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TAKE A GUESS: name this intersection, March 27th

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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. If you want to see a larger version of the photo check it out Spacing Photos.

UPDATE AT 4:30 (sorry for the delay): Good work today folks! Looking south on Bathurst at Davenport.

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49 comments

  1. Bathurst & Davenport looking south, before Bathurst was cut through.

  3. I think it’s looking south on Bathurst at Davenport – seen it before, lucky me. It’s useful to see how the road adjusts for live energy, vs. fossil.

  5. Bathurst looking down the hill towards Davenport. The gates for the CP crossing are visible. The streetcar track curving from Davenport to Bathurst is the TSR Davenport line, which ended at the CP tracks for close connections to TRC cars at Dupont and Bathurst. On the right is Hillcrest Race Track, which would later become the TTC Hillcrest Shops.

    In two days, you covered both ends of the TSR Davenport line, which started at Dundas and Keele.

  6. Let’s go with Bathurst looking south towards Davenport.

  8. I have the feeling that’s Davenport…

    Thinking it’s looking South over Davenport and Lansdown

  10. Well the street going across looks like Davenport… there really aren’t that many hills in this city, so it’s probably a 50:50 chance. The street that goes down the hill though… that’s tough. Looking at a map it looks like Christie had a slight jog removed there, although none of it looks familiar. I’ll guess Christie and Davenport anyway.

  12. Is this looking north on Lansdowne at Davenport?

    So far, this is one of my favourite pics from this series. Thanks for doing this…looking forward to the next round of “nonsense”. 🙂

  14. The east-west road on the bottom looks like Davenport. As for the road we’re looking down – the jog suggests Christie, but I also wonder if Spadina once went directly up the hill before being cut off by Casa Loma. The trees and buildings to the southeast of the intersection suggest Queens Park.

    In short: I’m guessing Christie/Davenport or Spadina/Davenport.

  15. Bathurst and Davenport looking south (from just up the hill on Bathurst).

    Looks very different today – the distinctive church roof (with the stub end) in the distance is very distinctive and a giveaway – this is the chapel of St Alban the Martyr (formerly the Anglican Cathedral of the Toronto Diocese between 1883 and 1935) on Howland Avenue in the Annex. The roof represents the chancel and was complete in 1891, but the rest of the church was never built. The building is now part of the St George’s College boys school which is highly visible from the park on Barton Avenue and has (or did for a while) a dedication to Jane Jacobs along the iron railings along the park edge. At any rate, this pretty much confirms Bathurst as the location of this shot, and presumbably it has to be from after 1891…

  16. Far out guess: Davenport and Bathurst looking south.

  25. My guess is Bathurst & Davenport, looking south. Casa Loma’s atop the hill to the left of the photo, if I’m right.
    It’s a wonderful shot, by the way–hard to believe Toronto was ever like that.

  26. Bathurst and Davenport.
    I like the details in this one.
    The unfinished Anglican cathedral on Howland is visible, as well as (I think) Walmer Baptist’s tower on the far left, and Trinity St Paul’s United, at Bloor and Walmer, second tower from the left. I’m pretty sure that’s the tower on Spadina Circle at the middle of the image, and then, on the horizon over to the right, I think that’s the firetower at College and Bellevue.

  27. The left-to-right road has to be Davenport. I can’t think of another road that has such a well-pronounced incline at its side. And that looks like a railway crossing down the road on the righthand-side of the picture. I’m guessing that the photographer was looking south and standing to the right of Bathurst. If it’s not Bathurst, my second guess is Lansdowne.

  28. It looks rather hilly, so I’ll say Davenport and something. Maybe Bathurst?

    BTW, is there somthing different about this photo and the last one? It shows up on my home computer but not at work. AFAIK, my settings haven’t changed.

  30. I’m certain it’s Davenport, looks a little like Dufferin, but I’m going to guess Davenport and Lansdowne…

  31. Bathurst & Davenport, looking south.

  33. Something and Davenport? I was going to guess Spadina and Davenport, but that coal shed in the background looks like the Conger Lehigh Coal Co. at 79 Cottingham St., by the CPR North Toronto line just east of Avenue Road and Dupont.

  34. Okay, I just checked Google Maps and there’s no way that the Conger Coal shed would be visible at that angle from any intersection on Davenport. Either I’ve misidentified the coal shed or this shot must be taken much closer to Avenue Road. Or I’m completely wrong about all of it.

  35. Okay, Lansdowne and Davenport. Final answer. (Turns out there was a Conger coal shed at Dufferin and Geary too.)

  36. Looking south at Davenport and somewhere around Christie?

  38. What a cool picture. Based on the topography, I’m guessing either Spadina and Davenport, or Bathurst and Davenport, facing south. I’m also wondering if it could be Avenue Rd and Dupont, because there’s a little side street there (Marlborough, I think?) that seems to match up well with this picture.

  39. Ok, one more guess. Could it be Lansdowne and Davenport?

  43. this looks like dufferin and davenport

  44. Davenport / Christie, looking southbound.

  45. I think I’ve seen that photo before. It’s Bathurst looking south to Davenport when the Hillcrest yard was then nothing more than a farmer’s field.

  46. What, no answer yet? Well then, I might as well take a belated half-assed stab: Davenport & Christie?

  47. Just east of Wychwood, this is Bathurst looking south, the intersection is Davenport.

    The young boy with his back to us in the photograph is Mel Lastman as a young man.

    When this photograph was taken, Master Lastman was reported to have uttered,

    “This is the Greatest Intersection in the entire worrrrrrllllld!!!!!!”

  48. And there is no bank in the photo, or even at the site in its entire history!

    Matt, are you going into withdrawal?

  49. That makes sense now. The jog wasn’t severe enough to actually show up in the final alignment. I also considered Bathurst briefly because of the streetcar tracks. I don’t imagine there was ever one running down Christie.

    This one was probably the best one yet!