The first footage of Toronto ever taken(1904)

[@jpt8011]

Wow! I think I saw the Eglinton Cross Town LRT starting construction in the background.

[@Outdoorswithmikey]

You have a good eye. It’s been taking a while to complete due to two pandemics, two World wars, a couple of occupations in Africa and Ottawa but the end is in sight around 2024.

[@madmanx58]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🏆

[@vancouverapartmentowner9476]

lol!

[@robertfraser7199]

And you'll die before it's done! Yay Toronto!

[@fazalshaikh422]

😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣

[@bradwalton3977]

I met a woman back around 1982 who had been born in Toronto on April 19, 1904. Her family called her "the Fire Baby." She worked as a gerontologist in a hospital. She was also a nun.

[@blabbinglobster]

I didn't know that film footage of this event existed. Thank you for posting this.

[@carolbrooks4598]

My grandfather was born in Toronto in 1890! I wonder if he or his brothers were involved. I also notice the Canada Cycle and Motor sign which brought to mind that he rode a motorcycle as dispatch rider in France in the First World War.

[@John-sk8cm]

Thank you for sharing a bit about your grandfather. You know that question people ask sometimes, "if you could, who would you like to meet that is no longer living?" Well your grandfather would have been on my list. Much respect to him.

[@northlander4370]

That is where CCM hockey equipment was born...

[@andrewdouris6035]

My grandfather rode a motorcycle as dispatch in WW2

[@Glipsnarp]

I do emergency water and sewer in Toronto. I dig up stuff older that this video. Old pharmacy bottles. Horseshoes are everywhere. Old shoes. Coke bottles. Also near Liberty village there was some sort of by products from munitions factory or something cause 4 feet under ground there is highly toxic, fuming black sludge that seeps out. Burns your skin

[@OldTorontoSeries]

That's awesome. Love the horseshoe fact.

[@DucatiKozak]

@evan8388 wow! During COVID they were ripping up Liberty street to redo the sewage drainpipe in front of the building I call home! Now tell me more about this sludge?!

[@entertain402]

open a museum and don't report the income...

[@deepaksetia]

This city, like others in America and Europe, was wiped out due to mud floods to eliminate giants. The people in the video are on horse buggy, but how did they build such huge buildings without any technology. You can all old buildings in the University area, old churches have massive doors and windows, they were running on free energy and all built of stone (no wood). You look south from Aurora, and you see Downtown well below ground level and waves of mud flood left behind

[@richardc8795]

The area around liberty village used to be a penitentiary.

[@briangraham1024]

Lived in Toronto between '84 - '88. It was great time to be there. Some fun places were Madison's, Chicken Deli, Blue Note, Caps, Brunswick House, Horseshoe, Bamboo, Whistling Oyster, etc. The Blue Jays were always in the hunt and a weekend series against Detroit at the CNE was a plus. Thanks for the memories.

[@OldTorontoSeries]

Many of those spots are still up and running. Horseshoe is almost identical to then still, Madison as well. Brunswick house closed down a while ago though.

[@davidgiles5030]

My grandfather was born in 1888 and would have been 16 when this occurred. Maybe he's in the picture. He lived in the area.

[@RPRIMICI]

This is very close to where I formerly worked (Sterling Tower - 372 Bay St) at Richmond and Bay. Right in the heart of the city since Old City Hall is just north of it.

[@christopherwelch136]

Wow. Priceless footage.

[@OldTorontoSeries]

For sure!

[@michaelverbakel7632]

1904 was the year of the Great Toronto - Bay Street fire. Mostly in the Bay- Yonge Street area.

[@Magdalene777]

Imagine all those people without cell phones, tv or internet, going outside to actually do things, living lives where they interacted with others, face-to-face.

[@stewartgillis4851]

Yes . It was a world filled with common heritage and community. I remember living in the Junction circa 1953 walking hand in hand with my parents sister and brother to Sunday church at High Park United. HP United is now a swanky condo. What happened?

[@danzig159]

Yeah, now imagine one of those people needing a major surgery for one reason or another or getting an infection that could kill you but can be easily cured with simple antibiotics, or just imagine one of those people needing immediate rescue but they're in a place too remote to be heard which could easily be reached if they had a cell phone.

[@reginaldperiwinkle]

It's almost too horrible to imagine.

[@systemschef]

Don't forget the illness and shortened life expectancy!

