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	Church & Wellesley: Photos
	Modern amid Victorian / Appx 700 words / 4 images / 105 K total

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The gentry's names on Jarvis
Left to right: 514 Jarvis;
100 Gloucester; 105 Isabella;
550, 590, and 620 Jarvis

Toronto Modern
(amid Victorian)

The last in a surviving row of five Victorian houses on Jarvis Street (for two of the others, see Houses) is just visible here at the left. It was designed in 1889 by E. J. Lennox -- architect of then New, now Old, City Hall -- for Charles Rundle, one of the area's speculative builders. Later speculators on Jarvis Street would recall its past in name(s) only.

The early '60s Cawthra Apartments (centre, address at 100 Gloucester) and the matching Mulock Apartments (just beyond, at 105 Isabella) actually got it wrong: Cawthra stands on what was Mulock land, Mulock on Cawthra. But never mind: not even the buildings' signs show those names any more. Just beyond, 550 Jarvis is tagged Massey House -- though it was built, also in the early '60s, as the Bloorview.

The red-brick building just visible in the distance is now metropolitan government offices, but until the late '80s it was Metropolitan Toronto Police Headquarters -- backdrop for many demos after the 1981 bath raids.

At the top of the street (far right), the pretense of history is dropped altogether, as is any sense of style. The Skypro Apartments at 620 Jarvis, said to be a failed attempt at a hotel, crams more than 450 units into a big, boring slab without even the relief of balconies.

From the 1880s to the 1970s
551 Church Street and Cawthra Park
Behind: Plaza 100, at 100 Wellesey Street East

The house on the left is part of a pair, its partner now also offices and shops. The rainbow steps, rainbow flag, even a rainbow fence around the corner on Monteith, advertise Out on the Street, a boutique featuring T-shirts, tchotchkes, and campy cards.

The small piece of Cawthra Park visible here once held a big supermarket, Loblaw's, and its parking lot. The neighbourhood now has lots of 24-hour "convenience" stores and a few better- quality food emporia, but for a major shopping cart experience one has to head off to the Manulife Centre or Greenwin Square, both just outside the tract.

Plaza 100 was new in 1971. As you can see, the prevailing style by then was getting heavier. The hallmarks of classic '50s modernism -- bands of windows set in slender metal frames; airy balconies often fenced in glass; weightless- looking white or buff brick curtain walls -- were giving way to brutalist concrete. Things would get heavier still.

Brutes on the skyline
Left to right:
33 Isabella; 30 Gloucester;
15 Dundonald

This view, looking south, is from the top of the new 5-level city garage on Charles Street East, built over the subway -- as is Continental Tower (right) at 15 Dundonald.

All these towers are from the late '60s and early '70s. I don't have more precise dates, but memory suggests 15 Dundonald is the oldest, 33 Isabella the last of the three. That makes sense stylistically, too -- each one in succession more confiningly brutal. The balconies at 33 Isabella, slits hemmed in by naked concrete, could be the Maginot Line gone highrise. Victoriana, some of it fake, is (barely) visible here just at the foot of 30 Gloucester.

More "height for heritage"
Part of the Grace MacInnis Co-operative, Church Street
Behind: 86 Gloucester; 100 Gloucester

Like Paxton Place, the condo tower at 86 Gloucester got to be as tall as it is by offering historic preservation (and low- cost housing) in return for height (and a bit of glitz).

The six-house row at 561 - 571 Church Street, dating from 1890, became a co-operative. A triple house next door, from 1889, also survived -- but as a double: its northernmost unit was sheared off to make way for the entrance ramp to the condos' underground garage. Still and all, not such a bad deal -- considering the uncontrolled alternatives.

(For more post-1950 highrises and 19th- century red brick, see Church & Wellesley's four corners and Some random shots.)

Church & Wellesley Photos: List / Previous page / Next page: The four corners

Time & Place: Toronto, 1971 / More on Church & Wellesley