A few from a private collection, mostly from the 1950s and 60s.
Wabana, Bell Island
MASS BAPTISM lol
*****
Brigus
*****
St. John's
Fort William neighbourhood, Signal Hill behind. A lot of this area (including most homes actually on the upper parts of Signal Hill) was bulldozed for urban planning reasons.
Looking down from above:
Pleasantville neighbourhood.
What would become St. John's International Airport. It's still today called Torbay by most pilots, even in casual conversation.
Before the creation of Harbour Drive, all downtown cross streets ended at finger piers. Must've been gorgeous for walking around town.
National War Memorial.
The nurses place out at Quidi Vidi Lake U/C during the Royal St. John's Regatta.
The short-lived Bank of Montreal Building (replaced a gorgeous corner-entrance old building, was replaced by a plainer modern one shortly afterwards).
Atlantic Place and Scotia Plaza, before they were built.
__________________ Note to self: "The plural of anecdote is not evidence."
The incentive to paint the residential and wooden commercial buildings downtown bright colours really was a good idea. Everything looks so drab and....dare I say poverty, without it.
A few from a private collection, mostly from the 1950s and 60s.
...
The short-lived Bank of Montreal Building (replaced a gorgeous corner-entrance old building, was replaced by a plainer modern one shortly afterwards).
...
It's the same originally mid century modern building built in the 50s (which replaced the original Victorian brick one) but was remodeled later, maybe in the 70s or 80s, for some reason. If you look closely you will see it's the same one as is there today but with different windows and exterior. It was somebody's idea of a historically sympathetic remodel job in the 70s or 80s.
^ Correct, but it's a little unusual to remodel it within such a short time period (abt. 20 years or less?), there are many examples still around from that era with the original look, especially in places like Vancouver.
The Scotia Tower is now where the Ayre's dept. store was in the other photo, it was the best example of department store architecture in St. John's.
I had fun making some before-after comparisons for the town of SOREL, QC.
Seriously, every person that was responsible for so many bad decisions in one single city should be severely tortured. I believe my post could as well belong to the Ugly Canada thread...
From 1850 to 2016, this city, one of the oldest (founded in 1642) and finest in the country was almost completely tore down and transformed into this depressing hole. So sad. And quite a loss.
Sorel was severely hit with deindustrialisation (essentially, the port and steel plants) from 1950 to 1990. It's now slowly recovering and transitioning to residential due to its relative proximity to Montreal and Contrecoeur. Although the city underwent difficult times, other similar towns throughout the province have done a way better job at keeping their heritage (St-Hyacinthe, St-Jean, Valleyfield, to cite a few examples).
Académie du Sacré-Coeur
1909 - 2016
Collège Mont-Saint-Bernard
19th century - 2016
Le marché des fermiers (farmers' market)
~1900 - 2016
Palais de Justice (district courthouse)
1920 - 2016
The port, the part on the Richelieu
1924 - 2016
Corner of Prince and Charlotte streets
1950s - 2016
Du Roi street (Sorel's high street)
1920 - 1950 - 2014
George street, once one of the most beautiful in town
~1920 - 2016
The old post office, George street
1930s - 2016
The port, part at the confluence of St. Lawrence and Richelieu rivers
1956 - 2016
Looking at the pics above of Montreal (1967) and Toronto (circa 1971?) I find myself thinking "my gosh, I remember being there when they looked like that". Seems like another world.
Saw an old painting of Vancouver in a store downtown and bought a poster of it. Not sure what year it is from but it still has the old Hotel Vancouver in it.
I had fun making some before-after comparisons for the town of SOREL, QC.
Seriously, every person that was responsible for so many bad decisions in one single city should be severely tortured. I believe my post could as well belong to the Ugly Canada thread...
From 1850 to 2016, this city, one of the oldest (founded in 1642) and finest in the country was almost completely tore down and transformed into this depressing hole. So sad. And quite a loss.
Wow, what a depressing loss! I've never been to Sorel, but I surfed through it on Streetview (as I have done with most Canadian cities when I'm bored). I was struck by how the downtown seemed to consist of mundane 2-storey postwar boxes, similar to what you might find in the downtown of a remote resource town in the north, like Rouyn-Noranda. I thought this was sort of odd, given where Sorel was. Now I know the rest of the story.
Sorel kind of reminds me of some towns in New England that went from being Victorian jewels to total hellholes in one decade of misguided urban renewal.
Kind of reminds me of Fall River, MA:
Before:
After:
Yes, they tore down their city hall and built a brutalist replacement in the middle of a trenched freeway on the same site.
Saw an old painting of Vancouver in a store downtown and bought a poster of it. Not sure what year it is from but it still has the old Hotel Vancouver in it.
That is awesome. Is that the little store at Seymour and Robson?
Prev
Linear Mode
