Canadian skylines of the past

[Black Star]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

This thread is epic. Just epic. By far, the best of the Canada forum. Wonderful photos and a refreshing absence of the bickering and nauseating homerism repleting other threads.

Amen to that

[davidivivid]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

This thread is epic. Just epic. By far, the best of the Canada forum. Wonderful photos and a refreshing absence of the bickering and nauseating homerism repleting other threads.

I'll second that as well!!

[SignalHillHiker]

1890 - sealing vessels leaving St. John's Harbour. Traditionally, the send off of the sealing vessels was the busiest time in the port of St. John's. Dozens of ships from around Newfoundland would sail first to St. John's to load up on supplies and seamen.

This is when the class system was in full effect - vessels would wave certain flags to indicate which faith they expected their crewmen to be, Anglican or Catholic, and people were sometimes ranked more by their particular regional accents than their skill.

Most crewmen were young teenagers and many younger boys lied about their age in order to sail out to the sealing grounds. Every year, some never returned. One year, immortalized in the local best-seller Death on the Ice, many dozens didn't. The harbourfront in St. John's was piled high with coffins.

The only time there was more activity on the harbourfront was when the Portuguese White Fleet was in town.



A postcard of Newfoundland in 1911, featuring the old Colonial flag on the left, the Republican tricolour on the right, and many of the province's traditional symbols. The images at centre date to the 1600s and are some of the oldest national symbols in North America.

The Red Ensign was officially endorsed by King Charles II in 1674. It served as the Colony of Newfoundland's civil ensign. The standard served as the only official colonial flag until the reign of Queen Victoria. Old oil paintings show red ensigns flying from the topmasts of Grand Banks schooners. While 19th century photographs show red ensigns flown at Moravian mission stations and Hudson's Bay Company trading posts along the Labrador Coast.

In 1904, the British Parliament designated a civil ensign specifically for Newfoundland. The Red and Blue Ensigns with the Great Seal of Newfoundland in the fly were the dominion's official flags from 1904 until 1931, after which the Union Jack was adopted as Newfoundland's official national flag and the ensigns reserved for shipping and marine identification—the Red Ensign to be flown by merchant shipping while the blue was flown by governmental ships.

Water Street in 1950, immediately after Confederation and before even a single modern building was constructed in St. John's.



Duckworth Street in 1950.



Tram and bus tickets from the 1950s.





CBC advertising live, St. John's-based television in the 1960s.

[Chadillaccc]

http://www.2learn.ca/picturegallery/...?Type=U&ID=292

[Boris2k7]

More late 50's/early 60's Calgary

Shouldn't be too hard for attentive forumers to place these photos of downtown Calgary.


http://cdm16114.contentdm.oclc.org/c...d/1841/rec/414


http://cdm16114.contentdm.oclc.org/c...id/2131/rec/76


http://cdm16114.contentdm.oclc.org/c...id/1488/rec/75

[FrAnKs]

I love you guys ! this thread is jawdropping !

[Ashok]

All I can say, apart from how amazing these past photos of our cities looks, is how glad I am that we figured out how to take out those staining in those concrete walls.

[Boris2k7]

Even MORE late '50s/early '60s Calgary

If it wasn't abundantly clear, this is a period in Calgary's history that I am absolutely fascinated by. The city was rapidly growing (see earlier post about the population explosion) but the true changes hadn't occurred yet. Calgary was overshadowed by Edmonton in Alberta, and had little importance on the national stage.

But soon, very soon, would come a major shift. The modernism of the post-war era would grip the city, and it would remake itself in its own vision of progress. Developers, planners, and energy companies started an undertaking that began by purging the city of the reminders of its agrarian past.


http://cdm16114.contentdm.oclc.org/c...gleitem/rec/46


http://cdm16114.contentdm.oclc.org/c...eitem/rec/1207


http://cdm16114.contentdm.oclc.org/c...leitem/rec/767


http://cdm16114.contentdm.oclc.org/c...leitem/rec/617


http://cdm16114.contentdm.oclc.org/c...leitem/rec/524


http://cdm16114.contentdm.oclc.org/c...leitem/rec/324

[SignalHillHiker]

I love the airport one.

