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Old City Hall (Toronto)

1899 establishments in OntarioBuildings and structures in TorontoCity and town halls in OntarioCity of Toronto Heritage PropertiesClock towers in Canada
E. J. Lennox buildingsFormer courthouses in CanadaFormer seats of local governmentGovernment buildings completed in 1899National Historic Sites in OntarioRomanesque Revival architecture in CanadaTerminating vistas in CanadaUse Canadian English from January 2023Use mdy dates from January 2013
Torontos Old City Hall 2009
Torontos Old City Hall 2009

The Old City Hall is a Romanesque-style civic building and former court house in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was the home of the Toronto City Council from 1899 to 1966 and a provincial court house until 2023, and remains one of the city's most prominent structures. The building is located at the corner of Queen and Bay Streets, across Bay Street from Nathan Phillips Square and the present City Hall in Downtown Toronto. The heritage landmark has a distinctive clock tower which heads the length of Bay Street from Front Street to Queen Street as a terminating vista. Old City Hall was designated a National Historic Site in 1984.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Old City Hall (Toronto) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Old City Hall (Toronto)
Queen Street West, Old Toronto

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N 43.6525 ° E -79.381666666667 °
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Old City Hall

Queen Street West 60
M5H 2M4 Old Toronto
Ontario, Canada
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Torontos Old City Hall 2009
Torontos Old City Hall 2009
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Old Toronto
Old Toronto

Old Toronto is the part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that corresponds to the boundaries of the City of Toronto prior to 1998. It was incorporated as a city in 1834, after being known as the town of York, and being part of York County. Toronto periodically grew in size by annexing adjacent land and municipalities. In 1954, the City of Toronto and the surrounding suburban towns and townships of York County were joined in a federation known as the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto (Metro). Later, the lower-tier city annexed two towns until it reached its final boundaries in 1967. In 1998, the municipalities of Metro Toronto were amalgamated into the present-day single-tier City of Toronto, which continues legally from the predecessor City of Toronto, although the by-laws of each municipality remained in force. Historically, "Old Toronto" referred to Toronto's boundaries before the Great Toronto Fire of 1904, when most urban development was to the east of Yonge Street. Since the 1998 amalgamation, however, the 1967–1998 area of the lower-tier city is referred to as "Old Toronto" or the "former city of Toronto". It is sometimes less accurately referred to as "downtown" (Downtown Toronto is located within Old Toronto) or as "the core". Old Toronto has a population density of approximately 8,210 residents per square kilometre, which would rank as Canada’s densest (North America's second-densest) city with a population over 100,000 if it were still a distinct city.

York, Upper Canada
York, Upper Canada

York was a town and the second capital of the colony of Upper Canada. It is the predecessor to the old city of Toronto (1834–1998). It was established in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe as a "temporary" location for the capital of Upper Canada, while he made plans to build a capital near today's London, Ontario. Simcoe renamed the location York after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, George III's second son. Simcoe gave up his plan to build a capital at London, and York became the permanent capital of Upper Canada on February 1, 1796. That year Simcoe returned to Britain and was temporarily replaced by Peter Russell. The original townsite was a compact ten blocks near the mouth of the Don River and a garrison was built at the channel to Toronto Harbour. Government buildings and a law court were established. Yonge Street was built, connecting York to the Holland River to the north. To the east, Kingston Road was built to the mouth of the Trent River. In 1797, the town site was expanded to the west to allow for public buildings and expansion. One of the new area's public functions, a public market, was started in 1803. It continues today as St. Lawrence Market. The settlement was attacked by American troops during the War of 1812. As the British garrison retreated, they detonated their powder magazine, inflicting numerous casualties on the invading U.S. forces, who proceeded to loot and destroy the town. The victorious Americans chose not to occupy the town and the British eventually returned without conflict. A reprisal attack was made on the American capital of Washington, D.C. a year later. After the war was over, the town continued to grow, expanding to the west, leaving the original town site, a less desirable location, somewhat undeveloped. A new parliament building was erected, near the original location, but this burned down and a new building was built in the new lands to the west. A permanent fort, Fort York, was built on the site of the garrison. Dundas Street was built to connect York to towns to the west. In the 1820s, the town experienced a surge of immigrants, expanding from 1,000 residents to over 9,000 by the time the town was incorporated as the City of Toronto in 1834. During its existence, the town did not have its own government; it was governed by the province of Upper Canada, with a mix of elected officials and an aristocracy known as the Family Compact controlling the government. By 1830, this led to an ongoing political conflict, which would later lead to the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.