[@P7777-u7r]

People still do these things all the time. The truth is the internet is essentially just the final form of what started with the telegraph. These horse people long but not so long ago experimented with more and better technology until we have what we do now. By definition these people had to do a lot more with less both in materials and yet to be discovered knowledge. I wonder what some of the pioneers of technology the operator of this camera included would think of what it all evolved into.

[@steelcom5976]

The standards for electrical wiring were almost non-existent. No one knew the dangers of overloading cables, arcing, uninsulated wires, a lack of grounding and bonding. It was a time bomb waiting to happen

[@discodirk48]

The more things change the more they stay the same. What happened in Maui happened in these cities. These were not naturally occuring events. When the rich and powerful want something they go in and take it.

[@steelcom5976]

@@discodirk48 Maui suffered high winds that topplied hydro poles.

[@pathologicallyfriendly]

Toronto's population at this time was around 210 000, and Canada's was around 5.5 million, smaller than the GTA today

[@vancouverapartmentowner9476]

Metro Vancouver and region in about 30 years should be 5.5 million.

[@WRXDEMON]

Lol @ 00:11 CCM!!! Wow. They’re one of the older Canadian companies.

[@cliffhodgins1286]

CCM also built electric and gasoline cars from 1903 to 1916

[@222radar]

That fire was so incredibly devastating. Amazing footage.

[@alistersutherland3688]

Such a terrible loss. The core of Toronto might have been so different today.

[@bobbbxxx]

Don't forget that a lot of the cheaply built old brick warehouses that burned down were anything but beautiful. Mostly sweatshops. Some of the buildings that were lost were beautiful and others were no great loss. The first Great Fire of Toronto was 1849.

[@samuellavoie56]

@@bobbbxxx what cause it?

[@samuellavoie56]

@@bobbbxxx and did they have electrecity ?

[@bobbbxxx]

@@samuellavoie56 a lot of these old warehouses were firetraps. Plus people smoked on the job fairly commonly.

[@ED80s]

I work right on Bay and Wellington so its very close to where this happened and yet I had no idea about this fire. Thank you for the video.

[@jacobrocks7]

Wow born in Toronto and had no idea about this massive fire ..recognize the old city hall which is now a court house ..118 years later ..wow ..thanks

[@neiladlington950]

Something about the primitive photography makes watching this recording of the burning building seem extra horrific.

[@samuellavoie56]

it look like old german war footage lol

[@NoName-vx6up]

Yes, it has that gothic and industrial revolution vibe.

[@carterfifteen]

So odd how countless major cities around the world all experienced these massive destructive fires all within a relatively short time from one another. Almost like something was deliberately being done

[@OldTorontoSeries]

Was a combination of materials used in buildings during the era and a lack of modern firefighting/access to water to put out the flames. You're right though - every city has a "Great Fire"

[@romeomontague2309]

Get rid of the tartarian buildings 🤔

[@carterfifteen]

@@romeomontague2309 I think that's a very reasonable hypothesis

[@2Sugarbears]

My sentiments exactly. Who had ever heard of Tartaria in those days?

[@JoeGrow-pj3nr]

Every city had a great fire in the 1900’s

[@2Sugarbears]

Getting rid of the "old" cities.

[@MrMACHINE]

Thanks for sharing this footage. Incredible that CCM is still around. Live streaming v.1 lol

[@randomrazr]

"a more civilized time" - obi wan kenobi

[@waynemclaughlin96]

Wow! 😮 it's like watching an old disaster silent movie 🎬 in modern times.120 years ago. I wonder if Mary Pickford, the Toronto actress, was still living in Toronto at the time of 1904 ? She would have been 12 years old at the time in 1904 as she was born on April 8 1892. According to this footage archive the great Toronto fire 🔥 happened on April 19 1904. It was said the house that Mary and her family lived in was on University Ave where the present-day hospital of Sick Children now stands.

[@TheDanAge]

Does anyone know how The East and West Mall got their names?

[@VC-mo5yg]

Truly amazing, how fabulous, and how my blessed and beautiful Toronto has grown. 🥰

[@EyesonEnforcement911]

Toronto has definetly not grown into anything beautiful at all unfortunately.

[@greatunz67]

Beautiful? it's turned into condo city these days, and a crime cesspool with daily shootings, non stop condo's, no affordable housing, one of the worst traffic grids in North America. Toronto peaked in the mid 70's and since the 90's it's been steadily going downhill.

