Toronto Trip, pt. 6 - Miscellaneous

August 2025.

Back to part 5 

 

My final Toronto post will cover some miscellaneous places that didn’t have a neat spot in my other articles.

Toronto Skyline

I got these rather hazy photos of the skyline from a visit to the Toronto islands:


Gooderham Building [missed]

My number one destination in Toronto was the Romanesque Revival Gooderham Building. However, it was completely obscured by black netting due to renovations when I was there, to my frustration. I’ll just write about its history anyways, despite lacking photos.


The Coffin Block in 1888. (Heritage Toronto)


The site that the Gooderham Building occupies was formerly occupied by the Coffin Block, Toronto’s first flatiron building, which was built circa 1830 in the Georgian style. In 1845, it became an annex of the Wellington Hotel on Church Street.


1895 view of the building. (Wikimedia)


The Gooderham Building was designed by David Roberts Jr. for George Gooderham, who owned Toronto’s Gooderham and Worts Distillery (now the Distillery District). Upon completion in 1892, the building sported 12-foot ceilings, brass finishes, and the first manual Otis elevator in Toronto. It cost $18,000 and was the most expensive office building in Toronto at the time.


1977 photo of the exterior. (Canada Historic Places)


It served as the distillery’s headquarters until 1952 and was sold in 1957. In 1975, the building was saved from demolition and partially restored, and it was designated a heritage building that year. Further restorations occurred in 1998.

Wood Gundy Building

Historic photo of the facade. (ACO Toronto)


This Beaux-Arts heritage building has been reduced to a standing facade that is part of Scotia Plaza. It was built in 1898 as the John McKay (or Kay, my sources conflict) Store to replace an earlier headquarters building and designed by Samuel G. Curry. John McKay/Kay merged with W. A. Murray and Company in 1910, and it was later sold in 1923. The company moved to 462 Yonge Street around this time, and the building was then occupied by Wood Gundy Company, a financial firm that handled government bonds. 



I like the elaborate pilasters, windows, and cornice.


Dominion Public Building

1872 engraving of the Italianate buildings on the site. (Wikimedia)


The site of the massive Dominion Public Building was occupied by warehouse-stores, which were destroyed in the Great Toronto Fire in 1904. With the demolition of the seventh custom house dating to 1876, construction on the Dominion Public Building began in 1926. It was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Thomas W. Fuller and James Henry Craig. The eastern section was completed in 1932, and the western end was finished in 1936.


1935 postcard of the building. (City of Toronto)


After its usage as a customs house ceased, the building was used for government offices. With the sale of the building in 2017, it is being converted to retail use as part of the CIBC Square development.



The building curves in plan with Front Street, kind of like the Neoclassical “circus” buildings in London. It has a simple classical expression with a repetitive facade, only interrupted by the large central portico.


One of the CIBC Square buildings rises behind:



Portico detail:



It is a pretty simple Ionic design lacking a pediment, only a denticulated cornice.


These vaulted entrances are pretty cool:


The Well


I got this random shot of this contemporary building, which has some interesting High Tech influences such as the stair tower and exposed trusses.


That’ll finally do it for Toronto. Thanks for reading!


Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffin_Block_Building

https://aviewoncities.com/toronto/flatiron-building

https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=8311

https://www.heritagetoronto.org/explore/building-toronto-map/building-toronto-gooderham-building/

https://www.acotoronto.ca/building.php?ID=3409

https://tayloronhistory.com/2014/07/01/john-kay-wood-gundy-building-toronto11-adelaide-st-w/

https://www.acotoronto.ca/building.php?ID=2307

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2016/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-86279.pdf

https://www.torontojourney416.com/dominion-public-building/

Toronto Trip, pt. 5 - King Street West

August 2025.

Continuing from my previous post on Yonge Street, we’ll jump back a bit to Yonge’s intersection with King Street. This’ll be brief, but it covers some pretty architecturally significant buildings.

