Cycling in Toronto in the Early 20th Century

The omnipresence of the bicycle and bike culture in 1890s Toronto far surpasses anything we know today. But remarkably, the political issues associated with cycling are almost unchanged.

In the 1890s Toronotonians were preoccupied with the question of ‘scorchers’: those riders who traveled too quickly, ignored rules of the road, and endangered pedestrians. Similarly, there was a concerted effort to improve the quality of the city’s streets for cyclists. The ‘Good Roads Campaign’ argued that city council needed to set aside more money to pave roads for the benefit of the bike rider. Though, unlike today, their priority was to make suburban roads more bike-friendly to allow for people to leave the city easily on weekends.

Finally, cyclists successfully courted political power. Candidates for both the mayoralty and council made a point of wooing the biking lobby, often showing up at meetings of cyclists to expound upon their respective platforms. If there was an important question in Toronto, the bike unions were sure to be involved somehow.

By the end of World War II, however, the cycling heyday was over. Cycling as something like a movement, or aspect of civic consciousness, or popular sport, didn’t really return until the 1980s, and gain serious momentum in the 2000s.

Cycling club in Toronto, 1900

A leisurely ride Jarvis Street, 1903

Bay Street, 1907

Boys cycling across Lakeshore Road bridge at Mimico, 1907

Walking it up the hill to St. Clair, 1907

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40 Amazing Vintage Photographs That Show What Toronto Looked Like in the 1900s

Toronto in the 1900s didn’t much resemble the city we know today. Not only was the skyline virtually undeveloped—the tallest structures were the Temple Building at 10 storeys and the Trader’s Bank Building at 15 storeys—but the Bloor Viaduct was yet to link the east and west sides of the city.

In the 1900s, Toronto had a population of approximately 210,000 people, horses and carriages were still common on city streets, and the city suffered one of the worst fires in its history, losing almost all of the main commercial district (bounded by Bay, Wellington, Yonge, and Front Streets).

Here’s what Toronto looked like through the 1900s:

King Street, 1900

Board of Trade Building, 1900

Cycling club, 1900

Weston Train Station, 1900

Eaton’s factory interior, 1901

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The Bloor Viaduct During Construction Through Amazing Photos

The Prince Edward Viaduct System, commonly referred to as the Bloor Viaduct, is the name of a truss arch bridge system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, connecting Bloor Street East, on the west side of the system, with Danforth Avenue on the east.

The Bloor Viaduct during construction

The system includes the Rosedale Valley phase (a smaller structure, referred to as the Rosedale Valley Bridge, carrying Bloor Street over the Rosedale Ravine) and the Sherbourne Phase, an embankment built to extend Bloor Street East to the Rosedale Ravine from Sherbourne Street. The Don Valley phase of the system, the most recognizable, spans the Don River Valley, crossing over (from west to east) the Bayview Avenue Extension, the Don River, and the Don Valley Parkway.

The roadway has five lanes (three eastbound and two westbound) with a bicycle lane in each direction. The subway level connects Broadview Station in the east with Castle Frank and Sherbourne Stations to the west.

This selection of pictures, taken during the construction of the Bloor Street East viaduct (1915-1917), comprises some of the images in the Canadian Historical Picture Collection, housed in the Special Collections department at Toronto Reference Library.

Pier D. Training... First Construction...

Break in Sheeting. East End N2. Pier D

Don in Flood

Don Sec. East Approach

Don Sec. Pier B. Forms

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22 Incredible Photos Show the Aftermath of the Great Fire of Toronto in 1904

It was a miserably cold night, with bitter gusts of wind and a light snow even though it was the middle of April. And about an hour after sunset, things would get even worse. No one is entirely sure what caused the blaze. It might have been faulty wiring. Or a stove. But around 8 o’clock on that terrible night of April 19, 1904, a constable walking his beat in downtown Toronto spotted the first flames rising out of a necktie factory on Wellington Street just west of Bay (where the black towers of the Toronto-Dominion Centre stand now). As the officer rushed to sound the alarm, the flames spread quickly.

The aftermath of the Great Fire of Toronto (1904)

Within an hour, every firefighter in the city was desperately trying to contain the blaze. But they were losing the battle. Violent gusts of wind blew the water from their hoses off course. The spray froze in mid-air, coating everything with ice. Thick tangles of newly-installed telegraph, telephone and electrical wires made it impossible for ladders to reach the flames. Textile factories, book-sellers, paper supply companies and chemical manufacturers crowded the core of the city — they provided the perfect fuel. The firefighters were being blinded by smoke. The fire chief broke his leg, falling from a ladder. The April snow was joined by a constant rain of burning wood, broken glass, and ash.

The flames tore through the heart of the city, moving south from Wellington all the way down to the Esplanade and east toward Yonge. Twenty acres of downtown Toronto — more than a hundred buildings — were on fire. You could see the glow of the flames for miles in every direction.

Mayor Urquhart sent urgent telegrams to other cities asking for help. And all through the night they came: firemen from Hamilton, London, Peterborough, Niagara Falls and Buffalo joining the fight. Within a few hours, there were two hundred and fifty of them pouring millions of litres of water on the flames. At the Evening Telegram offices on Bay Street, employees spent hours spraying water out the windows to save the building. At the Queen Hotel (which stood about where the Royal York does now), guests and employees organized bucket brigades, hung water-soaked blankets out of the windows and beat off the flames, saving the hotel and helping to stop the fire's advance before it could cross Yonge Street.

Finally, not long before sunrise, nearly nine hours after it had started, the fire was out. One hundred and twenty-five businesses had been destroyed. Five thousand people were put out of work. More than ten million dollars worth of damage had been caused. Somehow, amazingly, no one had died.

