelograms and from the top is suspended a bunch of metal pieces.

below: On closer inspection, the metal bits are actually flat human forms with their heads in the center and feet flung outwards as if spinning around a central axis.  I know enough physics to know that either centrifugal force or centripetal forces (or both) are at play here.  But I don’t know enough to know the right answer.

close up of a sculpture of flat metal people shapes, forming a circle with their heads, their feet sticking out like in a centrifuge.

below:  Next door are these two metal shapes.  There isn’t much to it, is there?  What it does have is it’s own little park area and walkway.  I didn’t have to get my shoes muddy if I wanted to get closer.

A sculpture that is just two rectangular metal boxes upright, joined together and on a slight angle. In a small park in front of an apartment building at 141 Davisville in Toronto

below: There is a path that ran on the west side of the above building, 141 Davisville, to Balliol Street.   This tall sculpture stands beside the path.  I am not sure who the artist is.  Is it a couple embracing? Or a totem pole of abstract forms?  Or just something that looked good to the artist’s eye?

tall columnar sculpture somewhat resembling a totem pole, all in grey, beside some trees in front of an apartment building.

below:  Next, from across Balliol, this sculpture caught my eye.  It is ‘Grand Odalisque’ by Sorel Etrog.

Grand Odalisque, a sculpture by Sorel Etrog sits on a wood pedestal in front of the entrance to an apartment building.

below: I’m rarely satisfied with photos taken of public art in front of buildings.  The background is always to cluttered or messy.   I played with various angles for ‘Grand Odalisque’ and I found this one.  The sculpture is quite phallic now that I look at it.

Grand Odalisque, a sculpture by Sorel Ertog sits on a wood pedestal . Looking across Balliol from behind the sculpture. The scene across the street is a few men standing in front of a construction site where a new condo is being built

The phallic nature of the sculpture is possibly ironic .  Odalisque has a few meanings and connotations, but all involve women.  In fact, ‘La Grande Odalisque’ is a famous painting by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres in 1814.  In French, ‘grande’ is the feminine form of the adjective and ‘grand’ is the masculine.  Ingres used ‘grande’ for his female nude and Etrog used ‘grand’ for his sculpture.  Is there a connection?  Or just my imagination?

below: La Grande Odalisque.  You’ll have to visit the Louvre in Paris if you want to see the painting.

picture of the painting 'La Grande Odalisque' by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1814

The next stop along Davisville was the Al Green Sculpture Garden.  Al Green was a builder,  a founder of Greenrock Property Management, and in later life a sculptor.   It makes sense then that the small garden that bears his name, and is home to some of his sculptures, is between two of Greenrock’s apartment buildings.

below: ‘Leaning Torso’ by Al Green.

Al Green sculpture

below: ‘Embrace’ by Al Green

Al Green sculpture, The Embrace

below: ‘Landing Sculpture’ by Carl Lander (aka Carl Bucher), 1970.  They look like little red spaceships hovering in the air, or as the name suggests, coming in for landing.  Father and son alien ships come for a visit.
Lander (1935-2015) was a Swiss artist who lived in Canada for a couple of years in the early 1970s.

sculpture in front of an apartment building, two red shiny things that look like alien spaceships

below: Another sculpture by Sorel Etrog in the foreground.  Behind it is ‘Greenwin’ by Maryon Kantaroff, commissioned in 1973 by Greenwin Developments.

two tall thin sculptures, one by Sorel Etrog in the foreground and a greenish bronze by Kantaroff in the background.

And last, and very definitely least….

below:  You tell me.  Christmas balls on top of a fence?

three silver Christmas ball ornaments are attached to the top of a chain link fence

below:  Once you’ve figured out the whys and the wherefores of the above, you’ll be happy to know that there is another mystery.  A bagel?  A donut?  Squirrel food? Bird food?  But also a  ring?
These are on the fence that runs between Yonge St and the subway line near Davisville station.

a moldy partially eaten bagel or donut sits on top of a fence pole on a chain link fence

Regent theatre

Posted: October 9, 2014 in history, locations
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On Mt Pleasant Road, just north of Davisville Ave. is the Regent Theatre.  It is a rather nondescript brick building with an ugly white piece of something across the front.  Sometimes the names of the movies that are showing appear on the south side of that white thing (on the side you can’t see in the photo!).

The front of the Regent theatre, a two storey red brick building with a large ugly blank white sign across the bottom of the upper storey.

The Regent theatre today.

It was built in 1920 as the Belsize Theatre.  As you can see, the front of the building hasn’t changed much after almost 90 years.

old black and white photo of a stretch of Mt. Pleasant showing some stores and the Belsize Theatre.

Even back then the hydro poles and wires were an eyesore!

A mid life name change and it became the Crest Theatre.

old photo of the Crest Theatre from the late 60's or early 70's.

Crest Theatre – The movie ‘The 7 Year Itch’ came out in 1955.

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