One King West (Dominion Bank Building)

1879 Second Empire building that formerly stood on the site. (Wikimedia)


The Dominion Bank was chartered in 1869, and its first location opened on King Street in 1871. With the opening of its first branch a year later, it became the first Canadian bank to have two locations in one city. In 1879, the bank moved to the intersection of King Street and Yonge Street, its current location, into a Second Empire building designed by William Irving.


Historic photo of the existing building. (Wikimedia)


Dominion Bank continued to grow rapidly into the latter half of the 19th century, and in 1914 their second headquarters was completed. This 12-story skyscraper was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Darling and Pearson. They occupied the building until 1955, when they merged with the Bank of Toronto to form the Toronto-Dominion Bank. (Keep reading for the history after 1955…)


This building specifically would still house a branch of TD until 2000. It became part of the One King West residential skyscraper in 2005.



Pretty solid example of a Beaux-Arts skyscraper. The base is a dark gray ashlar with monumental vaulted windows and an entrance portico. The shaft is more subtly detailed with small pilasters and details in the spandrels. Corinthian pilasters and double-height arched windows crown the top.


North facade, with that signature three-part expression:



Detail of the entrance portico, which uses engaged Doric columns and a detailed entablature above:


Canadian Bank of Commerce Building

1895 view of the 1890 building formerly on the site. (Wikimedia)


The Canadian Bank of Commerce was founded in 1867 and originally headquartered at 59 Yonge Street. In 1890, the bank moved to its current site on King Street West into a Romanesque Revival building designed by Richard A. Waite. 


Historic photo of the current building. (TorontoJourney416)


As the bank continued to grow in the early 20th century, it commissioned a larger skyscraper designed by associated architects John Pearson (of Toronto firm Darling & Pearson) and New York firm York & Sawyer. This late Beaux-Arts design was completed in 1931 and became the tallest building in the British Empire at 34 stories.


The Canadian Bank of Commerce merged with the Imperial Bank of Canada in 1961 to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), but unlike Toronto Dominion, they still use their original building as headquarters. However, it is now part of a larger complex of International buildings completed in 1972 by Pei Cobb Freed.



I understand the exterior uses Romanesque Revival ornamentation and arches, but the building has a form more typical of Beaux-Arts architecture, and the interior (which I sadly missed) is a recreation of Roman baths. 


The massive vaulted portal on King Street:



The bands of ornament are Romanesque, along with the slender columns embedded into the wall. However, the tympanum sculpture is more classical in nature.



One of the smaller vaulted windows, which seems to have its original frosted glass intact:



I liked this streamlined portal on the west facade, a pretty unorthodox move:


Toronto Dominion Centre

The banking hall under construction in 1967. (Toronto Society of Architects)


Remember how I left off halfway through the Dominion Bank Building’s history? Well, here’s where it resumes. The merger of Bank of Toronto and Dominion Bank was completed in 1962, and the bank planned to build a new headquarters building to reflect its influence. Their first choice was Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, who proposed a design with the structure exposed to the elements. The bank asked Bunshaft to reconsider, but he resigned in protest. Local architect John Parkin, who would have worked with Bunshaft, then submitted a proposal for a 100-story tower with a plaza that had a sunken courtyard and banking hall. At this point, one of the advisors suggested Mies van der Rohe, who instantly disliked Parkin’s plan. Mies was technically a consultant on the project, but he was essentially the primary designer, as it is identical to Mies’s other International-style skyscrapers.


1966 view of Bay Street. All of these buildings have been demolished except the Toronto Stock Exchange, the light gray building. (Wikimedia)


The site consists of an entire city block bordered by King Street to the north, Wellington Street to the south, Bay Street to the east, and York Street to the west. Numerous Gilded Age buildings, such as the Rossin House and Bank of Toronto’s old headquarters, were demolished for the project. Despite preservationists’ protests to save these buildings, the developers argued they would not fit in stylistically with the modern complex. Construction began in 1964 and the first completed building was the TD Bank Tower in 1967, which became the tallest building in Canada at 731 feet tall. The banking pavilion and TD North Tower were completed in 1968 and 1969. The Toronto Dominion Centre would be Mies’s last major commission before his death.


