Customers traveling on the TTC may notice special photo exhibits being installed in 12 select stations over the next week. The displays commemorate the transit agency’s 100th anniversary.
On September 1, 2021, the TTC will celebrate 100 years of moving Toronto. The photo exhibits are the first in a series of events being planned to mark this historic milestone and are being done in partnership with the City of Toronto Archives.
In a press release, Toronto Transit Commission said the exhibit will officially launch on July 2, 2021, and will include the in-station displays, as well as a virtual exhibit on the Archives website. Titled The TTC – 100 Years of Moving Toronto, the displays are a comprehensive collection of newly digitized photography showcasing the TTC’s journey over the past 100 years.
John Tory, Mayor of Toronto, points out that “this new photo exhibit is a great way for residents to experience the history of our transit system and how it has expanded and changed during the past century”.
TTC Chair Jaye Robinson, meanwhile, encourages Torontonians to take time to “to peruse the photo displays” as they travel through our TTC stations and explore the virtual exhibit on the Toronto Archives website.
Each display will highlight a different era in the TTC’s history:
• Don Mills Station: Sheppard Subway Construction
• Kennedy Station: Scarborough Rapid Transit
• Main Street Station: Streetcar Advertising Cards
• Bay Station: Station Concepts by Artist Sigmund Serafin
• Kipling Station: Women Guides on the TTC
• Finch Station: Moved by Electricity
• Queen Station: Streetcar Track Construction in the 1920s
• Union Station: Harbourfront and Spadina Light Rail Transit
• Dupont Station: Yonge Subway Construction by Artist John DeRinzy
• Spadina Station: Transit System Maps
• St Clair West Station: Transit Expansion Means Development
• Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station: Buses and Streetcars in the 1920s
The stations were chosen as they are high traffic stations and serve different areas in the city. The in-station displays will remain in place until July 2022.
Once it is considered safe to do so, the Archives will also be opening its TTC – 100 Years of Moving Toronto in-person exhibit at 255 Spadina Rd. That exhibit will be open until August 2022.
TTC also says that it will be holding a series of events leading up to its anniversary in September, and throughout 2022. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, events will initially be virtual, or ones that people can participate in while using transit.
Photo credit: TTC
