If you Visit Thunder Bay…

I found this while poking around on a real estate site. The bank was built in 1911. The location is Victoria Avenue East, Thunder Bay. It burned down in 2007, just the front of it left standing. They are selling it, hoping someone will build it onto something new. But, the chances don’t look so good for that. Mainly, that entire area is old and deserted looking. In 1911 it must have been beautiful with architecture and bustling with people. Now, its all neglected and forgotten looking. Not likely someone will put in the money for a burned out bank in a forgotten area of a city in northern Ontario. But, it has its history.

This is the description from the real estate sales listing:

Own a piece of history! The old site of the CIBC bank, burnt down in 2007, and Designed by architect V.D. Horsbugh, the building, complete with its four massive terra cotta columns using clay imported from England, officially opened its doors on July 11, 1911. The terra cotta façade and four giant columns made it a landmark in the Victoriaville area and still stand today. The bank was constructed in 1910-11, boasts a Classical Revival style of architecture, with four massive columns framing a terra cotta façade. The façade would make a perfect front for a new office building – or a smaller building constructed further back with the façade as a fencing. Great lot in the heart of the southside business district – close to the new courthouse and city hall!

A view from the back of the building. You can see there just isn’t anything left. A little on the sides, probably helping to hold the front face upright.

Canadian Vintage Postcards

I have been a history fan since the day I first noticed old buildings with the carved and sculpted stonework, the majestic columns and the extras, like gargoyles. My Mother loves antiques. We still have some of the massive pieces of furniture which she told me were called Canadiana, over 100 years old made from trees far older than that even. The wood has become soft to the touch and the colour is lighter than the finished wooden furniture.

Anyway, nothing lasts forever. Isn’t that the sad part of history, architecture and antiques?

This is why I have always enjoyed finding vintage and antique postcards of old Canadian cities, towns and places I have been in the current time. In the old postcards you can see some of what once was and how a building (still standing) looked when it was new. The street views are my favourites. Horses still in the streets, sometimes sharing it with vehicles and sometimes, just horses and buggies. People along the sidewalks, some close enough to see a pattern in their clothes and the trimmings on their hats. Those were real, living people. Not a design someone created to add features to an illustration.

What do you think about when you see an old postcard? Travels? History? Collectibles and antiques? Maybe you see them for the art they are too?

Found Amazing Toronto Map in an Etsy Shop

I found this map for sale in an Etsy shop, civicatlas. With shipping, it would cost over $50 to have a print copy. Sure, it would be a nice size but more than I can spend. If you have the resources I recommend getting it for any Toronto history explorers. As you can see, there are excellent images of old architecture, likely gone or very different looking now.

To see more of it myself, I searched online and found it Historical Maps of Toronto, with a link to the source for the full map at the University of Toronto. Here are screenshots, to give you a preview. I would like to have this covering an entire wall of my house. But, I will settle for keeping it as wallpaper for my desktop computer. Meanwhile, I did download the full file and I can see what it would cost to get it printed. Possibly a local business where the photographer reprints and fixes old photographs, might be just the place.

Killing Art for Politics

Demolishing art (and architecture) bothers me. The history does not go away, but the art does. Losing art and architecture due to changing politics is not a good thing.

How will people in the future understand the past if it is all whitewashed?

In a letter to the Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers, the signatories advocate for the removal of monuments to Christopher Columbus, J. Marion Sims, and Teddy Roosevelt.

Source: Over 120 Prominent Artists and Scholars Call on NYC to Take Down Racist Monuments

Killing Art for Politics

Demolishing art (and architecture) bothers me. The history does not go away, but the art does. Losing art and architecture due to changing politics is not a good thing. How will people in the future understand the past if it is all whitewashed?

In a letter to the Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art, Monuments, and Markers, the signatories advocate for the removal of monuments to Christopher Columbus, J. Marion Sims, and Teddy Roosevelt.

Source: Over 120 Prominent Artists and Scholars Call on NYC to Take Down Racist Monuments