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Tag: toronto

Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion – A Grand Piece of Toronto History

Toronto has a wonderful piece of history sitting on its waterfront called the “Sunnyside Beach Pavilion” that has been around since 1922. I have seen this structure at least a million times in my few short years living in Toronto and never ceases to amaze me on how beautiful it is. I even looked at is at a potential wedding venue 2 years ago that is how much I’m enamored with this structure.

Vintage Postcard of Sunnyside Pavilion in the 1920s, Toronto, Ontario Canada.
1920’s Sunnyside

Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion – A Grand Piece of Toronto History

The name “Sunnyside” had been used to denote a beach and its surrounding area for 70-plus years before the amusement park and beach pavilion opened. The name may have been coined by George Howard, a prominent citizen whom in 1848 had built a home overlooking the shore on the sunny side of a hill (source).

By the 1920s, swimming at the foot of Roncesvalles Avenue had been popular for over thirty years, as there was a swimming area near a pumping station. This changed in 1913 when the pumping station was demolished to make way for the bridge connecting Lakeshore Road and the King/Queen/Roncesvalles intersection. A staircase was built for pedestrians to walk down to the shoreline. A slide was installed for bathers to slide down into the water (COOL!).

1912 Sunnyside Beach vintage photo of bathers in the water in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
1912 Sunnyside Beach Source: Toronto Archives

By 1920, this area was filled in and the beach was moved farther to the south. For the year 1921, the beach was recorded as having over 302,525 visitors (Source).

This influx of bathers to the area meant that there was a space needed where they could change, so on June 28th, 1922 the “Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion” was born.

Sunnyside Pavilion Sign in Toronto, ONtario Canada
Sunnyside Pavilion-Today

Sunnyside bathing pavilion-1922.

1920s vintage photo of the Sunnyside-bathing-pavilion in1922

1920s vintage photo of a large amount of people enjoying the water and beach at Sunnyside Beach and Pavilion.

1920s vintage photo of a large amount of people enjoying the water and beach at Sunnyside Beach and Pavilion.

Sunnyside Beach 1924.

1920s vintage photo of people in 1920s swimsuits enjoying a day at the Sunnyside Beach in 1924

Information about the Beach building

The building, constructed of concrete, cost $300,000. Each wing held an outdoor changing area, lockers and showers, the women’s side on the east, and men’s side on the west. It offered over 7,700 lockers for patrons, a roof garden for 400. Admission fees were 25¢ for adults and 15¢ for children, and bathing suits and towels could be rented. In the center was a staircase leading to an upper terrace which overlooked the change areas leading to a rear terrace which ran the full length of the building and overlooked the beach.

The “Tank”

If you have ever been to Ontario and attempted to swim in the waters you would quickly realize that they are not the most ideal for swimming..cold! And so in 1925 a giant swimming pool called the “Tank” was built and could accommodate up to 2000 swimmers. It was considered at that time the largest swimming pool in the world and you can still go swimming in this pool today.

1920s Sunnyside Pool at Sunnyside beach vintage ad advertising it's grand opening in 1925.

1940s Sunnyside Pool. Look how big it is in this image..HUGE!

1940s vintage photo of the Sunnyside Pool and Beach

Bathing Pavilion Today

In 1980 the Bathing Pavilion was renovated with the outdoor lockers and changing areas being demolished and new changing rooms were built.

Sunnyside Beach Pavilion modern day photo of the front of the pavilion.
Front of the Pavilion
Sunnyside Pavilion beach facing front. photo
Sunnyside Pavilion beach facing front. photo
Currently under construction to bring it back to former glory

The pool was rededicated as the ‘Gus Ryder Pool’, named after Marilyn Bell’s coach, the founder and coach of the Lakeshore Swim Club of New Toronto. I also just happened to find a plaque about Marilyn Bells near by as seen below…

Marilyn Bell Toronto

And that my friends is a brief history on the Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion.

As a lover of history in Toronto it thrills me to the bone that Toronto has taken the time to preserve this piece of history. I sometimes find our city is so preoccupied with putting up millions of condos that us regular folks can’t afford that they forget that we don’t have tons of places like the Sunnyside Pavilion still standing that they should not so quickly discard.

I look forward to sitting by this structure for many more years to come.