Old City Hall Cenotaph, Toronto
Old City Hall Cenotaph, Toronto

The Old City Hall Cenotaph is a cenotaph located at the front steps of Old City Hall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Originally built after World War I to commemorate Torontonians who lost their lives in services for Canada, the memorial also commemorates those who died in World War II and the Korean War. It was modelled on The Cenotaph at Whitehall in London, England, constructed using granite cut from the Canadian Shield, and unveiled on November 11, 1925. The City of Toronto lists the artists as "Ferguson/Pomphrey", which were an architectural firm located at 282 St. Clements Ave. in north Toronto. Their design was selected from among 50 designed submitted after City Council's request to replace a temporary wooden structure that had been used each Remembrance Day since 1919. The two Toronto architects received a fee of $2500 for the work; this was 10% of the cost of the $25 000 project. The work was completed in budget and on time. There was some controversy before the monument was unveiled; "the only wording on the Cenotaph would be a simple four word statement “TO ALL WHO SERVED.” Then someone realized that this monument was in fact a cenotaph, a structure that by the very definition of that word (from the Greek kenotaphion – kenos, empty + taphos, tomb) signified an “empty tomb.” " As a memorial to those who had died and are buried elsewhere, it was felt that TO ALL WHO SERVED was inappropriate in such a case. After much discussion, the original inscription was removed and replaced with the current TO OUR GLORIOUS DEAD.The memorial features a stone laid by Field Marshall Haig on July 24, 1925.The site is one of several locations used for Remembrance Day commemorations in Toronto.

Arcadian Court
Arcadian Court

The Arcadian Court is an Art Deco event space in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the eighth floor of the flagship downtown Toronto location of the Canadian department store The Bay at Yonge and Queen Streets. For many years, it was an exclusive restaurant, then an art gallery, then closed and used for storage. It was restored and is now used as an event space. The facility first opened in 1929, when the store was part of the Simpson's chain. The Arcadian Court was intended to compete with the Royal York Hotel's Imperial Room, the Georgian Room at the main Eaton's store, and the Eaton's Seventh Floor on College Street (now called The Carlu) for downtown lunch business. The Court was two stories in height, the main floor and a mezzanine (called "The Men's Grill" from 1968–1969), which was men-only for many years. The restaurant's architecture featured wrought iron railings, arched windows, and huge chandeliers. Three skylights allow light to enter the whitewash hall interior. At its opening, it was the largest department store restaurant in the world, seating 1,300. The restaurant hosted many of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's first radio broadcasts, and in 1967, it hosted the first auction ever held outside Britain by Sotheby's. In 1978, Simpson's was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company, and subsequently became downtown Toronto's flagship Bay store in 1991. From 1988 to 1989, some of the mezzanine space was converted to gallery space, which displayed the Canadian art collection of Kenneth Thomson. Much of the second floor of the Arcadian Court was closed off or used for the storage of chairs. A small pictorial display and a cast-iron fountain is located outside the hall. This gallery space was closed in 2004, and the Thomson collection was transferred to the Art Gallery of Ontario and now displayed as the Thomson Collection. Reopened in May 2012, the Arcadian Court is now a part of a larger event complex (which now includes the neighboring Arcadian Loft) called "Arcadian", which is operated by Oliver & Bonacini Events. The renovations were carried out by architecture firm DeSignum Design. The renovations have stripped back layers of walls and flooring that have been added over the years, reclaiming approximately 5 feet (1.5 m) of the perimeter. The arches were also restored. Eight of the 16 grand arches in the mezzanine that were closed off in past renovations were reopened and the squared-off arches were restored. The renovations added 4 feet (1.2 m) in height to the remaining eight. The Court is now 8,086 square feet (751.2 m2) with improved acoustics, new chandeliers that are a deconstructed take on the original Lalique crystal chandeliers and an opened-up mezzanine. The "Arcadian Court" name has been carried on as a brand name for other restaurants operated in Bay stores, though none are as opulent or exclusive as the Toronto original was. The Arcadian Court also figures prominently in Margaret Atwood's novel The Blind Assassin, as the center of Toronto's high society to which Iris Chase Griffen is introduced.