A few similar ones from the same era here from Vintage Newfoundland:

Channel-Port-aux-Basques:



Corner Brook:



Stephenville:



Gander





And a few from Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage of St. John's in 1942.

This is one of my favourites. It's the edge of the city at that time. You can see the Parliament in the lower centre. Near the middle is Empire Avenue, our western ring road at that time but now practically a downtown street; it's near the far eastern edge of the city these days, given all the sprawl.

You can see the famous Rawlin's Cross intersection on the lower left.



Next up is Fort Pepperell, then an American base outside the city. Now it's a rapidly densifying central city neighbourhood.



And here is the birth of a neighbourhood that soon became one of the most notorious in St. John's. It started as a shore barracks for the Royal Navy but became a public housing project after the war. Buckmaster's Circle.



And, finally, a view in through the heavily-defended harbour. Note the anti-submarine nets. The British, Americans, and Canadians were deeply worried about the Nazis gaining a North American foothold by conquering Newfoundland. Their U-boats terrorized the island, even bombing communities on Bell Island. And they killed hundreds sinking passenger ferries and merchant vessels.

Terrifyingly, after the war, when the German U-boats were brought into St. John's harbour to surrender, they were full of ticket stubs from shows and events in St. John's, souvenirs from the city. Many suspect they actually set the Knights of Columbus fire, a distressing disaster in which dozens were burned alive, and it was all aired live on local radio in St. John's.

From Wikipedia:

99 civilians and military personnel perished. Newfoundlanders and U.S. servicemen alike lost their lives.[1]

The fire was likely an incidence of enemy sabotage orchestrated by agents of Nazi Germany.[1] It was one of a number of suspicious fires in St. John's that winter.[2] If this is true, these fires would be among the few successful (even if minor) Axis attacks on North America.

The Nazis even had an onshore weather station in Labrador.

[Boris2k7]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I love the airport one.

A few similar ones from the same era here from Vintage Newfoundland:

Channel-Port-aux-Basques:

Funny thing about this image is that the quote is still true.

[SignalHillHiker]

Funeral procession, St. John's, 1919.

[MonkeyRonin]

Found some old videos of Montreal:

• Video Link

• Video Link

[esquire]

Those Calgary photos are astonishing... as recently as the early 1960s it looked like something partway between Brandon and Regina in size and stature.

I find the 60s and 70s era photos posted on the past few pages of this thread to be especially fascinating... the 19th century and early 20th century images seem like something from the distant past, whereas you can practically see Canada rushing headlong into modernity during the 60s and 70s. It must have been a pretty crazy time to see almost everything changing so quickly during that period.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Found some old videos of Montreal:

• Video Link

• Video Link

Great finds.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by esquire

Those Calgary photos are astonishing... as recently as the early 1960s it looked like something partway between Brandon and Regina in size and stature.

Calgary's 70's boom was likely the most transformative experienced by any Canadian city.

[SignalHillHiker]

Undated Telegram file photo of Water Street from the 50s/60s.



No idea how they fit that little stretch of green?

This is what that corner looks like now:

[MTLskyline]

Montréal, Canada by Gdelaplace, on Flickr

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

I love this one.

[SignalHillHiker]

Canada paid for it. At that time, all international flights had to stop at Gander to refuel. For most Americans and Europeans, Gander was the only thing they EVER saw of Canada.

Canada started to get a bad reputation. Anyone you can think of who lived since the advent of commercial flight to the 1970s has been to Gander. The walls of that airport are lined with portaits. Marilyn, Elvis, Frank, every single U.S. president, Russian leader etc.

So Canada paid for a world class (and it is world class, everything in that airport looks the same today and is worth a fucking fortune) showpiece airport there.

[MTLskyline]

One thing I always wondered was why Gander the refuelling stop rather than St. John's?