Tuesday Treasures

 Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

Travel Tuesday

Our World Tuesday

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My Corner of the World

Postcards

Timeless Thursdays is hosted by Stevenson Que

Toronto ON

Click here for a history of Toronto lane naming and a list of other lanes. That post is a work in progress, and gets updated frequently.

We often visit the Distillery District, but that hasn't been possible in the last year due to the pandemic.

You can click on "Distillery District" in the tags/labels below this post for many more photos of the festivals they put on throughout the year. Even without a special event it is a fun place to visit.

With more than 40 boutiques and one-of-a-kind shops, The Distillery District is a well-known tourist destination.

These photos were taken on various outings.

Toronto’s Distillery District was designated as a national historic site because the “complex is an outstanding example of Victorian industrial design in terms of integrity, historical association and aesthetic qualities.” Founded in 1832, Gooderham & Worts began as a windmill in the wilderness and grew to become the largest distillery in the world and the largest corporate taxpayer in Canada.

I featured the flatiron building last week and mentioned William Gooderham.

This is where Gooderham originally made his money.

The story of the Distillery District starts in 1832 with the idea for a grist mill on the east end of York (Toronto) harbour. James Worts had been a miller in Suffolk, England before moving to York. He built a 70-foot tall windmill that was a prominent feature on the York skyline and started a milling business with his brother-in-law William Gooderham. Together they started a business that led to the largest distilling operation in Canada. However, disaster struck in 1834 when James Worts lost his wife in childbirth. Distraught, he jumped in the well at the mill and drowned himself just two weeks later. Gooderham adopted his children and raised them along with his own thirteen. Among the adopted was James Gooderham Worts who would become his partner in the business.

But we are here to look at the lanes.

Case Goods Lane houses the Case Goods Warehouse, which is the youngest of the existing buildings (erected in 1927). Its age shows as it looks different than the earlier structures. It came when Harry Hatch, a Bridlewood horsebreeder and industrialist, bought the distillery in the 1920s and merged it with Hiram-Walker.

Building was used to store pure spirits and industrial alcohol in tin and copper tanks.

Along what is now Tank House Lane is a complex of Tank Houses, built to house and age liquor for two years by law.

A rack house once aged Canadian whisky in barrels stacked two dozen high.