[@greatunz67]

@@EyesonEnforcement911 He or she has obviously never heard the Joni Mitchell line 'they paved paradise and put up a parking lot' or 'condo' in our case..

[@tukaibaba5606]

It's grown ugly and dirty under a blackface JT. It's no longer a beautiful city.

[@neiladlington950]

LOL, beautiful? There is a reason why Hollywood loves to use Toronto in place of American cities and it isn't because it is beautiful. It is because it is generic. I live in Toronto and have seen its evolution since the early sixties.

[@elias7748]

Why are there car sounds in the background lol??

[@mdrejhon]

The Province of Ontario needs to watch this video. It's a surprising amount of bicycles.

[@WillmobilePlus]

I guess the budget went into the audio equipment?

[@rps1689]

Bloody hell! The scenes remind me of Murdoch Mysteries.

[@argopunk]

Wow! NIce. Thanks. My people had been in TO for about 65 years at that point. They witnessed the great fire disaster and I'm witnessing the junkie, camping, begging infested Chairman Chow-run Toronto.

[@monicapushkin3274]

Impressive electric system at the time (all those wires). Would that be AC or DC at that time?

[@LifeofWalk]

This is amazing! I recognize everthing today! Old City Hall, I walk by it all the time!

[@vancouverapartmentowner9476]

At around 3 minutes - my old workplace, Old City Hall, then in the video (1904) City Hall. Escaped the fire.

[@jeffreyadams648]

And now it is a small version of the USSR.

[@justhonest8590]

Footage of fire response was filmed at some other date. It was dark when the fire broke out.

[@wellingtonsanissimo8703]

Pretty sure there was a lot of footage taken of Toronto before this, it was just lost or destroyed over time.

[@doreendaykin6693]

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing!

[@sandra4395]

The Great Fire of 1904. It destroyed much of Bay Street, but if you go there today, you will notice the facades of the buildings that they kept when rebuilding. So interesting.

[@ORGANIZEDCoNfUsioN]

Never seen that before. SUPER COOL, thanks. Like # 127!!!!

[@kknig7874]

My grandfather was 8 then, I bet we saw him riding the bike in the background.

[@dougmiles7124]

The sound is almost convincing. It's missing people talking and there's no shouting etc., as would be expected near the fire.

[@RatKindler]

Where is that pic shot at 2:58?

[@antoniosoul]

It's looking up Bay Street towards Old City Hall, from approximately King Street I'm guessing.

[@10percent4DaBigGuy]

Back when men where men! i wish i was my current age living in 1904 right now as we speak

[@Denada1350]

that's a privilege we don't all have.

[@sweiland75]

So you could legally beat women without criminal responsibility?

[@samuellavoie56]

@@sweiland75 women where nice and plesant in those days and they listen and did what they where told, because they where beaten, unicorn world doesn't exist sorry, today this society is all mess up and falling appart, back then it was kept togheder, don't give people to much freedom and power especially women, they must be kept on a leach in the house

[@laszlozoltan5021]

when where you were was not their's there then or theirs ?

[@heiliger_sturm]

@@sweiland75lol sod off with the feminist propaganda.

[@mas2913]

Amazing footage of Toronto

[@entertain402]

my great grandfather (maternal) was born 1860 in ireland, but was found in the 1881 Toronto census living in Cabbagetown with his father and 3 siblings; mother was deceased; he died in 1906 of stomach cancer i suppose as a consequence of the potato famine he must have experienced in Ireland...he is buried in Mount Hope Catholic cemetry which is a 12 min walk from where i presently live; i found his address on his burial card and noticed it was the same house he was in during the 1881 census, so as the youngest child i suppose he inherited the house at 172 berkeley st, which is 2km from the centre of the fire...; the house was knocked down to make way for some apartment buildings, but the rest some of the homes from that era still exist...they lived within walking distance of the first Catholic church in toronto St.Paul's Basilica, where my grandmother (his only daughter) met her future husband who had moved to Toronto from Pittsburgh; he was born in England but moved to the usa at age 13...

[@digitalstreetbeggar7351]

I honestly thought it was a time lapse when the fire was running its course and was boutta comment that they were ahead of their time… til I saw the building collapse and I rewinded lol.

[@AdidasGvng]

Any clips from 2004-2009

[@markhuk1323]

That's my Great Grandpa following on His cycle...Great footage. Where's W. Murdock when I need Him? Mimico. 416

[@vancouverapartmentowner9476]

He HATES Mimico. Those exurbs have strange people in them.

