Winston Park Plaza
Downsview in the late 50s and early 60s
South side of Wilson at Winston Park. It is all torn down now. Sic transit gloria mundi.
Blossom Inn Chinese Food with its monster jade plant, Combo plate No. 5, and great Cantonese chow mein.
With the "City-Wide Glass" truck in front, this picture was likely taken after the Sunrise Propane blast.
There used to be a drafting equipment and blueprint shop beside it. (Grandpa, what's a blueprint?)
Inside the Blossom Inn Restaurant.
There was a 'Celebrity' photos 'Hall of Fame' scattered about the restaurant
showing off the various lounge lizards who had eaten there.
The Blossom Inn after the Sunrise Propane blast on August 10, 2008.
Winston Park Plaza also had a laundromat, Lefko Drugs (I would love to get a picture of it), Domenic's barber shop, and Max's Variety (Max's wife was Toby), Herb's Hardware .... Way back there was a Dominion grocery store, that became a Consumer's Distributing, then the bowling alley. There was the Beckers and La Luna Bakery with magnificent big crusty white Italian air bread. There was Dr. Julius Dick, the dentist and the terror of all the local kids. Dr. Fines who lived and worked out of a house on the north side of Wilson across from Winston Park Plaza.
with Wayne and Jeff Haymer.
The building below used to be the the Canadian Imperial Bank at Wilson and Lady York.
I had a bank account there when I was a kid.
Imperial Oil (Esso) at Wilson and Ancaster (788 Wilson Avenue - mid 1960s)
The stores at Wilson and Garret about 1965
>> Starting from humble beginnings, Mastro’s opened its doors in 1964 on a dusty, undeveloped Wilson Avenue. Rina and Livio Camarra had a simple goal – to provide quality, authentic Italian cuisine emphasizing their regional Abruzzese roots. Today, almost 50 years later, their goal remains the same. << See ..
http://www.mastros.ca/history/
Gad, Mastro's Pizza -- their pizza was so good with its parmesan cheese and oregano.
Mastros used to deliver their pizzas in a special white van with a special oven to
keep the pizza hot on the ride over.
The other stores were the Bakery and Delicatessan, the DeHavilland Restaurant, the Wilson Cigar Store (cigar probably short for cigarette), Milton's Hair Salon, and the Downsview Dry Cleaners. Then there was a telephone booth and a big old tree there beside Garrett. Look at all the TV antennas on the roof.
The plaza just west of Mastro's plaza.
Yellow brick apartments east of Lady York on Wilson.
Red orange brick apartments west of Northgate Drive on Wilson.
Across from these red orange brick apartments was another strip of store front shops. During the sixties this strip had a cigarette shop where we bought pop, candy, and comic books. Beside it was a fish and chips shop where they wrapped the meal in old newspapers and I washed the fish down with grape crush. Next there was a grocery store where we could buy apples. What else? A barber shop with the red and white candycane pole. Women's hair salon? Shoe repair comes? Behind the plaza was wooden sheds full of interesting stuff. Going west from that plaza was an undeveloped field, Mr. Lewis the lawyer's house, another field, Avon Printing, Murray Street, and then the train tracks, and Mount Zion Memorial Park Cemetary.
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Since May 18, 2016