The complex was expanded after Mies’s involvement ended. The first new building outside the original three was the TD West Tower on the southwest corner of the site, completed in 1974, and the TD South Tower across Wellington Street was built in 1985. The final Miesian building on the site was 222 Bay Street, which was built around the Toronto Stock Exchange Building and completed in 1992. These were all designed by Bregman + Hamann Architects, who had worked with Mies on the original buildings.


A famous anecdote in the Toronto Dominion Centre’s history is the death of Garry Hoy. Hoy was a lawyer working on the 24th floor of the TD Bank Tower. In front of a group of visiting students, he ran into the glass window in his office to prove that it was unbreakable, a feat he had performed several times before without issue. However, this time the entire window and frame came loose from the building, and Hoy fell to his death.


The Toronto Dominion Centre was designated a heritage building in 2003, and it has since been recognized as a landmark by several other institutions.



I wish I had done these towers a little more justice. Mies is one of the best Modern architects and considered every single detail about his buildings. They characterize common ideals of both his work and Modernism as a whole--monumentality, structural honesty, massing and repetition favored over applied ornamentation, and urban plazas instead of densely packed buildings. I don't necessarily agree with these design choices or think they belong in the urban landscape, but they’re still important to architectural history.


TD North Tower:



These are the ubiquitous black boxes that Mies designed at the end of his career. At the time these buildings were completed, they dominated the skyline and were considered to be very innovative.


One-story, double-height banking hall:



It’s interesting that this is its own module instead of part of a larger building, like a Beaux-Arts banking hall would be. It does look cool, but it seems logistically difficult.


A Miesian building would never incorporate a historic building into itself. There is something almost perverse about this design in the eyes of orthodox Modernism.



Maybe Mies did have a point…these buildings look awfully weird when they warp around another designed in a completely different language and scale.


My last Toronto post will cover some miscellaneous places that didn’t fit neatly in earlier posts.


Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Bank

https://readtheplaque.com/plaque/the-dominion-bank-building-1914#gsc.tab=0

https://www.torontojourney416.com/canadian-bank-of-commerce-building/

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=217198

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Bank_of_Commerce

https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/pages/programs/provincial-plaque-program/provincial-plaque-background-papers/toronto-dominion-centre

https://torontosocietyofarchitects.ca/buildings/toronto-dominion-centre/

https://www.heritagetoronto.org/explore/td-centre-54th-floor/

Toronto Trip, pt. 4 - Yonge Street

August 2025.

Back to part 3


Yonge Street in Toronto is pretty common herr2ck fare--historic commercial buildings in an urban area. Toronto’s numerous urban renewal initiatives make these kinds of streets rather uncommon, compared to Montreal, which simply expanded its downtown to a formerly residential area and retained its historic “Old Montreal”. We’ll start at Yonge Street’s intersection with Shuter Street and proceed southward from there.

Ryrie Building

The corner of Yonge Street and Shuter Street, showing the 1891 building and 1899 portion before the two were combined. (Lost Toronto)


Toronto is 8 hours from Chicago, but the latter’s influence on early skyscrapers was felt across America. My sources are inconsistent and rather unclear about how exactly the building came about. My understanding is that the earliest portion of the Ryrie Building dates to 1891 and appeared to be a simple Italianate or Commercial style design. The first phase of the existing building was completed in 1899, consisting of the northern four bays. It is an earlier example of Beaux-Arts architecture with Chicago School characteristics and was designed by either Langley & Burke or Horwood & Burke. The fifth floor is an addition dating to 1914 by Horwood & White, and the building was also extended to the corner of Yonge and Shuter, incorporating the 1891 building into its structure.


