Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.
Toronto ON
Click here for a history of Toronto lane naming and a list of other lanes. That post is a work in progress, and gets updated frequently.
You wouldn't know it when driving around our neighbourhood these days, but the city and its surrounding areas used to be well populated by motels.
Shuttling along the QEW towards Toronto and the newly opened Gardiner Expressway in the late 1950s, one would get their first good view of the skyline at around Park Lawn Avenue.
Clinging to Humber Bay, this strip of lakeside properties brimmed with confidence, promising the transitional comforts of television, in-ground (but naturally unheated) pools, and stunning views of the city and you could still vacation in sight of the city.
Clinging to Humber Bay, this strip of lakeside properties brimmed with confidence, promising the transitional comforts of television, in-ground (but naturally unheated) pools, and stunning views of the city and you could still vacation in sight of the city.
The last of the Lake Shore motels were finally demolished in 2012 to make way for massive condo developments along the western waterfront, drawing a conclusion to a history with origins that stretch back to the late 1910s when the first tourist camps arose in Etobicoke.
Sunshine Motor Court on Lakeshore Rd. mid 1960s.
West Point Motel ca. 1965
The towering lures of the Lakeshore motel strip. Photo by Roger D. Moore.
We moved here in 2012 and I remember they were demolishing the last one and I am sorry I never got a photo. Prior to that I wasn't really aware of this motel strip, we only moved to Toronto in 1990 and lived in the east end so never came to this end of town.
This is how it looks now.
The other night I got this photo. They have finally put on the street sign (along with a new set of traffic lights) at Silver Moon Drive.
Silver Moon Drive are names that acknowledge one of the former motels that operated along Lake Shore Boulevard West.
...I love these old motels and their signs. They remind me of the many motel at Niagara Falls. Thanks jackie for sharing these treasures!
ReplyDeleteLove this step back in time! #SharonsSouvenirs
ReplyDeleteI remember one or two of them from driving into the city years ago.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that things have to change so much. The old motels are comforting to me somehow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your link at My Corner of the World this week!