herr2ck: Toronto Trip, pt. 6

August 2025.

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: