herr2ck: Toronto Trip, pt. 1 - Distillery District

August 2025.

The Distillery District neighborhood of Toronto is an adaptive reuse project of the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery. It includes preserved historic industrial buildings mostly dating to 1860-1900. My coverage is pretty haphazard, but apparently it is the largest remaining complex of Victorian industrial architecture in North America.

The Distillery District is located east of downtown Toronto, Ontario. It is bordered by Mill Street to the north, the railroad tracks and Gardiner Expressway to the south, Cherry Street to the east, and Parliament Street to the west.

History

Painting of the fledgling mill in 1832. (Distillery Heritage)

The Gooderham and Worts Distillery was founded in 1832 as a “windmill in the wilderness,” a 70-foot brick windmill built by brothers-in-law James Worts and William Gooderham on the water’s edge. Worts had been a miller in England for 20 years, and Gooderham financed the project. Worts died unexpectedly in 1834, leaving Gooderham to lead the mill alone. He soon replaced the windmill with steam power, and in 1837 his mill was expanded to host a distillery. The two founders’ sons, James Gooderham Worts and George Gooderham, succeeded the elder Gooderham as partners in the late 1840s. The distillery prospered in the 1850s with the arrival of the railroad (Toronto’s first Union Station was constructed that decade).

1870 view of the distillery. The Stone Mill is the gray building at center. (Distillery Heritage)

The earliest existing building on the complex today is the Stone Mill & Distillery, which dates to 1861 and was designed by David Roberts Sr. This large annex expanded the distillery’s production to two million gallons of whiskey a year. Additional brick structures were built west of Trinity Street in 1863, again designed by Roberts. A fire destroyed the interior of the Stone Distillery in 1869, which was repaired and reopened less than a year later. Gooderham and Worts then expanded eastward across Trinity Street in the 1870s, and the Pure Spirits complex opened in 1873.

1894 photo of the complex (center-left). (Distillery Heritage)

Newly passed legislation in the 1880s changed the way the distillery operated. The Canadian government required alcohol to be aged two years or more starting in 1885, and several new buildings used for tanks and barrels were built by David Roberts Sr.’s son, David Roberts Jr. The final Victorian-era building in the Distillery District was the 1895 Fire Pump House.

World War I and Prohibition also changed the distillery drastically. Gooderham allowed the British government to produce acetone and ketone in the distillery, which was used in explosives. As Prohibition continued following the end of World War I, the business was sold to Harry Hatch in 1923. Hatch then acquired the Hiram Walker & Sons distillery and built the Case Goods Warehouse in 1927.

1937 view of the complex. (Distillery Heritage)

Canadian prohibition ended before the similar amendment to the US Constitution, and Hiram Walker’s factory in Windsor was used more frequently. The last barrel of whiskey was distilled at Gooderham and Worts in 1957, and the plant shifted to rum and industrial alcohol. The distillery was sold again in 1987, and its production ceased in 1990.

Although the now-abandoned distillery was a protected historic landmark, it sat in limbo, and its future was unclear. It was purchased by Cityscape Holdings in 2001 and converted to a pedestrian-only retail complex, which was completed in 2003. Chain companies are prohibited from leasing space inside, so much of the tenants are smaller art galleries or retailers. More modern development has included the construction of condos to the east of the brewery.

Photos

A map of the complex for your reference. My photos focus on Trinity Street and Distillery Lane.

A conveyor between the Pure Spirits Oil Tanks Building (#57) and Office Building (#31), emblazoned with the distillery’s name:

Pure Spirits Building

This elegant 1873 building was designed by David Roberts Jr. for alcohol purification and storage. It has an unusual, almost proto-Modern design with its expressing of its structure and wide bays of windows, which were intended to blow out and save the building if an explosion happened during the distilling process. The only visible alteration is the removal of a cupola.

Cooperage

The term cooper, probably best known as a surname, comes from the craftsmen that made barrels. As a distillery, the manufacture of barrels was important for the factory’s workings. These buildings date to 1864 and were designed by David Roberts Sr. This large Romanesque vaulted doorway once led to the distillery’s offices:

Detail of the simple wooden and brick ornamentation:

An art gallery was inside, which had some snazzy abstract paintings.

More abstract view of the stalwart brick factory buildings versus the dematerialized glass skyscrapers nearby:

Stone Distillery

This is the earliest existing building on the site and dates to 1860. It originally housed the distillery’s entire process--milling, fermenting, and distilling. The exterior is Kingston limestone.

Looking back westward towards Trinity Street: