Since our current issue is all about intersections we thought it’d be fun to play a game.
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.
Obviously, this is not an intersection, but Steinberg’s was a major tenant of the intersection in question.
UPDATE AT 3pm: The answer is Bathurst and Sheppard (northwest corner) in early 1960s.
18 comments
It’s a parking lot.
Is it a parking lot?
Let’s see…Steinberg’s Ontario grocery locations were renamed Miracle Food Mart, which I mostly remember in malls…Miracle was later bought by A&P, who gradually converted the stores to their own banners…trying to think of Dominions/Food Basics positioned in a plaza like this…it looks a little like the Dominion at Sheppard and Bathurst?
A few guesses:
Bathurst & Sheppard
Yonge & Steeles (Centrepoint)
Okay, since I’m pretty sure Steinberg’s are entirely before my time, this was really tough. Much googling and wikipeding implies that this is the corner of Bathurst & Sheppard.
The Dominion currently at that corner seems to match up well too. http://www.virtualcity.ca/Map_images/toronto/169/0126169.JPEG
There’s no cross-reference intersection in the photo. So, this is a “guess where this store is” type of effort.
I remember a Steinberg’s on Yonge St. (east side) just south of Sheppard Ave. E. This may be it but there is very little or no context for referral. Rather unfair.
That’s in a suburban parking lot not an intersection.
Bathurst and Sheppard. The shape of that Steinberg, with the rest of the plaza, is striking for some reason when heading north on Bathurst — maybe because it still looks so 1950s. Now a Dominion I think. We bought vegetarian lasagna in there last summer and ate it in G. Ross Lord Park nearby. Sheppard makes a dramatic dip down to the Don River just to the east.
Keele and Wilson? (Northeast corner)
not much of an intersection, unless there was only one steinberg’s in toronto!
At least it isn’t a trick question like yesterday’s (the plaza still exists, even if Steinberg’s doesn’t).
The first clue is that it is a Steinberg’s. Steinberg’s weren’t that common in Toronto (most were Miracle Food Marts here – what was left of that company’s stores were bought by A&P).
The plaza looks like several in the 1950s/early 1960s parts of North York and Scarborough. The shadows suggest the plaza is facing south. It looks very similar to the one at Keele and Wilson (which faces south), but that one had older arc-style lights until the recent renovations of that one, and the grocery store was on the corner. Same for others in that area.
I want to say the totally retro plaza at Sheppard and Bathurst (it still has a photomat shack) – similar architecture, and even lighting standards. I was there last year (when there was that sinkhole that closed Sheppard), and I remember getting some pics because that plaza was so retro (and not yet given the stucco treatment). That’s why it sticks in my mind.
Plus the grocery store there is a Dominion as well (an A&P brand) – but not one of the ones in the “Dominion style” popular (like the giant domes like there were at Ellesmere and Vic Park), so the Dominion store there not necessarily an original, also does not eliminate this plaza (which faces south to Sheppard).
Since I have no better idea, and nothing eliminates it, I will say Sheppard and Bathurst.
Ironically, Steinberg’s was most common in Quebec and its bordering areas, like Ottawa. Metro-Richeleu, the big chain in Quebec, wanted Steinberg’s badly, but it was picked up by A&P. Two years ago, Metro got to buy A&P.
Bathurst & Lawrence West?
Yonge and Sheppard
…70’s flashback…
brown haired kid: what’s that?
red headed kid: some supermarket.
brown haired kid: supposed to be near some intersection.
red headed kid: what intersection?
brown haired kid: we’re supposed to guess the intersection.
red headed kid: are you gonna guess the intersection?
brown haired kid: i’m not gonna guess the intersection, you guess the intersection!
red headed kid: i’m not gonna guess the intersection, you guess the intersection!
brown haired kid: hey! let’s get mikey!
red headed kid: yeah! he’ll guess the intersection!
brown haired and red headed kids: hey mikey! hey mikey!
mikey:….munch..munch..steinberg’s…crunch…loblaws…crunch…bathurst….crunch..munch…drink sip of milk from large oversized glass….slurp…wipe runny nose on arm….sheppard….munch…
brown haired and red headed kids: hey mikey! you guessed it! you guessed it!
…spacing wire intersection guessing game, part of growing up in the early 70’s…
[/flashback]
Bathurst and Lawrence?
Dufferin & Lawrence?
Bloor and Dundas? It’s a Loblaws now?
When/where did Steinberg’s arrive in Toronto?
Considering how the neighbourhood demographics were already configuring themselves, I’m wondering if there was an “ethnic” undercurrent defining Steinberg’s early Toronto beachheads; not only because of the Steinberg name, but because of a certain “aspirational” cultural symbiosis between Toronto’s and Montreal’s suburbanizing Jewish communities.
Likewise, in its way, with the first suburban Morgan’s department store at Lawrence Plaza (or even Lawrence Plaza itself)…
As per the Steinberg History book, the chain purchased Grand Union supermarkets (from the USA) which were not profitable, in 1958. Though branded as Steinberg’s first, it was not taken by Ontario customers before the end of the 60s, by renaming the chain “Miracle Food Mart” (based on their department discount store “Miracle Mart”) and introduce Miracle Food Prices to counter off the competition that Dominion and Loblaws offered at the time…
Anyway, Steinberg’s was gobbled up by Metro (one of the 1992 scavengers of the failed company). MFM was gobbled by A&P, and today, this former Dominion is now a “Metro” as well…