The ruins smouldered for two more weeks, with smaller fires popping up and reigniting from time to time. The charred husks of the damaged buildings were dynamited and the rubble cleared out of the way. That’s when the Great Fire claimed its only life.

Looking south from south of King St. West, between Yonge St. & York St.

Bay St., east side, between Wellington & Melinda Steets, showing shop of H. F. Sharpe & Co., photographic goods

Bay St., east side, looking south from north of Wellington St. West

Bay Street looking north from just north of Front Street

Front and Yonge, with what's now the Hockey Hall of Fame on the right

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Pictures of Veronica Foster – Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl and the Beautiful Woman War Worker of Canada in World War II

Veronica Foster (January 2, 1922 – May 4, 2000), popularly known as “Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl”, was a Canadian icon representing nearly one million Canadian women who worked in the manufacturing plants that produced munitions and matériel during World War II. Her natural beauty made her the perfect model for a national propaganda poster campaign.

Foster worked for John Inglis Co. Ltd producing Bren light machine guns on a production line on Strachan Avenue in Toronto, Ontario. She can be seen as the Canadian precursor to the American cultural icon Rosie the Riveter.

She became popular after a series of propaganda posters were produced; most images featured her working for the war effort, but others depicted more casual settings like Foster dancing the jitterbug or attending a dinner party. In her most famous photograph, Ronnie sports curve-hugging overalls while effortlessly exhaling smoke from her cigarette as she admires her recently assembled Bren gun.

As the perfect blend of femininity and female liberation, Ronnie became the subject of public infatuation, so much so that the United States decided to create its own female war icon. And so Ronnie’s head scarf and can-do attitude was transferred to the well-known American propaganda image of “Rosie the Riveter.”

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Women Testing the Guns They Made for World War II at the Inglis Munitions Plant in Ontario, Canada, 1944

Ten pretty girls, all workers at the John Inglis Co. plant, line up with 10 Bren guns built with their own hands, 1944. These little guns are going to Allied forces all over the world-but Brens cost a lot of money, Canadian money. One $100 bond will buy approximately three Bren guns; at their present cost. It takes a lot of bonds to keep the Inglis plant making Brens.

(Photo: Toronto Star Archives)

John Inglis and Company was a Canadian manufacturing firm which made weapons for the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth military forces during the World War II era, then later became a major appliance manufacturer. Whirlpool Corporation acquired control of Inglis in 1987 and changed the company's name to Whirlpool Canada in 2001.

The Inglis name has a proud heritage in Canada. In 1859, armed with metalworking and pattern-making skills learned in England and Scotland, John Inglis moved to Guelph, Ontario and started Mair, Inglis and Evatt which built machinery for grist and flour mills.

In 1881, operating under the name John Inglis and Sons, the company moved to facilities on Strachan Avenue in Toronto. But in 1898, with the enterprise growing madly, John Inglis died. William, one of John’s five sons, assumed leadership of the business. In 1902, he led the company into the manufacture of marine steam engines and waterworks pumping engines, and he discontinued production of its previous product line.

When William Inglis died in 1935, the new Toronto Island Ferry was named after him in appreciation of his significant contribution to the city’s industrial and cultural progress.

Veronica Foster, an employee of John Inglis Co. Ltd. and known as “Ronnie, the Bren Gun Girl” posing with a finished Bren gun in the John Inglis Co. Ltd. Bren gun plant, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1941.

Two years later, an American named Major J.E. Hahn, purchased the company and made significant changes to its operations. Under Major Hahn’s leadership, the company assisted in the World War II effort by manufacturing guns for the Canadian and British governments. More than 17,800 people were employed at this time creating the need for expansion at the Strachan Avenue plant.

When the war ended in 1946, the company began to manufacture consumer products for the first time. Fishing tackle, house trailers, oil burner pumps and domestic heaters and stoves were among the diverse products offered.

Miss War Worker Beauty Contest in Toronto, Canada, 1942

On July 18, 1942, more than 100 contestants from Canada’s major military manufacturing plants vied for the title of “Miss War Worker.” The winner, Dorothy Linham, starred in a Palmolive Soap advertisement.

During the Second World War, every country had its ways of keeping the troops and war workers motivated. From female celebrities performing on stage or arranging pageants like this, the purpose was to keep spirits up and let everyone have fun. These photos were taken in 1942 at the “Miss War Worker” beauty contest and these ladies helped the war effort.

Vintage Found Photos Show the Architecture of Toronto in the Late 1850s

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the most populous city in Canada. The city is the anchor of the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.

Toronto was designated as the capital of the province of Ontario in 1867 during Canadian Confederation. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through both annexation and amalgamation to its current area of 630.2 km2 (243.3 sq mi).

Toronto is also known for its many skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, the CN Tower.

Here below is a set of 12 cards from John Rochon that shows buildings of Toronto, ON around 1858 or 1859. They were found at a flea-market decades ago complete with cover and booklet.

King Street, Toronto, ON, circa 1858-59

Masonic Hall Buildings, Toronto, ON, circa 1858-59

Mechanics Institute and St. James Parochial School, Toronto, ON, circa 1858-59

Normal School Buildings, Toronto, ON, circa 1858-59

Provincial Exhibition Buildings, Toronto, ON, circa 1858-59

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Beautiful Found Snaps of a Toronto Photo Show in 1961

Here is a set of beautiful found snaps from pjs_deceased that captured an amateur photo show in Toronto in 1961.

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Fascinating Photos That Capture Everyday Life of Toronto in the Early 1960s

These fascinating photos were taken by gcosserat that show street scenes of Toronto from 1962 and 1965.

Bloor Streetcar, Toronto

Brentwood Towers, Toronto

Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto

Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto

Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto

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