Historic photo of the completed building. (ERA Architects)


The Ryrie Building was built for Ryrie Brothers Jewelers, which was the largest jeweler in Toronto by 1900. They were eventually acquired by Henry Birks & Sons. The most notable tenant of the Ryrie Building was the Silver Rail Restaurant, which opened in 1947. It was known for its 110-foot long bar clad in chrome and neon lights, and the silver banister on the stairs that connected it to the basement, where the restaurant got its name.


Snazzy mid-century storefront of the Silver Rail restaurant. (Ontario Archives)


By the 1950s, the building’s cornice was removed, and the base was re-clad in shiny terra-cotta or tile. It was restored by ERA Architects between 1997 and 2005, which removed the altered storefront but did not recreate the cornice. The Silver Rail closed in 1998, and the commercial base has had various tenants since.



I wish I had spent a little more time on this one, as the vaulted windows and pilasters are pretty interesting.

Former Bank of Toronto Branch

A partial elevation of the building drawn by Lennox. (Wikimedia)


I really love this tiny Beaux-Arts bank. It was designed by prominent Toronto architect Edward J. Lennox as a branch of the Bank of Toronto and completed in 1905. Despite its tiny, square plan, the building is very vertical and lavishly decorated with Corinthian columns and patterns.



The bank eventually closed, and in 1975 it was listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places. By that time, the tenant was the Toronto Historical Board, which eventually became Heritage Toronto and moved out in 1998. It was being renovated in the late 2010s, and it is currently occupied by a wealth management company.


Detail of the elaborate cornice and pediment:



Entrance portal:



The contemporary building next door (Massey Tower) is set back from the sidewalk, making the very shallow plan visible. Also note the small dome on top, possibly marking influence from the Pantheon.


Massey Tower (Former Canadian Bank of Commerce Branch)


Massey Tower is a 62-story residential skyscraper that was completed in 2019 by Hariri Pontaniri Architects. Its base incorporates a 1905 Canadian Bank of Commerce branch designed by Darling & Pearson. The bank itself was listed as a heritage property by the city of Toronto in 1974, and the branch closed in 1987. The building was sooty and in poor repair by the 2010s, but it was restored and gutted for use by the Massey Tower project.



Simpler than its neighbor of the same vintage, the facade is also a temple-front, though this one uses the Ionic order and two large pilasters at the corners. Two large shields at either end bear the bank’s year of establishment and this building’s construction.


Detail of the pediment and entablature:


Heintzman Building (J. F. Brown Furniture Building)


A Chicago School design, as indicated by its expression and three-part windows, this one was built in 1903 by Henry Simpson. In 1910, it was altered for T. Heintzman Co., a piano company, earning it a new name. The company used it as a showroom and rented out the office space above. Its base has been altered, and the windows are modern replacements. Heintzman moved out in 1971.

Elgin & Winter Garden Theatres

Historic photo of the theater, looking north on Yonge Street. See if you can spot some buildings I took photos of earlier. (Ontario Heritage Trust)


This theater complex’s Yonge Street facade is deceptively small, and it actually has quite the history. Unfortunately, I only took one picture. The Elgin & Winter Garden Theatres are the only surviving “stacked theaters” in the entire world, a method of confining two separate theaters in one building. The Renaissance Revival building dates to 1913 and was designed by noted theater architect Thomas W. Lamb.


Left: The Elgin Theatre. Right: The Winter Garden Theatre. (Wikimedia)


The theater was built for Loew’s Theatres and intended to show both late vaudeville shows and early silent movies. The theater closest to the ground floor (the Elgin today) was known as Loew’s Yonge Street Theatre upon completion, and despite its pretty fanciful Renaissance Revival interior, it was intended for lower and middle-class patrons. The upper theater was themed to appear as a garden during sunset, complete with faux trees, painted decor, and hanging lanterns. Its seats could be reserved by upper-class theater attendees.


