City
Vintage photographs of winter in Toronto
Vintage photographs of what winter used to look like in Toronto make up only a small portion of the images collected in the many historical posts previously published on this site. Although there's plenty to choose from in the City's digitized archival holdings, unless one is specifically looking for winter scenes, he's likely to pass them over in favour of those images that present the city without the presence of snow.
The funny thing about this is that the experience of winter has always been a crucial aspect of life in Toronto. One might say it's part of the reality of living here. So why the relative scarcity of such images? It stikes me that something akin to the pathetic fallacy might be at work here in some way: snow = forgetting. In blanketing the city, snow obscures the very buildings and streets that (archival) photos aim to shed light upon.
There are pragmatic reasons as well. Carting around a view camera and wooden tripod in two feet of snow and sub-zero temperatures just isn't much fun. The majority of wintery photographs that survive from Toronto's past thus tend to be specifically dedicated to capturing winter itself, rather than subject matter that could just as well have been shot during the warmer months. What one finds below, then, is images of skating, tobogganing, iceboats, sleds and snowstorms — in other words, people trying to make the best of what was surely an uncomfortable season.
PHOTOS
12 horse team pulling snow sweeper Ca. 1890s
That's a lot of coal! Skyline 1904
Sleighing at Queen's Park 1906
Snowy University Avenue 1908
High Park late Ca. 1908-1910
Ice fishing, Centre Island 1909
Apparently a huge toboggan at Christie Pits 1909
Parking at the Old City Hall quadrangle 1910
Kew Beach 1911
Snowball fight, Rosedale Ravine 1912
A propellor sled! Toronto Bay 1912
Pier, Eastern Gap 1912
Ice-encased church post-fire on Carleton Street 1912
Ice boats 1912
Hockey at Christie Pits 1912
High Park 1913
High Park tobogganing 1914
High Park toboggan runs 1914
Wychwood barns 1915
Trinity College Gates 1916
Bloor Viaduct under construction 1917
Toronto Bay 1920
Ice boats in front of Harbour Commission Building 1920
Glen Road bus 1923
Snow plough 1924
Snowstorm on Richmond Street 1929
Snowy Casa Loma 1936
Snow blower at night 1943
The great snowstorm of 1944
The great snowstorm of 1944
Snowstorm at John & King 1961
Images from the Toronto Archives
Discussion
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Strange that its January and we've had literally 1 cold day and barely any snow.
Global warming?
https://gencat4.eloquent-systems.com/webcat/systems/toronto.arch/resource/fo1231/f1231_it1756.jpg
war plant and they kept all the ladies overnight in the plant
as no one could get home due to the storm.Our road was blocked almost a week before a plow came.
Jo
old photos
photos of TO and surrounding areas to my grandson
Carnforth England
but I remember mild winters befor. I was going to Dennis Avenue
Public School and one year they put up the boards for a hockey
rink and it was so mild they couldn't get ice then one day it
rained and that froze so they played hockey and it was surprising at which boys could really play good. Our school
had the boys school yard on one side of the school and the
girls school yard on the other side of the school. By the way
it was the boys from the portable room who were the best athletes. That year baseball started early.
I got home on December 1946 and the family had pictures to show me, and they told me what a hard time they had getting around, and shopping. Food got scarse.
C.T.
And the pictures of the gates at Trinity are WRONG . They are the gates of UPPER CANADA COLLEGE !
Toronto two of the most monstrous snow removal equipment.
Josh,as you mentioned what we should do with our latest snow
removal equipment now,Well,we did! One of those machines
was lent to Buffalo,in 1944,but it was trashed and to this day,I haven't heard what happened to the one we had left.
I suggest you contact Mike Filey at the Toronto Sun if you want to find out more.He is a Toronto historian!! He can tell
you more about that 1944 Snowstorm!!!
Because of the pollution it would never freeze over. You could walk on it in the summer.
& Bathurst. I was a teenager then. I never did make it.
