THE WAY WE WERE: Some like it hot. We sure do when its freezing out.

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You can almost feel the warmth just looking at this postcard view of our city’s skyline taken from Toronto Island. Though not dated, this image published by John Hinde Studios located in Dublin, Ireland, captures Toronto’s skyline after Commerce Court was completed in 1972 and before First Canadian Place at the northwest corner of Bay and King Sts. appeared in 1975. In the shadow of Commerce Court is the iconic 1931 Bank of Commerce Building, now identified as Commerce Court North and at its opening was the tallest building in the British Commonwealth. Across the King and Bay Sts. intersection are two of the original towers of the Toronto-Dominion Centre complex that now features six buildings. Visible in this view are the first of these towers, the 56-storey TD Bank Tower (1967) and the adjacent 46-storey TD North Tower (known as the Royal Trust Tower when this view was taken) that opened two years later. Also visible is the soot-stained Royal York Hotel (1927) and on the water’s edge the 1926 Terminal Warehouse, now nicely cleaned up and re-purposed (1983) as Queen's Quay Terminal. To the extreme right of the view is the 1971 Toronto Star building at the foot of Yonge St.

As I sit here in my home office diligently searching for a subject for this week’s column, the local radio weather prognosticator is warning listeners that new record-low temperatures are possible over the weekend.

Thank you Mr. Weatherman, you’ve just given me the topic for my column — a tour of our city on a warm, no, let’s make it a HOT summer day, in years gone by.

And we’ll take that tour by looking at a few of the colour postcards in my collection. The first two are not that old, but because the city has changed so much — even over a few intervening years — these cards can be described as “collectibles.”

Readers can find a few more views of a warm Toronto by visiting this website: torontosun.com/author/mike-filey.

mfiley@postmedia.com

It’s short sleeve weather on the busy stretch of Yonge St., north of Dundas St., in this undated postcard view captured by photographer Ray Stringer. While the actual year Ray took this photo is unknown, several landmark features help give us a timeframe. A&A Records at 351 Yonge St. went bankrupt in 1993 and (Basil) Steele’s Tavern next door to the south (a favorite venue for Gordon Lightfoot) closed in 1974. And note that the Sam the Record Man’s store at 349 Yonge St. has yet to feature any revolving records. The first one appeared in 1970 and a second in the mid-1980s. And the CIBC branch (where I obtained a student loan in the early 1960s and one that I definitely paid back) is at the Yonge and Gould Sts. corner. Down the street, the Edison Hotel at the southeast corner of Yonge and Gould Sts. was demolished in 2011. That little green car is a Datsun (I think), a marque first imported into Canada in 1965 and quite rare when this photo was taken.

Hard at work in the Valley of the Don River, Owen Staples (1866–1949), talented artist and busy reporter for the old Toronto Evening Telegram, enjoys the warm summer breezes as he paints one of his many creations. He’s featured in this postcard dated July 15, 1910. One of Staples’ paintings can be seen behind Mayor Tory’s desk in his City Hall office. It is a bird’s eye view of Toronto in 1854.

Swimming in Dr. McCormick’s Mineral Baths (aka “The Minnies”) at 2000 Bloor St. W. (located adjacent to the High Park Sanitarium that’s still standing on 32 Gothic Ave.) was one way to cool off in the hot summer months beginning in 1913. The Baths were filled in when plans were being drawn up for the routing of the new Bloor-Danforth subway (Line 2) that opened in 1966 (City of Toronto Archives collection)

Starting in 1971, thousands visited Ontario Place in its original configuration where the cool breezes off Lake Ontario made frequent heat waves tolerable. The attraction was closed in 2012 prior to undergoing significant redevelopment.