[@CustomMuscleCarAccessories]

The very first ever gasoline-free, eco-friendly mode transportation vehicles with horsepower 🐴🐎

[@profinished6044]

Awesome!

[@datturaokulkarni6604]

Thanks.

[@markrussell383]

Where do these videos come from?

[@robichj]

France

[@FaadumoArdo]

You mean tthis the first footage ever taken nothing before that?

[@Octasia1]

They decided it was in everybody’s best interest to show the fire and disaster for the first film of Toronto very interesting🤔

[@cathybober8774]

LOVED this.

[@BigShinyTubes]

Love seeing the CCM sign

[@botcrack]

huh....even in 1904, Toronto cyclists thought they could do whatever they want on the road

[@2Sugarbears]

Makes you wonder about who lit the fire.

[@michaels2480]

Wow, cool! Driving on the left!

[@vancouverapartmentowner9476]

Vancouver switched over before 1910 to the Right Side of the Force.

[@lamontcranston3177]

There was one death as a result of the fire but he died afterward. He was a man named John Croft and he was foreman of an explosives crew like the men you see in this film. A charge failed to explode. Rather than let any of his crew risk their lives he checked it himself.

[@dollybrooks3112]

How do stone and brick buildings even burn?

[@jdm1505]

They don't, but the interiors do.

[@withershin]

I love these old videos but so on camera day in 1904 there were just a bunch of well-dressed kids riding their bikes on Bay Street? Times have changed. Also is it like late November? That's sooo much clothes for Toronto weather. Don't research what the "Great Toronto Fire" area is today. Nothing to see there.

[@ltdasilva93]

To think everyone in this video is dead by now. What a world.

[@jamesgrant3578]

Where's all of the indigenous people? Or was this video meant to exclude them for future deception?

[@vancouverapartmentowner9476]

In their residential schools being murdered probably.

[@Overleb]

It is so crazy that all these people have lived all their life and died, without internet, wonder how they passed time, and some of them probably died during the world war.

[@annjones5201]

your comment speaks volumes. Best Wishes ❤

[@vancouverapartmentowner9476]

A LOT of the children in the video would have died in the Great War, yes.

[@ED80s]

I imagine they passed time listening to the radio, reading books, playing musical instruments, hobbies...meanwhile, I'm embarrassed to admit, I feel panic when the internet is down.

[@NoName-vx6up]

I just marvel that there was sound.

[@thegoldendog7991]

I’m guessing that the sound was added. Silent movies didn’t have sound incorporated into a recording.

[@NoName-vx6up]

Ahhh, good one. Didn't think of that.

[@Leslie-d3z]

wow, 120 years ago!

[@ReviewUSA-ri5dv]

People in horse and buggies built all those buildings and infrastructure...yeah.

[@brunettesweetie21]

Lol

[@Phoenixrising8313]

Hey

[@gulfy09]

Dinosaur's to 😂

[@medeirosrui1576]

There I was running towards the front lines from behind enemy lines

[@apex6186]

This video is definitely sus. How can they say that was a fire? Clearly there were explosions

[@DannyzReviews]

Right?! They look like they're just straight up demolishing buildings and there's a crowd watching. It all looks quite fishy.

[@jdm1505]

The first footage, at night, is the fire. The daytime footage is the demolition of the fire ruins, probably a few days or weeks later.

[@DutyFree-g9l]

Wow fires. With the wooden telephone poles intact. Unbelievable

[@somedude6683]

Why are these *_Torontonian_* men wearing the *_Picklehaube_* helmets from 19th century Germany and Prussia?

[@aldosigmann419]

Epic !

[@mellejobs7412]

The way the run towards the dust before the days of health standards and respirators. Those folks were all kinds of sick.

[@andymassingham]

Look up the Wikipedia entry. Had it not been for quick action, the fire would’ve spread north to Queen and continued further. Still, it did devastating damage south to the Esplanade (check out the map of the total area afflicted). If there’s any saving grace, it would be that it started after business hours (approximately 8:30pm on a Tuesday evening) likely saved hundreds of lives. It burned until the early morning hours but breakouts and heavy smoke continued for two weeks. Think about it; no notice and just hard, HARD work. The inflation counter doesn’t go back to 1904, but the $10,000,000 damage works out to $268,500,000 from 1914. This footage was among the first newsreels shown in nickelodeons and has likely only survived due it being copied so much and passed around. Pretty much just like the internet of today. Ironically a major fire in Montreal’s business district occurred on this very same day.

