Given that the big dig starts tomorrow on Kingston Road, it seems appropriate to republish this 1928 photo of Kingston Road and Birchmount under construction.
It’s a photo of streetcar tracks being laid when the TTC extended its streetcar service from Victoria Park to the Birchmount Loop. The streetcars replaced the old radial cars that starting running through Birch Cliff in about 1901.
Streetcars continued operating to Birchmount until 1954 and apparently the tracks are still buried in the road. I was speaking with a City of Toronto worker last week who said they’ll have to remove the tracks when they replace the watermain.
One thing’s for sure – there wasn’t as much traffic 85 years ago and the reconstruction is going to be a lot more inconvenient this time around.
For more details on the reconstruction of Kingston Road that starts tomorrow, you can read this.
Kingston Road looking west from Birchmount, 1928
I’m pretty sure that building (brick) on the right (before the Chum sign) is still there! I remember the streetcars when we first moved into the area. So many changes…hopefully this one will be the “kick in the pants” this neighbourhood so badly needs! It’s about time!!!
Interesting to see the name ‘Whan’s Drugs’ on the store in the background. When I attended Birchcliff PS in the mid-fifties, there was an Ian Whan (not an oriental name, by the way) in my class. Thin, pale boy as I recall.