Wagons in vintage Street scenes

Sorry for a completely unrelated side note of reminiscing:

A few days ago I discovered a forum with of over 1,000 pages of old archive photos on a website pertaining to the city I grew up in (Toronto), and every picture I have posted since about page 1,962 of this thread has come from there. I have only been posting pics with station wagons in them (of course), but looking through so many photos, what has struck me the most is the staggering amount of beautiful architecture has been lost that was built in the 1800s and early 1900s. It's painful to know SO many beautiful buildings are now gone due to two great fires (1849 and 1904), slum ownership and general neglect, and sporadic fires here and there throughout the decades that also destroyed some of the remaining structures. There was a time when many parts of Toronto were packed full of beautiful, majestic old Georgian, neo-gothic, Greco-Roman and Victorian architecture. Unlike the god awful, characterless, soulless, cookie cutter concrete, glass and steel garbage of today that is so prevalent now.

It's also sad that people of those days (and since) seemed to not care very much about older buildings and their architectural heritage whatsoever. Especially back in the old days, people just saw those old buildings as, well..."old", and they just were never valued at all, as people generally wanted newer, more modern and "better" buildings, and all the old ones were just seen as disposable because they had fallen out of fashion at the time. That, and others were also torn down instead of retrofitting them with plumbing, electricity and other newer facilities and features.

Sadly, this "disposable" way of thinking seemed to become a part of the mindset, and as a generally accepted part of the social fabric of the city throughout the years, which is still a sentiment that very much exists in the city today. The city I grew up in has always had very little pride or sense of preservation for the remaining architectural heritage it has left, which has always been a source of frustration and even anger for me. Even in my 40 or so years on this planet, so much has been lost and torn down in my lifetime, just to put in an ugly condo or retail space, and even when they do "preserve" an older building, either part of it gets torn down, or it gets retrofitted and remodelled to make it look more modern, which strips all the character and soul right out of the beauty they already possess.

Anyway, to look through so many of these old black & white pictures from the 1800s and early 20th century, and even into the 50s when there was still a halfway decent amount of these grand old buildings left, it breaks my heart to see how SO much of it is now gone, with only pictures left remaining to know that any of it was ever there. It's so sad.

Without searching through what I've already saved, in no particular order, here's literally just a few random pics of buildings and streetscapes that have been lost. Virtually all of this is gone. I could post dozens, if not hundreds of different photos of stuff that has been lost...













Anywayyyyy, back to more station wagons...

 

I agree. There is a guy on hamb that has a great site like this on Portland Or. and vicinity.
He goes by Witchhammer. I learned that when I was in 6th grade he lived 4-5 blocks away from me.

 

Looks like a 1965-'68 Chevy wagon, but this is a weird picture. Is this just the remaining facade? The original building is below.

 

I had to go back and do a little digging, but is looks like it is Garrett’s Desert Inn in Santa Fe, NM.

 

I often feel the exact same way. It really is sad, but it seems to be just how things go.
I know that in my hometown there is a group that will start to make a ruckus anytime rumblings about tearing down any old structures can be heard. They have been successful in saving some, but not all.