This photo for this postcard was taken from the roof of the Tavistock Mill, before 1907. The large building on the left is the Commercial Hotel.
This is an "Undivided Back" Frame postcard so any message had to be written on the front.
Up until 1897, only the Post Office could print postcards. This monopoly was held in Canada until December 1897 when private publishers and printers were also given the right to produce them. Just like the Postal Stationary Card, however, the back of the card was reserved for the address only--messages had to be written on the front side. Thus began a new era in the history of the postcard, the Undivided Back/ Private Mailing Card Period 1898-1903.
Before 1898, postcards had been used only for business purposes or as souvenirs for tourists. Beginning in 1898, the new postcards had a space around the picture on the front side of the card where a message could be written; the back side was reserved as before for only the address and the postage. The price to mail these "Undivided Back" Postcards remained at one cent. If you have a postcard like this, it was probably produced between 1898 and 1903 in the Undivided Back Period. (This one was mailed in 1907.)
This postcard is printed as a "half-tone". To make early postcards look more appealing, publishers thought of different ways to print and present them. Some of the most popular early postcard types in Canada were “frame view” cards. These were cards whose “frames” really were frames (pretend ones, at least). Here there is a black frame put around the image and the image is tinted blue.