In 2018, nearly two-thirds of our city’s population lives (and oftentimes works) in the vast regions surrounding inner-city TORONTO. With amalgamation in 1998, the entire conurbation was joined together, creating one giant agglomeration for better or for worse.  The jury’s still out.

MANDA VRANIC <photo by Metroland> combed the archives and came up with a new exhibition of 133 photos from the 1940’s to the ’80‘s. ‘Wide Open World: A Celebration of the Suburbs in TORONTO‘ is free to the public until April 28/2018.  “I chose pictures that spoke to me. What I was really interested in were people in the suburbs,” she says. “Things like community events, sports, kids taking ballet lessons, people getting together and living life.”

<ABOVE – (not in the exhibit) Highway 401, looking west from Keele Street. All that empty land in 1958 is now well and truly filled up. Chuckman’s Photos on WordPress.>

<ABOVE – A kiosk at Yorkdale Shopping Centre, 1960’s>

<ABOVE – a man at home by the fireplace in Scarborough is actually an ad for a manufacturer of radiant heating tubes. “The fireplace, the TV, the couches—everything about the interior design here is really lovely,” says Ms. Vranic; photo by Gilbert Milne.>

<ABOVE – Roman Sedzicki & Helen Mochowski, immigrants to Canada, were building their own house in the suburbs, date unknown.>

<ABOVE – North York hockey rink, 1960’s>

<ABOVE – This shot of runner and mascots was taken during the opening of Mel Lastman Square in North York in June, 1989. “There is something universal that we can all relate to about sad-looking mascots standing in the rain, you know?”>

<ABOVE – Six Points Plaza, where Dundas, Bloor & Kipling intersect, 1957. This strip mall still stands. Says Ms.Vranic: “I love these girls. It’s so evocative of 1950s lifestyle in the suburbs, when these strip malls were all the rage.”>

<ABOVE – (not in the exhibit) – Elmhurst Drive, Kipling Heights, Rexdale, circa 1960’s>

City of TORONTO Archives, 255 Spadina Road, Monday to Friday 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. & Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  For more information go to http://bit.ly/2gySlI3