Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
Each weekday morning, we pick a recent image from the Torontoist Flickr Pool and feature it here on the site. It's our way to give the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve!
Today's photo comes courtesy of local visual artist Mr Kevino (Kevin McBride). He discovered this "castle" between the Lakeshore and Gardiner, just east of the Humber River, near Windermere Ave. He's photographed it a number of times on different days from different angles. The image above is our favourite of the bunch. We love the intense aqua of the sky and how it works with the rusty-coloured roof. Beyond the bare trees and patchy grass (and ignoring the lack of snow) something about this photo really says winter to us.
So what is this abandoned structure? And why is it sitting on the side of a busy downtown road? (Rumour has it that it was an abandoned gas station.)
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This building has had a couple articles done in the Toronto Star's 'Fixer'. It is suspose to be moved and rebuilt but had sat on the lot for a few years now.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/166858
Great for you to capture this one, Vino. It speaks volumes about Toronto.
I took a shot or two of this a little while back. It used to be a service station. I can remember gassing up there before getting on the QEW to go to the Niagara Region when I was a kid.
My shot of it is here. (preview below)
Thanks for the info, folks. I thought they might be from a kiddie park or playground.
That gas station was there for years...I believe you can even see it in the background of a shot in David Cronenberg's "Crash."
Just got this e-mail from a reader:
At the risk of confirming my age, this and an adjoining building are all that remain of a chain of rather whimsical Joy "service" stations that used to dot Toronto, long before the era of 24-hour self-serve.
This is the last surviving Olco gas station. There were 4 or 5 scattered around West Toronto at one time - real landmarks because of their unique architecture. I believe this one will be preserved and incorporated into an affordable housing project slated for that site.
According to this article, its being moved across Lakeshore and will become part of the park;
http://www.journalnewspaper.ca/Article.php?action=&Id=88
By the way, here's my photo of the same;
http://kompot-photo.blogspot.com/2006/12/joy-oil-garage.html
damn it... he beat me to photographing it... I drive by every day and I've been meaning to grab some photos some time...