herr2ck: Culture of the Muscles

August 2025.

The Stewart Building was formerly the Toronto Athletic Club and designed by Edward J. Lennox, architect of other prominent Richardsonian Romanesque buildings such as Toronto City Hall and an addition to the Ontario Legislative Building. A heritage building today, it has had several changes in use over its lifetime.

The Stewart Building is located at 149 College Street in the University District neighborhood of Toronto, Ontario. It is bordered by College Street and the FitzGerald Building to the north, the Orde Street Public School to the south, 700 University Avenue to the east, and the Health Sciences Building to the west.

History

The Stewart Building as the Toronto Technical School. (Jamie Bradburn)

The Stewart Building was commissioned by John Beverly Robinson, who was Toronto’s mayor and lieutenant governor of Ontario, along with being president of the Toronto Athletic Club. It was located on the site of a former home of his. The building was designed by Edward J. Lennox in the Richardsonian Romanesque style and completed in 1894. It originally had a basement pool, which was filled in by the 1910s. One source writes that Robinson died only two years after his building was completed.

The Toronto Athletic Club became defunct in 1899 due to financial issues, and their building was foreclosed. The city of Toronto purchased it and commissioned architect A. F. Wickson to remodel the interior for use by the Toronto Technical School, which was completed in 1900. The school moved out in 1930, and the old Toronto Athletic Club building was renovated again for government offices by architect J. J. Woolnough. It was renamed to the Stewart Building after mayor William James Stewart around this time.

The Stewart Building was designated a heritage building in 1978, and a year later it was used by the Ontario College of Art. After a brief period of usage by College des Grands-Lacs, it has been owned by the University of Toronto since 2008. Recent plans indicate a tower will be built adjacent to the Stewart Building, which will maintain its historic characteristics.

Photos

Although not quite as spectacular as Lennox’s other works and largely buff brick instead of fanciful masonry, the Stewart Building is still a solid example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. It has the common picturesque aspects of the style, such as towers and varying fenestration:

North facade:

The entrance has a double portal, which is unusual, and a small loggia sits above. Applied ornamentation is pretty spare, mainly confined to the panels above the arches and the column capitals.

Yummy arches:

Second-floor loggia and third-floor arcade of windows:

Even though much of the walls are brick, there is a nice sense of texture due to the various features made through recessing/projecting some of the bricks. I like the mock hood molds on the third floor.

Tall twinned dormers, reinforcing the duality established by the double entrance: