 |
.jpg) |
I'm not sure that the buildings in the top photo still exist, as somewhat larger structures stand there now according to my cursory peek at google street view.
Many of the buildings in the bottom image are still standing, however.
Answer: The top shot is listed as having been taken March 21, 1938 at Sherbrooke and Elmherst, but I don't see any resemblance to what's there now.
The bottom photo was shot in front of a butcher's shop on the north side of Sherbrooke looking from Mayfair.
The streetcar tracks and the bends in the WIDE road immediately say Sherbrooke.
ReplyDeleteThe church on the left in the photo with the man and the hose says Loyola.
Ergo Sherbrooke at West Broadway looking East from South side of S.
Streetcar single power feeder on steel poles with 'device' on top are on South side of both photos.
The second photo with the apartment block with 'silo-shaped' tower was somewhere on South side of Sherbrooke towards Rosedale.
A check with Google shows the apartment still standing on the South side of S. just West of Park Row West at Trenholme Park.
There used to be a pedestrian underpass beneath Sherbrooke from the East side of King Edward at Sherbrooke over ( or under? ) to Trenholme Park.
We would stand beneath Sherbrooke and listen to streetcars thunder overhead.
Someone might know when the underpass was removed?? There is an old video on You Tube showing the underpass when it was new, along with others thruout the City.
As kids, in the Fifties, just before TV, we would go to Trenholme Park on summer evenings to watch free outdoor movies on a screen down the slope towards the CPR. Western not constructed thru to Coffee/West Broadway until 1961.
Engineers on passing trains would toot their whistles as they passed.
In the Fifties, before Western was constructed, and Coffee built in 1957 by C. Duranceau Ltee., West Broadway dead ended looking out over a slope to the CPR and the Coca-Cola plant with their open red delivery trucks.
Steam locomotives would chuff and fuss as they pulled out East up the grade towards Grand and thence to Westmount Station and Windsor Street.
( It was way better to watch steam locomotives chuff, smoke and slip with heavy freights at the opposite end of W.B., climbing the stiff grade from LaSalle/Highland, the Northern Electric Cable Plant,over the-then single track CNR at Consumers Glass in VSP and under the road overpass on Westminster. The track then leveled out behind the CSL Shopping Centre, the engine and the Fireman on older hand-fired locomotives both sighing on the easier run to Hampstead Tower, and home. )
Some Passenger trains had Diesels, and we hated them.
Very soon streetcars and steam would both be gone.
Memories from the past.
Thank You.
Well they're both on Sherbrooke near Trenholme Park. The top one looks west, the bottom one east; park is visible in the background on the right.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to thank M.P. and I
ReplyDeletefor the awesome anecdotes! You really help to bring the photos alive. I was born in 76 and grew up in the 80's in lachine and have now been in NDG for many many years. I truly wish I had been born earlier.
Thanks to Kristian for photos!!
Perhaps it's because the Elmhurst notation is wrong. If you stand on the south side of Sherbrooke just east of Westmore, you would get this photo. Most of those buildings are still. Look at the large apartment building beyond the duplexes on the right side. That looks like the building that used to be on the southeast corner of West Broadway and Sherbrooke. It was demolished to make way for the new Loyola High School building. The curve in the road is right. And the details match on the Loyola (Concordia) Chapel on the north side of Sherbrooke in the distance.
ReplyDeleteDigging a little deeper into the bottom photo (who can resist!): at the top left corner you can see the bottom edge of the sign of Dominion Stores Ltd. at 6951 Sherbrooke West. The intersecting street directly behind the young guy on the far left breaking the ice chunks is Mayfair Avenue. Note the fire hydrant on Mayfair itself to the left of the stop sign.
ReplyDeleteAs we are clearly facing east (the afternoon sun's shadows making that obvious), look across Sherbrooke toward the domed
building in the background (which is still there today) just east of Mariette Avenue which begins directly behind the head of
the dark-capped, dark-clothed young man holding the shovel who is looking downward.
It would stand to reason that the young men in butchers' or grocers' smocks are employees of Dominion itself, as the only other businesses listed directly next door (according to Lovell's directory for the year 1938) are Loyola Valet Service and Montclair Shoe Hospital.
The businesses across the street behind the utility pole closest to the viewer would include Bob's Barber Shop and Mayfair Handy Store at 6922, and the Mandarin Lending Library at 6924 Sherbrooke.
The youngest fellow sitting on the tricycle looks to be around 7 years of age, which would put him in his late 70s early 80s today--assuming he is still alive, that is. The other lads would most likely be deceased by now, but one
never knows for sure!
To those who are unaware, Dominion was the major supermarket chain rival of Steinberg's, having many markets throughout the city. Dominion closed down around the late 70s, I believe (I have yet to check the exact date).
Steinberg's itself was eventually sold and divided up between both IGA and Metro, the Steinberg daughters not wanting to continue the family's supermarket legacy begun by their father in 1917. The ladies went into real estate instead.