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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

TAKE A GUESS: name this intersection, March 22nd

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We want you to identify this intersection. Leave your guess in the comments section: we’ll hold on to your picks until 3pm when we’ll unveil the answer. If you want to see a larger version of the photo check it out on Spacing Photos.

UPDATE AT 3pm: This was rather easy, judging by the amount of correct answers: looking east on College from Bay. That’s College Park on the right, and the now demolished YMCA on the left, which is currently the site of Toronto Police Services HQ.

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41 comments

  1. Finally something a bit easier: looking east on College at Bay.

  2. Bay and College looking east.

    Eaton’s College Street building is quite distinctive even though the buildings across the street have disappeared, and an office tower now sits on top of the one storey west wing of Eaton’s. The Toronto Hydro building is visible in the background as is the marquee for the Odeon Carlton.

  3. College & Bay looking east… or if you go far enough back, College & Terauley looking east.

  4. College & Bay, looking East, with the quarter of the Eaton’s flagship store that was actually built on the right hand side.

  5. Looking east on College at bay, with the first floor of the Eatons college street store, never finished because of the depression, now demolished for the worst office building in the City.

  6. bay & college, looking east.

    i regret that so many of toronto’s brick buildings were demolished and replaced with forgettable buildings with no brick. i think that the intersection in the image is nicer than the same intersection today, and that increased height and density could have actually enhanced the niceness.

  7. College & Bay. Dig the YMCA & ODEON signs.

  8. I think this is College and Bay, looking East. The shadows are coming from the front-right, meaning this could only be looking north or east. The road jogs to the right (south?) in the distance, which is consistent with what happens to College at Yonge. And there is an “Odeon” sign on that building at the corner of the intersection in the distance, which could be the original “Carlton” cinema..?

  9. College and Bay, looking east along College. By the cars it looks like the 30s or 40s.

  10. College and Bay, looking west. This picuture pre-dates the Maclean-Hunter Building now at the corner und the ugly CAA building at Yonge and Carlton. My guess is about 1950.

  11. There’s only one intersection I know of with a view like that: Bay and College, looking east along College. The old Eaton’s store (now College Park) is on the right.

  12. Bay & College looking east along College towards Yonge Street. The building in the distance is the art deco Toronto (Ontario?) Hydro building just east of Yonge on Carlton. There is a jog where Carlton meets College at Yonge.

  13. It looks like its College street, the large building on the right looks like College Park with the Carlu on the upper floors, so that probably makes the cross street Bay.

  14. Wow, College and Bay has really changed.

  15. College looking east from Bay

    YMCA on the left and Eaton’s College St. store on the right.

    I met the woman who would become my wife in that “Y”!!!!!

  16. Bay and College Streets looking east on College.
    The old YMCA is visible on the left. Eaton’s College St. store is on the right. The shorter building in the centre is the Toronto Hydro Electric System.

  17. A quick internet search reveals that there was an “Odeon” theatre at 20 Carlton between 1948-1957. Plus, the building on the right looks a little like the old Eaton’s store, so I will say Yonge and Carlton.

  18. College and Bay looking east? I’m thinking the big building on the right is college park?

  19. In the distance, that bend in the road looks like Yonge & College.

    Is is this photo College & Bay looking East?

  20. I scream!

    You scream!

    We all scream for ice cream!

    On World Water Day fifty years ago, then as today it was raining, but back then it was a downpour and the animals were lining up in twos. To commemorate the spot where the animals first gathered in Hogtown on high ground, a restaurant was opened.

    At the spot stands Noah’s Ark on the Danforth at Dawes Road.

    The streetcar tracks in this photograph were washed south about a block and change where today it rests on CN property. Walk over the Main Street bridge and it’s a GO train you will see riding those rails, every half hour….on the button…or…not….on weekdays…only.

    ‘Finder’s Keeper’s’ said CN to the City, and that’s why there are no streetcar tracks on Danforth east of Main Street. All turned out okay in the end, sorta.

    The subway to Victoria Park eventually made up for the loss of the surface tracks seen in this picture.

    Walk south looking east from Trent Avenue, we have a wonderful vista of Ice Cream Lane.

    And this is the intersection seen in this photograph. Trent Avenue and Ice Cream lane. It’s still there, though to make way for the shopper’s world mall, the YMCA was moved to College street along with the ODEON theatre just beside the original Eaton Centre.

    Trent Avenue at Ice Cream Lane.

    Happy World Water day 2007.

  21. College looking east from Bay (I’m guessing – the curve looks right, could be the old Carlton in the back)