Canadian skylines of the past

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by drawarc

Gatineau (then known as Hull at the time).

The log booms on the Ottawa River were around until well into the 1980s, iirc.

[ssiguy]

I still think of it as Hull.

[SignalHillHiker]

Oldie, but having a drink tonight so listened to it again to break up the dance music lol

• Video Link

It's best if you imagine she has dementia and was dropped off by a relative at the Waterford for a fruit basket and wandered back out on her own. Then it kinda makes sense.

"Nothing seems to matter but the song" could actually be a lovely, deep lyric and dedication to the city. But not like this. lol Never like this.

[drawarc]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

The log booms on the Ottawa River were around until well into the 1980s, iirc.

Here's another pic of those log booms, and Lebreton Flats from 1964:


http://www.urbform.com/brief/lebreton-flats-district

[SignalHillHiker]

Holy shit. Wow. That actually gives me new respect for Ottawa.

Ugh, makes me sound like a redneck Trump supporter or something, but it's not that. It's just nice that it wasn't always... CBC's version of Canada.

A little grit and grime is inspiring, real, artistic.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Holy shit. Wow. That actually gives me new respect for Ottawa.

Ugh, makes me sound like a redneck Trump supporter or something, but it's not that. It's just nice that it wasn't always... CBC's version of Canada.

A little grit and grime is inspiring, real, artistic.

Ottawa has (or had) a surprisingly ample gritty side but in the inner city it's rapidly fading away - in neighbourhoods like Mechanicsville, Hintonburg, etc.

With gentrification the grit in Ottawa is moving outwards towards "inner suburbs". Not so much areas with small houses with white siding (where the grit used to be) but to areas with tower blocks and especially cheap row housing built in the 60s, 70s and 80s, landscaped with pine trees and with collective parking lots dotted with rusting metal posts. You know the type.

[esquire]

When you see how the grit has practically been wiped out from Canada's urban cores where it used to have a prominent role, it kind of makes me wonder which cities still have the "old economy" represented downtown. As recently as the 80s you could still see a fair bit of it around, but these days, next to nothing... even in Winnipeg it's declining insofar as the industrial/commercial areas go, although there are still gritty residential neighbourhoods surrounding downtown.

[SignalHillHiker]

An old commercial for Trinity Loop. I forget what made it notable (I believe it was the only non-tunnel loop of its kind or something), but locally it was just the last part of the old Newfoundland Railway you could ride. This entire theme park is abandoned now, and has been the scene of many of those creepy Asian theme park/Chernobyl-style photo collections.

• Video Link

And a few others from the MUN Archives.

1900



1908



1926



Today:



From flappers to skeets.



1949



Sigh.

1969



Today:



1979



Today:

[Martin Mtl]

/\ Love the Before & After set!

[SignalHillHiker]

A few more, MUN Archives versus Google Streetview. 90% of these would be basically black and white versus colour.




So I'm focusing on those tragic few areas where there actually were changes.







And a fortunate one, adding instead of taking away:

[Martin Mtl]

Montreal 1966.


https://www.instagram.com/p/BOrtcLcl...agged=montreal

[drawarc]

Ottawa:
From Sparks St. Looking west 1971 by Ross Dunn - OVER 7 MILlION VIEWS!, on Flickr

[someone123]

Grand Parade, Halifax, circa 1950. A slightly better digitized version of this picture than what I have found in the past, but would still like to find higher resolution version.

This would have been taken from the 9-storey Moirs factory.



Another interesting one, the old Dartmouth ferry landing, circa 1920:



Next to the old post office visible in the previous photo there used to be a farmers' market:



This one is rarely photographed. McNally Building at St. Mary's University. It is still there:



Source

[SignalHillHiker]

Wow, Someone, that second picture is just perfection. So beautiful! Grit and grandeur.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Wow, Someone, that second picture is just perfection. So beautiful! Grit and grandeur.

It's too bad that so many of these buildings around the waterfront were torn down. They could have been a part of a major heritage district. There's an assortment of surviving waterfront wharves and warehouses but the rabbit warren feel that existed in the 1950's and earlier is lost in all but a couple of small areas. After WWII planners deliberately tried to open every street up to higher speed vehicle traffic, and to reduce densities.

The parts that do survive are still mostly in a dreary 1970's-era car-friendly state:



Much of the newer construction has larger setbacks, and there's heavy truck traffic anyway so people don't want to live close to the street:



Downtown Halifax would be significantly improved if these issues were dealt with.

Here's another shot I found interesting, Hollis Street in the 1860's. You can see streetcar tracks for the horse-drawn streetcars in the middle. There is also a horse-drawn omnibus pulled over on the (left) side of the road. That style of vehicle was a precursor to today's buses. The Halifax Hotel was built around 1830 when steamships dramatically increased the number of visitors to the city.


Source

[someone123]

A couple more:





Source

[Rico Rommheim]

wow that's awesome.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by someone123

:

This could be somewhere in the UK.

[Laceoflight]

Originally Posted by FrAnKs

Quebec city in 1903

Franks, sais-tu ce qu'étaient les grands bâtiments près de la tour Martello, en plein sur les plaines d'Abraham ?
0_0

[milomilo]

Originally Posted by Acajack

This could be somewhere in the UK.

That's what I though, had to do a double take with the double decker in the background.