I visited Toronto on vacation in the summer of 2025. Though it has less historic architecture due to the city's aggressive urban renewal plans over time, it maintains a mix of important buildings old and new. Therefore, several of my articles will discuss Modern and Contemporary buildings.
Toronto is the largest city in Ontario and the entire country of Canada. It has a population of around 2,800,000 people.
The land that Toronto now occupies was first settled by the Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Mississauga tribes. The earliest European settlers were the French, who established Fort Rouille in 1750 but abandoned it in 1759. After the French and Native American defeat at the hands of the British Empire, the land became part of Quebec in 1763.
During the American Revolution between 1775 to 1783, British loyalists fled the future United States to what would become Upper Canada. The Toronto Purchase from the Mississaugas acquired a great quantity of land in the area, which remained sparsely settled by fur traders.
The town of York, Toronto's predecessor, was founded in 1793 as the new capital of Upper Canada. Its location was mainly strategic, as it was believed to be more difficult to attack than Newark, the previous capital. However, during the War of 1812, American forces captured the town and severely damaged it.
York was officially incorporated as the "City of Toronto" in 1834, adapting a Native American name for a channel of water used to catch fish. It grew quickly through the 19th century, due to a high influx of immigrants, particularly Irish. Toronto was twice the capital of Canada: from 1849 to 1851 due to public unrest in Montreal, and again from 1855 to 1859. However, with the founding of Ontario in 1867, Toronto was named its provincial capital and has remained so since.
Early municipal services to the city included a sewage system and gas lighting. The arrival of the railroads at the same time brought increased commerce to the city and more immigrants; and with Toronto's port, the city became a transit hub. It was also the largest alcohol producer with the Gooderham & Worts Distillery.
More European immigrants arrived later in the 19th century into the 20th, such as Germans and Italians. Though they too lived in poorly built slums, as they became successful they moved out to better homes that expanded the city's area. However, in 1904, a major fire destroyed part of downtown, leading to larger replacement buildings such as the Dominion Public Building.
After the end of World War II, Toronto experienced rapid development in its suburbs. It federated with 12 of these municipalities to form a government known as Metropolitan Toronto in 1954. These consolidated further in 1967. Toronto continued to grow with more immigrants, reaching one million people in 1951 and two million in 1971. Additionally, businesses began to move to Toronto from Montreal due to the latter's Quebec Sovereignty Movement.
In 1998, the original city of Toronto merged with its surrounding municipalities (East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, and York) as a single "megacity" of Toronto. This was highly controversial and public opinion was against the merger. However, Toronto has continued to grow since and remains one of the fastest growing cities in North America.
A ★ denotes a building with its own article.