In 1928, the Elgin Theatre was converted to play “talkies” (early sound films), and the Winter Garden Theatre was closed. It sat untouched for decades, allowing the preservation of the leftover vaudeville set decorations. Loews continued to operate the theater until 1969, when it was sold to Famous Players. As was pretty common for the lavish movie palaces of the early 20th century, the owners resorted to showing B-movies and adult films in order to stay in business. 


The Ontario Heritage Foundation purchased the theater in 1981, though it closed later that year. In 1982, it was listed as a National Historic Site of Canada. The theater’s preservation was ensured through a highly attended showing of Cats from 1985-1987, and it was restored between 1987 and 1989. The twin theaters remain in use today.


2 Queen Street East


The 2 Queen Street East skyscraper incorporates this Beaux-Arts BMO branch from 1910 in its base. It’s less temple-front-y and has a more rectangular expression, only suggesting columns and not overtly placing them.


Hudson’s Bay Building

1891 photo of the original Simpson’s store. (Wikimedia)


You might have noticed that until now, I focused on the east side of Yonge Street. Today, the west side of Yonge Street between Dundas Street and Queen Street is entirely consumed by the massive Postmodern Eaton Centre, which replaced Simpson’s/Hudson’s Bay’s competitor, the Eaton’s department store (of course back then it was a complex of individual buildings). However, the Hudson’s Bay Building survives and hearkens back to this area’s original look.


Early photo of the building’s original appearance. Love the Chicago Temple-esque building next door with a spire slammed on top. (Wikimedia)


The building’s history can be traced to 1872, when Robert Simpson founded a dry goods store in Toronto after a previous store in Newmarket burnt down. By the 1890s, Simpson’s store had grown such that he commissioned a larger one, which burned in 1895 just three months after it opened. Simpson commissioned Burke & Horwood to redesign a fireproof store building, which was ultimately completed in a union of Chicago School forms and structural expression with Renaissance Revival ornamentation. This building stands today and was completed in 1896.


c. 1908 postcard of the building after its first addition in 1907.


As is pretty common for major department stores in large cities, the building was expanded many times as Simpson’s grew. The first addition occurred in 1907, when two similarly designed wings were added to the west and south faces of the original building. A second addition was completed in 1923, ostensibly the two bays between the 1907 addition and 1929 addition that faces Bay Street. Both of these additions were designed by Burke & Horwood as well.


Toronto Symphony Orchestra inside Arcadian Court in 1929. (City of Toronto Archives)


In 1929, a nine-story Stripped Classical addition designed by Chapman & Oxley was added to the Bay Street end of the building, expanding it to span two city blocks. It includes the Art Deco-styled Arcadian Court inside. In 1969, the Simpson Tower was completed on the northwest corner of the site, which was a Brutalist design by John B. Parkin. (It has since been reclad with a contemporary skin.)


Hudson’s Bay purchased Simpson’s in 1978, but allowed the stores to operate under their original name until the 1990s. In this building’s case, it became The Bay in 1991. It essentially operated as it had before until 2016, when the interior was subdivided to incorporate a Saks Fifth Avenue (which Hudson’s Bay had also acquired). As was the case with the Bay Building in Montreal, this building also closed in 2025 due to the bankruptcy of Hudson’s Bay. 



Oh yeah…this is a classic Chicago School department store, not unlike Marshall Field’s in Chicago. Short, wide Renaissance-y block with highly regular fenestration. I wanted to cover the north side, but this massive steel implement was in my way:



The corner pilaster has an elaborately carved pilaster with the street name and “RS” for Robert Simpson:



One of the lavishly decorated vaulted windows, which date to the 1900 addition:



Loving all the different ornamental borders and the texture they achieve.


Detail of the very regular, rectangular windows:


Confederation Life Building

1892 photo of the Confederation Life Building with original base. (Archives of Ontario)


This fanciful Romanesque Revival building was built for the Confederation Life Insurance Company, which was founded in 1871. In 1889, they held an architectural competition, and the firm Knox, Elliot, & Jarvis was selected. Its construction began a year later. Upon completion in 1893, it was the tallest building in Toronto. As it was designed, the Confederation Life Building included a 214-foot tower (now truncated), rounded corner turrets, and pinnacles on the gables. The interior featured fanciful finishes such as marble, mosaic tile, and white oak. Modern amenities such as electricity, elevators, and large windows served the workers inside. The top floor also included an assembly hall, dining room, and lounge.


In 1899, early alterations removed parts of the stone base and vaulting in favor of ground-floor storefronts with carved stone borders. These were designed by James Wilson Gray. The ornamentation is intact today, but the windows have been replaced.


1950s photo of the building, after its alterations. (TorontoJourney416)


Confederation Life moved out in 1955, and the building was sold. The pinnacles and tower peaks were removed around this time. It was popular with lawyers and accountants. It was designated a heritage building in 1975. During a renovation in 1981, hot tar used on the roof started a fire that caused major damage. Engineers deemed the structure to be stable enough for repair, and it was then restored.



I kinda short circuited again trying to get wider photos of this one. I guess I need to practice my photos in more urban fabrics.


Yonge Street facade:



The pointed hood molds over the windows indicate Gothic Revival influence. I like the iron window framing too.


Detail of the copper roof:



Romanesque vault with iron bay window:



Truncated central tower on the Richmond Street facade:



This arch at the base is pointed:



However, this next one has a more typical Romanesque round vault and naturalistic ornament:



Note the dragons in the spandrels. Pretty cool.


Dineen Building

Historic photo of the Dineen Building. (Commercial Realty Group)


The Dineen Building is a Renaissance Revival office building that was originally built for W. & D. Dineen Co. Hats. It was completed in 1897 by architect Frederick Henry Herbert. The interior once featured aluminum plate ceilings and a Sprague automatic elevator, both firsts in Canada. In 1917, an electrical fire severely damaged the building, though it was repaired.


The Dineen Building in poor repair c. 2010s. (Commercial Realty Group)


The Dineen Building was listed as a heritage property in 1973. Over the years, the cornice was removed, and the storefronts were renovated, leading to it being in poor condition by the 2010s. In 2012, an extensive renovation restored the sooty exterior and recreated the lost cornice and storefronts, which also added the glassy volume on top.



It’s neat that the tenants are named after the original owners, and this building has been very excellently restored. If only other developers could follow this model.



To be fair, it helps that a lot of the details were left in situ and simply needed restoration.

Elgin Block

Historic photo of the original appearance of the Elgin Block. (Globe and Mail)


Although this building’s current form dates to 1910, it has essentially been mirrored across the midpoint of this block as part of the Bay Adelaide Center. The Elgin Block was built as an early Italianate design in 1850, ostensibly stretching from Temperance Street to Adelaide Street along Queen Street. In 1901, the building was altered for Ryrie Brothers and Matthew Sheard, and in 1910 it was modified again into the Commercial style for the department store Holt Renfrew, which operated there until the 1950s.


The Elgin Block after its Commercial style alterations. (ERA Architects)


By the 2010s, the Elgin Block was in shoddy repair. It was missing its cornice, needing to be cleaned, and its original storefronts had been lost. As part of the Bay Adelaide Center project, built between 2007 and 2022, the east and south facades were removed from the building, which was then demolished for the construction of the towers’ podium. They were then relocated to the northeast corner of the site, where the south facade then became the current north facade. Additionally, the storefronts and cornice were restored. 



Like me, you might have immediately noticed the three bays on the left that appear to have been painted an abysmal shade of beige. Interestingly, this was ERA Architects’ solution to needing larger floor plates than the original building had--it is actually a concrete cast of the facade, what the firm describes as a “ghost wall.” They disassembled the facade into pieces, which were used to make molds that ultimately formed the concrete.



ERA justifies this decision as “... not to fool the eye, but…to suggest the missing fabric of the Elgin Block, opening a conversation about our local history of urban development, and about the overall discourse of heritage interpretation.” Looking closer, I can see that it is actually concrete now and not some landlord-special “modernization.”