Do you have something like this in your home town? Or a structure that has lots of history that your city takes pride in preserving it? Let me know!

FURTHER READNG:

Liz 🙂

Toronto Vintage Clothing Show-The Highlights

So this past Sunday I was excited to be able to work the booth for the Toronto Vintage Society at the Toronto Vintage Clothing Show. We were there to raise awareness of our society, sell some beautiful “Make Do and Mend” sewing kits and also sign up fellow vintage enthusiasts for our meetup group.

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Here I am with the lovely Larissa from Blonde Moxie at our booth. I’m wearing a Ethel of Beverly Hills sweater that got so many likes that day and even one lady wanted to buy it off me while at the show 🙂

Toronto Vintage Society

Photo Courtesy of Larissa

We were also joined by some of the other lovely ladies of TVS. Lisa, Larissa and Irene from Petite Plus, Meow!

Toronto Vintage Society

All of us together (minus our fearless leader Jacquie who was out-of-town on business).

Toronto Vintage Society

Here is a picture of the mending kits we created with vintage fabric for the pin top. Inside was candy, vintage buttons and everything else you need to sew up something fabulous.

vintage mending kits

Image courtesy of Irene 

We had a draw at our booth too and it had lots of wonderful goodies that any vintage loving person would want (there was some great items for the men as well, but just not showing in this pic).

Toronto Vintage Society

 Image courtesy of Shermy from Shermette

At one point during the day our booth even had some swing dancing happen. Here is somewhat blurry but fun picture of myself and my friend Dean doing some Lindy Hop.

Toronto Lindy Hop

Photo Courtesy of Blonde Moxie

Then there were more dancers…yay!

Toronto Lindy Hop

Amongst many of the wonderful visitors that stopped by the booth, one was Diane from the Costume Society of Ontario. She was wearing the most amazing Edwardian outfit! Don’t you just love it on her?

Costume Society of Ontario

After socializing and promoting TVS, I finally got my turn to head out to the show and do some shopping. I managed to pick up a couple of things but did not snag any clothes because I’m in saving mode for VIVA next month in Vegas, where I know I will be buying a lot of outfits.

Here are my purchases….

My kitschy Leather Poodle Pin..love it!

vintage poodle brooch

Second purchase was this absolutely gorgeous green 1950s hair piece with the more glorious feathers you have ever seen. It was being sold for $40 but some of the feathers needed a glue gun and so I managed to snag it for $20. Yippee! This baby is coming to Vegas with me.

1950s hair headband

Now I did not purchase this but a friend of mine did and it truly was the PURCHASE OF THE SHOW! 

A skirt out of Marimekko 1960’s fabric. They did not know the significance of the pattern or the fabric, which is why she only got it for 30$. It is signed too. Quite the find and you can read all about the extensive history of this brand here. Good job Erica!

marimekko

 

Now here are some pictures of what I wish I could have purchased.

Lets start with the granddaddy of them all…a 1950’s Vintage WITH TAGS Alfred Shaheen! I have never seen a for sale Shaheen in real life (online only) AND with tags. This dress was a unicorn at this show AND also too small for me. ugh 🙁 If you are in Toronto it’s being sold at 69 Vintage on Queen St. West.

Alfred Shaheen

If you are an xsmall you could have taken home this beautiful 1950’s swimsuit! I just LOVE the buttons and the skirt portion and of course the fabric. Wonderful piece.

1950s vintage bathingsuit

Going to prom? Then this beautiful stunner of a 1950s prom dress would have been perfect.

FYI: The dress is still for sale at “House of Vintage” on Queen St West.

1950s vintage prom dress

Those were basically the only pictures I had time to take from the show but if you head over to the Toronto Vintage Society website you will see a wonderful post on the event.

On another note, I have been doing a pin-curl set lately with my hair instead of foam rollers and I’m really really enjoying how it is turning out.

vintage hairstyle

P.S. did you see my eyelashes?? Look how long and fantastic they look. I just recently got extensions put in by Shangri-Lash and I love them! Stay tuned for a review on that experience.

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In the end the whole day was a success and we ended up with a load of new members to our group and we met so many wonderful vintage shoppers! I look forward to getting to know many of them at future events.

Did you do any vintage shopping this weekend? Score any great deals?

Liz