Signs

 Joining Tom at Signs2

Wordless Wednesday Wordless Be There 2day

July 2025 - Toronto ON

Weekend Roundup

 Welcome to The Weekend Roundup...hosted by Tom The Back Roads Traveler

1. Starts with "O"
2. A Favorite
3. OLD - chosen by Tom

Starts with "O"

ORANGE OVEN

FAVOURITE

Dundas St. West Toronto

OLD

Fire Station 314 built 1929 as TFD 3

FRINGE BENEFIT

OCCULT

Tuesday Treasures

 Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

Travel Tuesday

Our World Tuesday

Image-in-ing
My Corner of the World

Postcards

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.

March 2022 - Toronto ON

John found this new sign this week. The official street sign has not yet been installed.

Crow’s Beach Lane acknowledges the beach that was formerly located where the Palace Pier condo development now sits.

I'm curious about the different spelling of Crow vs Crowe.

1926 – Crowes Beach, Humber Bay City of Toronto Archives

Prior to 1927 the site was home to the Wimbleton House Hotel c. 1860s, then as Crow's Hotel 1900 and beach remained for many years after as Crow's or Crowes Beach. A life guard station was located at mouth of the Humber (built in 1920 and similar to Leuty in the Beach area) and disappeared with the construction of Palace Pier complex.

The name for the Palace Pier complex comes from an amusement pier, which was located on the site of the current towers.

This photo is from our 2020 files, the two brown buildings are Palace Pier on the left and Palace Place on the right, photo looking east towards downtown.

This month's edition of Home and Land features the buildings on the cover.

Tuesday Treasures

 Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

Travel Tuesday

Our World Tuesday

Image-in-ing
My Corner of the World

Postcards

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.

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.

These photos courtesy of BlogTO.

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.

Tuesday Treasures

 Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

Travel Tuesday

Our World Tuesday

Image-in-ing
My Corner of the World

Postcards

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.

In my neighbourhood.

I can't find any information, best guess is there was a brook from Lake Ontario.

On Lake Ontario - There is a public tennis court and the Argonaut Rowing Club.

Annie Craig Drive shares its name with one of two steamboats that ran from Toronto to the Humber River in the late 1800s.

The Annie Craig was purchased in 1882 by the Humber Steam Ferry Co. Three hotel owners (John Duck, Octavius Hicks and Charles Nurse) plus a brewer Eugene O'Keefe were the owners of the ferry company. The hotels were located in Etobicoke Township at the mouth of the Humber River. Access from Toronto was difficult as the streetcar lines did not extend that far west. Initially passengers were carried from a wharf near Yonge Street to John Duck's dock with an intermediate stop at the foot of Bathurst St. The 1885 route had intermediate stops at the Exhibition Grounds and High Park.

Monday Mural

 I'm linking up at Monday Mural 

May 2021 - Toronto ON

Also taken by John has he walked by the Humber River.

The concrete wall that separates the Humber River bike trail from the Humber Sewage Treatment Plant has always had graffiti on it, but now a coordinated effort between streetARToronto and Anishnaabe artist Philip Cote and his associates has led to a blend of Woodland School painting and modern abstract tagging.

National Indigenous Peoples Day has been commemorated on June 21 in Canada since 1996, making this year its 25th anniversary. The day is intended to be a time for people to recognize and celebrate the heritage, cultures and contributions of Indigenous peoples to the country.

Signs 2

 Joining Tom at Signs2.

Random-osity

Wordless Wednesday Wordless Be There 2day

Little Things Thursday

Toronto ON

Toronto is one of the top five screen-based industries in North America with a full scope of industry connections, services, suppliers, talent, crew, facilities and locations delivering everything required for success in pre-production through post production.
Although a number of films/series are shot in Toronto, not every one uses Toronto as its setting. In both cases, and in most movies shot in Toronto, the city fills in for some other, usually American, location. Locals are accustomed to spotting the landmarks through the cinematic disguise.

We love when we spot a location in the city in a movie/series! I thought I would capture some of them for this weekly post.

Shows like The Handmaid's Tale and Suits would require long detailed posts so I'll start off small.

The clips are from Youtube and the photos are mine.

Coroner is a Canadian police procedural crime drama developed by Morwyn Brebner (Saving Hope, Rookie Blue), and based on the Jenny Cooper series of novels by M. R. Hall.

CORONER premiered as the highest-ever rated series launch in the UK for Universal TV in January 2019.

This clip, from Episode 2 begins as they walk north on John St. at King St. West. I worked a block west of that corner and watched, from our office window as the TIFF Toronto International Film Festival Tower was built.

TIFF building that they turn into.

Click here to read about this part of King St. West. The TIFF building was erected on the site of the Irish Fever Hospital as I mentioned in that clip. 

I also included the history of the Tim Horton's building you can see in the opening clip in that post.

BTW that Tim Horton's is no longer there as the White building is being restored.

Episode 4 starts with a scene filming in walking distance from our condo, under the overpass at the Humber River.

Photos taken 2016.

Episode 4 continues and in this full length episode clip at 23:07 you can see a mural that spells PARKDALE and is located at the Duggan's Brewery off Queen St. West.

At 23:53  you can see the edge of this mural at the entrance to the lane. You can see the Parkdale mural at the far end.

NEIGHBOURHOOD

City Daily Photo - Monthly - NEIGHBOURHOOD

July 2020 - Toronto ON

Out my front door.

Weekend Reflections

Posting at Weekend Reflections


May 2020 - Toronto ON

Taken by John as he walked along Lake Ontario this week. Looking west towards our neighbourhood, Humber Bay.

Weekend Reflections

Posting at Weekend Reflections


April 2020 - Toronto ON

Social distancing, Lake Ontario. Taken by John on a solitary walk this week.

#Blue

Life of B July Squares Challenge
Cee's Fun Foto Challenge Water

Toronto boys in BLUE refilling water bottles. The city places these trucks at outdoor activities around the city to keep people hydrated.

Relax

One Word Sunday

Toronto ON

Taken outside our building last year during the September Air Show.

Bridges Make Connections

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge Bridges
Dutch's Tuesday Photo Challenge Connections

TORONTO ON CANADA


Let's start with the Humber Bay Bridge right outside our door!

The Humber Bay Arch Bridge (also known as the Humber River Arch Bridge, the Humber River Pedestrian Bridge, or the Gateway Bridge) is a pedestrian and bicycle through arch bridge south of Lake Shore Boulevard West, Canada. Completed in the mid-1990s, the bridge is part of the Martin Goodman Trail and is 139 metres (456 ft) in length, with a clear span of 100 metres (330 ft) over the mouth of the Humber River to protect the environmental integrity of the waterway.

The stunning, 125-metre bright-yellow pedestrian bridge, designed by Chilean artist Francisco Gazitua, connects the Concord City Place neighbourhood and Front Street West, between Spadina and Bathurst. Built in 2011, Puente de Luz – “the bridge of light” – is popularly known as “the yellow bridge.” It’s cyclist-friendly, too.

This pedestrian bridge connects the Toronto Eaton Centre to the Hudson’s Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue flagship locations.