Montgomery’s Inn c1913 was built in 1830 and stands today at the same corner as an historic site
Toronto. Shades of George Dunbar and Mike Filey! These gentlemen too shot areas of Toronto matching archival photos for ‘then’ and ‘now’ images of the city as it grew.
In issue 17-5, Randall Reid wrote an illustrated article about his talks and slide shows at Montgomery’s Inn on the south-east corner of Dundas and Bloor in Etobicoke township (now the west end of Toronto).
Randall begins, “‘Double Take, Photographs of Etobicoke Then and Now’ is a slide presentation which I recently assembled at Montgomery’s Inn in co-operation with the local Etobicoke Historical Society. Montgomery’s Inn itself is an historic house museum located at the corner of Dundas Street West and Islington Avenue in Etobicoke.
“The appearance of Etobicoke has changed from a rural landscape of farms, market gardens and cross-roads communities to an industrial and residential urban centre. With that rapid change has come an increase in population from 44,000 in 1951 to in excess of 300,000 today [early 1992]. It is difficult for newer residents to visualize and orientate themselves today with old photographs of Etobicoke.
“As a staff member of Montgomery’s Inn, I have been giving historic slide presentations since 1975. After presenting these shows, I would frequently hear such comments as ‘Where was that? I can’t place it.’ Such comments. therefore, inspired me to prepare a slide presentation in which an historic picture is shown simultaneously beside a modern view of the same location. With this technique, the viewer quickly identifies with the site and develops a sense of the change which has occurred.”
Members read the full article and more in the original journal issue or more recently its pdf version on the members-only DVD. Joining is both easy and inexpensive. See above and/or at right. Questions? Drop Lilianne an email at member@phsc.ca.