Upper Canada Bible Societies & Tract Building


This Second Empire building was constructed by Gordon & Helliwell in 1886. The original tenant published Bibles in different languages for incoming immigrants, and later occupants were clothing and drug stores. Its storefront has since been altered.

Robert Fairweather Building


A 1919 Beaux-Arts design by architect Charles S. Cobb, this one is very intact and appears to retain its original windows or careful reproductions.

Commercial Travellers Association Building


Though this building dates to 1847 (probably an Italianate originally), it has been modified multiple times in the late 19th century. It was designed by John G. Howard for A. V. Brown. Its facade was altered between 1872 and 1881 for Casimir Gzowski, and the Second Empire mansard roof dates to before 1890 and may have been added at the same time. In 1890, the building was modified further for the Commercial Travellers Association, granting its best-known name. As it stands today, it is a well-preserved Second Empire design with elaborate pilasters and keystones.

Bank of British North America


This Second Empire bank reminds me of the ones that dot Old Montreal. It was completed in 1873 using Ohio sandstone by architect Henry Langley, replacing an older building on the site used by the same bank. The building was renovated in 1903 by Burke & Horwood, who maintained many of the original features.


The Bank of British North America and Commercial Travellers Association Building are planned to be merged into a larger 62-story skyscraper.

Brookfield Place Historic Buildings

These next several buildings have been incorporated into the base of Brookfield Place. They aren’t heritage buildings, and I wasn’t really able to find much after a cursory Google search, so I’ll just dump them all unceremoniously here.


A quite modern-looking Beaux-Arts design on the corner, the only anachronistic details being the spandrels and pedimented windows:



Brick Beaux-Arts:



A more elaborate Italianate, with an arcade of windows on the top floor and segmentally-arched windows at the base:



A Second Empire design with vaulted windows, Corinthian pilasters, and a mansard roof:



1920s or 1930s Commercial design--one of the lintels reads “MERCANTILE BUILDING,” which brings up nothing.



Two halves of another Second Empire building:



Yeesh, that was a long one. The next post will be shorter and cleanse the palate a bit with some buildings on King Street.


Sources:

https://tayloronhistory.com/2013/07/05/torontos-architectural-gemsthe-ryrie-building-at-yonge-and-shuter-streets/

https://www.eraarch.ca/projects/ryrie-building/

https://losttoronto2.wordpress.com/category/ryrie-building/

https://www.acotoronto.ca/building.php?ID=2317

https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=8843

http://secure.toronto.ca/HeritagePreservation/details.do?folderRsn=2437134&propertyRsn=218253

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/massey-tower/17977

https://tayloronhistory.com/2013/07/15/torontos-architectural-gemsthe-heintzman-building-on-yonge-street/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin_and_Winter_Garden_Theatres

https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/ewg/ewg-home/learn/history

https://web.archive.org/web/20160304190639/http://www.torontohistory.org/Pages/Elgin_and_Winter_Garden_Theatres.html

https://jamiebradburnwriting.wordpress.com/2025/05/30/goodbye-queen-street-hudsons-bay/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons_(department_store)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson%27s_Bay_Queen_Street

https://storeys.com/hudson-bay-buildings-architectural-icons/

https://www.torontojourney416.com/confederation-life-building/

https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/en/oha/details?id=1561

https://commergroup.com/properties/140-yonge/

https://nationalpost.com/posted-toronto/rescuing-the-dineen-developer-brings-back-neglected-yonge-street-heritage-building

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/toronto/article-how-torontos-architectural-heritage-was-saved-the-jigsaw-way/

https://www.eraarch.ca/2014/ghost-wall-casting-a-heritage-facade-in-concrete/

https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/oha/details/file?id=3679

https://acotoronto.ca/building.php?ID=3022

https://www.torontojourney416.com/bank-of-british-north-america/

https://acotoronto.ca/building.php?ID=3020