[@lauralauren6432]

Does brick, iron, glass and stone burn? Nope. This is the same narrative all over the world to hide OLD WORLD . San Francisco was also DEMOLISHED as the purpose of all wars. Today they called it "WILDFIRES" which dont burn trees, plastic and paper. Cal fires, Maui, Madeira, Australia, Greece, Alberta, :.......... Or they Open DAMS to flush towns to mudflows.

[@stewartgillis4851]

That's the 1906 Toronto fire !

[@OldTorontoSeries]

1904.

[@stewartgillis4851]

@@OldTorontoSeries Right I stand corrected. I should have known.My Great Grandfather was badly injured fighting the fire and was sent to London England for treatment.

[@OldTorontoSeries]

👍👍

[@Thorscauldron]

I don't think Toronto had water filtration & fluoridation until the 1920s. So it's possible some of those firefighters could of got typhoid from the water.

[@josecarranza7555]

Racists be like “wHeN cAnAdA wAs CaNaDa, BeFoRe BrOwN pEoPlE cAmE”

[@leeoliver424]

Like you?

[@vancouverapartmentowner9476]

Toronto's first hangman was a black ex-slave from Alabama. He enjoyed hanging racists of every nationality, especially Alabamans.

[@oliverlegarde8966]

😱😱😱

[@monicapushkin3274]

I guess all that debris ended up in the lake as landfill??

[@frankdiscussion2069]

Detective William Murdoch was there

[@Charles-t7z]

0:10 Canada Cycle and Motor on the building better known as CCM to boomers who bought that company's bicycles and hockey equipment.

[@jamesanthony5681]

As a kid growing up in the '60's, we decisively called CCM bicycles as Crummiest Crates Made.

[@Cal-TwentyNine]

"THE STREETS WERE MADE FOR CARS!"

[@marlonlo9661]

Good ole Muddy York. Hey, I think I saw Vito Corleone.

[@timc2346]

Wow that alot of bicycles.

[@ehrichan6726]

Mary Pickford was only 12 when this fire had happened.

[@subconsciouswave]

This city was burned down as were allot of major cities Chicago, New Orleans etc.. all similar time. Doesn’t seem like coincidence

[@OldTorontoSeries]

Note the use of wood and lack of fire codes.

[@subconsciouswave]

@@OldTorontoSeries actually lot of those old world buildings like the red brick buildings were lot more advanced in architecture than most steel box buildings today

[@Hamzakhan-dt3gv]

Interesting

[@briangraham1024]

CCM ... Hmmm ... I wonder how much a pair of tacks were back then? :-)

[@OldTorontoSeries]

Great skates.

[@coolbreezy2053]

Check out the CCM factory

[@MizMite2002]

Robert Simpson and Timothy Eaton building a city.

[@medeirosrui1576]

When queen st was a field of dreams

[@DokisKalin1]

disappointing this doesn't show any electric streetcars on Queen...

[@laki879]

in the city everything is electrified and Tesla creates alternating current 1900 years from where they get electricity

[@quanny4690]

if you showed a child from this era 6ixbuzz i think they would die

[@andygrenn680]

Early gridlock appears on four legs….

[@DucatiKozak]

Great video! The addition of that soundtrack is terrible, however.

[@slipperyjim1497]

conspiracy theory: the cameraman set the fire so he would have something spectacular to film. Case solved.

[@stewartgillis4851]

People died.Have some respect.Comment not clever anyway.

[@pathologicallyfriendly]

@@stewartgillis4851 It says at the end that there were zero deaths

[@amazingtoad7244]

It’s all fun’n games till you realize that th3 children you see here the the soldiers of World War One, and many of them wouldn’t make it to 25

[@vancouverapartmentowner9476]

Well our 6 year olds may be the soldiers of World War 3

[@Hashishin13]

@@vancouverapartmentowner9476 18*

[@vancouverapartmentowner9476]

@@Hashishin13 18? That would put WW3 in 2034. :)

[@Michaelmas68]

The earliest pictures is of them burning the city of the ground

[@K__R__K]

So back in the day horse carriages and bikers rode on the left side of the road. For the most part at least 😜

[@fabienlamour3644]

I have a 1904 Waterbury clock....still working....not those peoples....