Canadian skylines of the past

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

I wish Toronto still had this stadium over on the island. also the old amusement park. I think Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run here.
From archives Toronto

A great old ballpark - shame it's gone.

The Babe hit his first dinger at Hanlan's Point Stadium, however on 5 Sept 1914.

[1ajs]

christmas day 20 years ago

[SignalHillHiker]

Very oldie, but a goodie.

• Video Link

[SignalHillHiker]

Very long intro for this, but it's about an American in St. John's. Lots of beautiful scenes of the city.

• Video Link

[thomax]

Hamilton | 1939


Source

[MolsonExport]

^great shot. Looks a bit like a first-rate model train set.

[MolsonExport]

Some rather scary Drapeasian transformations in that Montreal set.

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

A great old ballpark - shame it's gone.

The Babe hit his first dinger at Hanlan's Point Stadium, however on 5 Sept 1914.

Isn't that the same as the picture?

[SignalHillHiker]

A few from Vintage St. John's on Facebook.

1940





1960

Memorial University, Confederation Building, Churchill Park neighbourhood, and a little bit of the Little Canada neighbourhood visible in the distance.



Closer view:



1971

Woolworth's is exactly where 351 is today.





A shot of the railway yard. In this one, you can clearly see the bulldozed area of the former Central Slum. I wish we'd kept it and just fixed it up. It had a population density 3x what was recommended for London by British health experts at the time. It's now the site of City Hall, Delta Hotel, Mile One Centre, Cabot Place Complex towers, etc.



Cochrane Street.

[drawarc]

Hull with Ottawa in background, ca. 1940:


Source: https://www.facebook.com/LostOttawa/...type=3&theater

Same view, mid 80s:



Source: https://www.facebook.com/LostOttawa/...type=3&theater

[SignalHillHiker]

Ottawa seems to have had more fortunate modern buildings than Hull. Both look great, though!

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Ottawa seems to have had more fortunate modern buildings than Hull. Both look great, though!

Yup. In the 70s, the Trudeau Government razed a huge chunk of Hull for massive Federal complexes to achieve a 25/75 federal job split between the Québec and Ontario sides of the NCR. They built about 6 million square feet of office space in Hull in 6 years.

Here are some pictures:

Terrace de la Chaudière u/c, circa 1978


http://www.banq.qc.ca/histoire_quebe...e.jsp?V=11&C=8

Place du Portage, around 2006:


http://www.deniselaferriere.ca/Gatineau/Gatineau18.html

And a few pics showing the scale of destruction:

Hull before the Federal take over.



1973:



Circa 1976:



Circa 1979:


Completed Trudeau complexes:




Too bad they didn't go through with the subway plans:




http://urbsite.blogspot.ca/2013/12/hull-1969-1995.html

In contrast, Ottawa's growth was more organic, with private corporations building individual towers to then rent out to the feds. A few exceptions exist such as the expropriation of Le Breton Flats, the Rideau Centre, National Defense, Tunney's Pasture and a few other federal complexes in suburban Ottawa.

[SignalHillHiker]

Awesome stuff. They're bulky (that's rich coming from here, I know, lol) but they look better in some of your shots. Something about Phase 3 of Place Portage reminds me of Halifax.

[drawarc]

Also, Museum of Civilization would be built too.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Awesome stuff. They're bulky (that's rich coming from here, I know, lol) but they look better in some of your shots. Something about Phase 3 of Place Portage reminds me of Halifax.

Looks awesome at night. makes hull look much bigger than what it actually is.

Your right about Phase III; kinda looks like Purdy's Wharf. Offset and steps down.


http://smcclearn.smugmug.com/Portfol...rame-It-images

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by drawarc

Also, Museum of Civilization would be built on green patch of land in comparison photo.

Yes, another Trudeau Project completed in 1989 (during Mulroney's reign).


http://www.travelandtransitions.com/...-civilization/

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

A great old ballpark - shame it's gone.

The Babe hit his first dinger at Hanlan's Point Stadium, however on 5 Sept 1914.

Sorry, I misread the pic - immediately assumed it was Maple Leaf Stadium.

[esquire]

Those Hull pics are interesting... it's amazing to see how ambitious the federal government's plans were in the 70s.

The biggest downside to it all, of course, is that there was a huge opportunity to create a real downtown Hull that was lost. The way the buildings are laid out and relate to the street, it's basically like a suburban office park along an interstate highway in Atlanta or somewhere like that.

I was always under the impression that those buildings took out a functional old downtown, but it looks to me like they are mostly situated on land that was once used by pulp mills and other industrial operations?

[HomeInMyShoes]

I always hated the bus ride into the tunnel between between Place du Portage Phase III in Hull. Just a total bunker of a place. I worked in Phase III for a couple of workterms. Good times taking the bus to Hull, but what an atrocious urban space.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by esquire

Those Hull pics are interesting... it's amazing to see how ambitious the federal government's plans were in the 70s.

The biggest downside to it all, of course, is that there was a huge opportunity to create a real downtown Hull that was lost. The way the buildings are laid out and relate to the street, it's basically like a suburban office park along an interstate highway in Atlanta or somewhere like that.

I was always under the impression that those buildings took out a functional old downtown, but it looks to me like they are mostly situated on land that was once used by pulp mills and other industrial operations?

The Museum of Civilization and a few roads were built on land formerly occupied by a pulp and paper factory, but Portage and Chaudière took the place of a regular urban residential/commercial areas.

If you look at the original before after picture, you will see one building in common; the 4 storey stone building with a small tower in the middle. On the first picture, it is halfway cut off on the bottom, centre. On the second picture, it is directly to the left of Portage I (tallest tower in the centre) on Maisonneuve.

Originally Posted by drawarc

Hull with Ottawa in background, ca. 1940:


Source: https://www.facebook.com/LostOttawa/...type=3&theater

Same view, mid 80s:



Source: https://www.facebook.com/LostOttawa/...type=3&theater