And this snow was nothing much compared to Northern Ontario!
great grandfather (John Bromley) who was head of the Northern
Yards (city of Toronto.They are still very wearable which is
amazing considering their age. He died an old man in 1941, but
the gloves just keep going on, they're at least 100 yr old.
I had just turned 6 in 1944 and we lived in Pickering Village, right on Hwy, 2, just outside of Toronto. It was day 2 after the big storm of 1944, and I remember going to school. The snow banks were over my head (being well over 6 feet), and the snow on the flat was probably over 4 feet deep. I was in grade one and had forgotten my pencil. The teacher, Miss Hood, sent me home to get the pencil.
My father had just returned from the N.W.T. and he carried me (and the pencil) back to school on his shoulders. He was a very tall man, and I was able to see over the banks of snow onto the highway 2 on the other side of the banks lining the highway. I don't recall there being any traffic that day or for another day or so.
When we arrived at the school, I was dropped off in classroom, and my father, the teacher and the Principal had a conference in the Principal's office. My recollection is that, when she returned to the classroom, Miss Hood's face was redder than usual, and she seemed quite flustered. Perhaps the strain of having to teach three classes (Grades 1, 2 and 3) was getting to her. To this day, I can't imagine why (she wrote with tongue firmly planted in her cheek).
because it was on the second floor. Enjoy the rest of the season, eh?!!!
The picture of Casa Loma brought back memories of school dances held there with popular dance bands of the 1940s and 50s.
HIgh Park pictures brought back happy memories of the 1930s when my father would takes us on a Sunday to either sleigh ride on the hills or skate on Grenadier Pond. I remember going to High Park in summer as well and climbing the trees and getting sap residue on my legs and arms. It wouldn't come off for days, much to my mother's annoyance. I was always fascinated by the wooden platforms in High Park that were for outdoor classes for crippled children-so I was told. There was also a house on the grounds with a large carved wooden snake as part of the verandah railing. I wonder what happened to it?
Growing up in Toronto was fun!
Downtown Toronto 1944, I worked at Bay & Adelaide across
from the Laura Secord Store and shopped there many times.
Also, waited in the snow for a ride home on street cars
for many years after l944.
The corner is the south east corner. Eatons ran towards the left of the picture that is, running towards the east. This part of the store is the one-story part which housed men's clothing.
To all of the Fyfalonians, Enjoy!!!
Hope the rest of the ten in all enjoy this story as much as I had in writing it!!!! ENJOY
We were just emerging from the depression era and WW2 was coming to an end.
Great times, good times and a some hard times!
I remember many happy days spent with toboggan, sled or skis at Christie Pitts. I first ice skated - with bob skates - on a natural pond there about 1936.
The south west corner of Yonge and College Streets.
https://gencat4.eloquent-systems.com/webcat/systems/toronto.arch/resource/fo1231/f1231_it1756.jpg
About the cold winters. It is true, whether or not you believe in global warming, that winters used to be much much colder in yester years. I remember as a young lad from the mid 50th to the mid 60th the Toronto harbour basin used to freeze over almost every year. People used to drive out on the ice with their cars and setup ice fishing huts. Then went about ice fishing until the ice started cracking. The floating huts were left until the ice melted and then the owners picked them up with boats. I have not seen the harbour basin freeze over in the last 25 years.
Thanks for reviving those lovely memories.
Thank-you!
What strikes me about these comments is the average age of the posters; about 70-80 years old. I didn't think seniors were so Internet savvy. Kudos to you!
But what I do find strange is the child-like ignorance of some posters regarding the 1940s. They seem to forget how lucky they were to have been relatively untouched by the ravages of the world war going on at the time.
Life seemed so healthy ( before perscription Drugs) and people appeared to be self reliant.
I lived near High Park for many years and the pics bring back great memories.
I noticed the Men all wore hats and many wore suits and ties. The Ladies so proper in Skirts .It must have been a delightful time k
We had one of the original large four seaters in our backyard in the 1970s, but it went down to Burlington Bay where they have much more regular ice.