I’ve been sharing the Toronto Star’s vast collection of archives on social media for a year and a half — digging through the photos in our dusty darkroom began as a hobby and has grown into a full blown obsession. The Star’s archives date back 127 years — so why not share them?

For those of you who aren’t social media savvy, enjoy this smattering of days past for your Throwback Thursday.

These photos from the Bloor-Danforth subway line are from before it officially opened to the public. They were shot in advance as promotional material to be printed in the paper on opening day. Studio lights and ladders were set up at multiple stations and models populated the photos in their Sunday best. Ironically, photos of this nature often didn’t make the paper because bigger news took precedent.

With all this talk of Harry and Meghan moving to Canada I thought I’d share a lesser known former royal that called this country home. This is Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanov (yes, those Romanovs), sister of the last Tsar of Russia.

Olga spent her childhood in places like Peterhof Palace, often called the “Russian Versailles” for its opulence and grandeur. As a young adult, she lived in a four-storey, 200-room home with its own church and coach house, a gift from her brother, Tsar Nicholas II, after her 1901 marriage.

During the 1917 Russian Revolution, her incredibly wealthy and powerful family was overthrown and her brother’s family was murdered. This forced Olga, her husband and two sons to flee to Denmark and eventually to the GTA. After living on a farm in the Halton Hills, she relocated to a five-room house at 2130 Camilla Rd. in what was then Cooksville. She stayed there until 1960 when she moved to a modest apartment above a barbershop at 716 Gerrard St. E., where she eventually died.

“She chose to live simply,” said Olga Cordeiro, the Grand Duchess’s granddaughter, who now lives in Hamilton. “(In Canada) people would call her Grand Duchess or Your Highness, things like that, and she would say, ‘Just call me Olga.’ That was her tag line.” Read more from Katrina Clarke’s 2014 story.

Here’s Samuel L. Jackson repping the Toronto Raptors at a game back in 1996.

The Ford Hotel stood on the northeast corner of Bay and Dundas. Affectionately referred to as, “Queen of the Dumps,” it was demolished shortly after these photos were taken in 1973. It had a reputation for being a criminal hotspot and the Star described it as, “the rendezvous of choice for couples pursuing an illicit affair.”

In its final years, there were multiple fires and suspicious deaths at the hotel, including Mohammad Ashraf, a 34-year-old Pakistani engineer who had just arrived in Canada. He checked into his 12th-floor room then decided to go downstairs. He entered the elevator doors, fell down 12 storeys inside the shaft and crashed through the elevator at the bottom. In this case, tearing down the old to make room for the new may have been for the best.

Here’s what traffic looked like on the Gardiner Expressway in 1965.

For my fellow millennials, here’s Sum 41 reshooting their music video “Makes No Difference” on Queen Street West 20 years ago. It was featured on the front of the Star’s Entertainment & Life section with the headline, “Boys will be boys.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

In a particularly charming episode of MTV Cribs, drummer Steve “Stevo” Jocz, points out the page framed on the wall of his parents’ Ajax home.

Back in 1967, Star photographer Boris Spremo stood on the steps of the Old City Hall and snapped this photograph of the south-west corner of Bay and Queen St., then dominated by the City Hall Branch of TD Bank. The Temple Building can be seen in the background. Here’s the view from the same spot more than 50 years later.

Henry Moore's "The Archer,” has stood outside City Hall since 1966. The piece began as part of then mayor Philip Givens’ dream of turning Toronto into a showplace for culture and fine art. He predicted it would be a tourist magnet. And he was ready to stake his political career on it.

“This is what I want for my city — exciting, pulsating dynamism,” Givens extolled. “And yes, ladies and gentlemen, it’s going to cost you money.”

One supporter, Alderman Horace Brown, put Henry Moore on a pedestal as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo. But it didn’t help the cause that Moore’s work was often controversial, with Prince Philip likening one of his creations to a monkey’s gallstone.

When the sculpture was revealed to the public, “Three-Way Piece No. 2” was the city’s No. 1 conversation piece. Many observers were enthusiastic about the “bronze and big and brooding” form — as the Star described it — mounted on an elliptical concrete base.

Others weren’t so sure. “I can’t make heads or tails of it,” said puzzled tourist Cal Hollis of Bermuda, pronouncing it “horrid.” Few were indifferent as they described it as looking like “nothing on earth” and “something doctors usually study.” One youngster labelled it a “sick mushroom.” Read more about the controversial statue here.

And last but not least, here’s a nice photo of a young woman enjoying a rainy day skate on Yonge Street in 1986.

If you liked this you can see more from the Star archives at instagram.com/torontostarchives or facebook.com/TorontoStarArchives