Tuesday Treasures

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Our World Tuesday
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Toronto ON

The area between Front Street on the south and Adelaide Street on the north, between Berkeley Street on the east and George Street on the west, is the ten blocks that make up the original town-site of York or Old Toronto, as laid out in 1793.

This walk is mainly along King St. East. There is an incredible amount of history in this area.

The Home District Grammar School was built at King and George Streets in 1807 and was a one-room schoolhouse. When it first opened, only five students enrolled but it quickly rose to 37 by year’s end. Eventually, it became clear that it was too small to accommodate the number of attendees it was acquiring. To replace it, another school was built in 1816 at Adelaide and Church streets, known as the ‘Blue School.’

The King Edward Hotel was built by George Gooderham's Toronto Hotel Company to meet the demand in the rising metropolis for a grand hotel. 

Gooderham is a very familiar name to Torontonians. To learn more click on Gooderham in the tags/labels below this post.

When it opened in 1903, the hotel, affectionately known as the "King Eddy", was embraced by the city. The fireproof, eight-storey building, designed by eminent Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb and prominent Toronto architect E.J. Lennox, provided luxury in service in dramatic settings. The 18-storey tower, with its top-floor Crystal Ballroom, was added in 1920-21 to enlarge the hotel. Although threatened with demolition in the 1970s, the hotel was revitalized in 1980-81. On its 100th anniversary in 2003, the King Edward, Toronto's first luxury hotel, remains a vibrant and elegant meeting place for local and international visitors.

The lavish King Edward Hotel on King Street was once the location of Toronto’s first jail, the Old Log Gaol, which held Toronto’s first execution in 1798. John Sullivan was executed for forging a one pound note to fund a drinking spree. Early Toronto had about 120 crimes that were punishable by death, including forgery and being found disguised in a forest.

At 1 Toronto St. is this plaque.

"Be of good courage boys, I am not ashamed of anything I've done, I trust in God, and I'm going to die like a man." - - Samuel Lount. On April 24, 1824 the cornerstone of York's second jail was laid on this site. In the aftermath of the Rebellion of 1837 close to ten thousand people stood on this spot to bear witness as Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews, two of William Lyon Mackenzie's most loyal supporters, were hanged on April 12, 1838 on gallows adjacent to the jail. By 1840 a new prison, the Home District Gaol, was set to open on Berkeley Street and the old jail was to be incorporated into the York Chambers Building which stood until 1956. The last hangings in Toronto were at the Don Jail in 1962.

You can stop by and visit the museum in the Old Post Office.

Toronto's First Post Office is a historic post office. It is the oldest purpose-built post office in Canada that functioned as a department of the British Royal Mail, and the only surviving example. After its initial use as a post office, it became part of a Roman Catholic boys' school (De La Salle College) and later a cold storage building. Located at 260 Adelaide Street East, the building now houses a museum and a full-service post office, run by the Town of York Historical Society.

The Cathedral Church of St. James is both a parish church ministering to the historic St Lawrence neighbourhood and a cathedral (the church where the bishop’s chair or throne – the “cathedra” – is located), making it the spiritual centre of the diocese and a focal point for the civic life of Toronto, one of Canada’s most prominent cultural and financial centres. The Cathedral has been designated as an Ontario Heritage Property by the Ministry of Culture and has also been designated as a heritage site by Heritage Toronto.