York University’s Archives & Special Collections has a fascinating Web gallery of images from the Toronto Telegram photograph collection celebrating the 50th anniversary of the opening of the TTC Subway.
Left: A photo from York University Archives & Special Collections (Toronto Telegram photograph collection)
“Our collection consists of approximately 830,000 negatives and roughly 500,000 prints of photos taken for the newspaper during the period 1876-1971,” said Suzanne Dubeau, acting University archivist and head of Archives & Special Collections, “with the bulk of the photos being from 1939 through to 1971.”
As York’s Archives & Special Collections Web site says, “On Tuesday, March 30, 1954, approximately 5,000 people gathered outside the Davisville Subway Station to watch Premier Leslie Frost and Toronto Mayor Allan Lamport throw the ceremonial switch that would mark the official opening of Canada’s first subway. After five years of construction and at a cost of $59,000,000, the first trains left the twelve stations on the Toronto Transit Commission’s new Yonge Line at 1:30pm….”
Click here to enjoy a trip down memory lane – or to see the photos for the first time – and get a taste of what York might celebrate someday.