Saturday, August 24, 2013

Craven Road in Archive Photos

The five earliest photos of Craven Road in the City of Toronto Archives  were taken on June 16, 1916, after the city decided to buy up a slice of Ashdale Avenue's backyards in order to widen the narrow, one-sided laneway then called Erie Terrace.

Erie Terrace, looking south, 1916 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 2243)
Ironically, these images show Erie Terrace's dirt road and wood-plank sidewalk, but reveal very little of its houses. The photos look south and a little west, focusing on the Ashdale side of the street, since they were taken to record the backyard property being expropriated to widen the street.

Erie Terrace, looking south, 1916 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 3, Item 205)
Erie Terrace, looking west, 1916 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 3, Item 207)
Erie Terrace, looking south, 1916 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 3, Item 208)
Erie Terrace, looking south, 1916 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 3, Item 209)
Why was the city so keen to get this little dirt road widened? Until it was a proper width, it couldn't be paved like Ashdale, Rhodes and the rest of the streets in the area. This photo of Ashdale from six years earlier gives a sense of why paving might be a good idea:
Coal wagon stalled on muddy Ashdale Avenue, 1908 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 24)

There are also some earlier images taken in the Ashdale Ave. area on September 20, 1910, when the City was trying to decide whether to run an underpass (called a "subway") under the railroad tracks at Ashdale or Coxwell Avenue. If you look in the background of the east-facing photos, you can catch glimpses of Erie Terrace between the houses fronting on Ashdale.

Ashdale Avenue,  east side, 1910 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 84, Item 80)

Ashdale Avenue, east side, 1910 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 84, Item 81)

Ashdale Avenue, east side, 1910 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 84, Item 82)

Ashdale Avenue,  east side, 1910 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 84, Item 83)

Ashdale Avenue,  looking north from Fairford, 1910 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 84, Item 84)

Ashdale Avenue, looking south from Fairford, 1910 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 84, Item 85)

Ashdale Avenue, east side 1910 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 84, Item 79)

Ashdale Avenue, west side, corner of Fairford, 1910 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 84, Item 86)

Ashdale Avenue, west side, 1910 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 84, Item 87)
Ashdale Avenue, looking northeast from north of Fairford Avenue, 1910 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 84, Item 84)

The eventual winner in the battle for the railroad underpass, of course, was not Ashdale but Coxwell Avenue. Here's the view from the tracks, south along Coxwell in 1910:

Coxwell Avenue south from railway, April 29, 1912 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 2122)

And here's the finished Coxwell underpass in 1913:

Coxwell Avenue looking north at Grand Trunk Railway underpass, Dec. 30, 1913 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 1332)

The only other photos of Craven Road in the archives are these two from 1949, looking south from Danforth Avenue, documenting damage to the pavement by a tractor:

Craven Road pavement damage May 10, 1949 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 58, Item 1933)

Craven Road pavement damage May 10, 1949 (Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 58, Item 1933)



If these have whetted your appetite for the City of Toronto Archives collection, check our their Flickr set "Leslieville" (defined as "bordered by the lake, Coxwell Avenue, Gerrard Street and the railway line"), view all their Flickr Toronto History Sets, or dig into the City of Toronto Archives website at www.toronto.ca/archives.

[Next Post: Early Maps of the Area]