Tuesday Treasures

 Tom hosts Tuesday's Treasures.

August 2026 - Toronto ON

I hadn't walked along this section of Front St. in a long time.

Best photo I could get of Small's three homes, unless I crossed the street and it was too hot out!

Next three photos from City of Toronto planning files.

Aerial view looking north, you can see the Globe and Mail building I referenced in this post.

The original National Hotel is the three-story yellow-brown brick facade visible directly at the street corner (currently housing the Value Buds retail store).The historical building itself was carefully dismantled in 2013. Its north and west brick walls were preserved as a heritage facade, and the modern King+ Condos tower was built directly over and integrated right into it.

 The yellow-brick facade originally belonged to a commercial storefront property dating back to roughly 1868.It is highly regarded as a rare surviving example of pre-late-19th-century commercial design in Toronto's original 10 blocks of the old Town of York.

The larger, dark-red brick structure was a 20th-century vernacular warehouse built around 1927. It historically served as a central facility and sales room for commercial businesses in the area, most notably operating as the location for the Linde Canadian Refrigeration Company.

In architectural terms, vernacular refers to common, everyday structures built to serve a strictly practical purpose rather than to follow formal architectural theories or high-design trends.

These two plaques belong to the photo below of the two buildings.

This specific stretch of Front Street East is famous for its remarkably preserved Victorian industrial warehouses and manufacturing facilities:

Standard Woollen Mills (219–221 Front St. East): The distinct brick structures with prominent segmental arched windows were built starting in 1882. Designed by famed Toronto architect E.J. Lennox (who also designed Toronto's Old City Hall and Casa Loma), the main building served as a warehouse and factory for the Standard Woollen Mills Company. It originally housed manufacturers of woollen goods and cigar boxes.

The Toronto Knitting & Yarn Factory (Berkeley Castle): Directly adjacent at Front and Berkeley streets is the historic Berkeley Castle complex, built in 1871. It was a core driver of Toronto’s late-19th-century industrial boom.

The historic George Brown College St. James Campus building on George Street in Toronto was originally constructed in 1874 as the Christie, Brown & Company biscuit and cookie factory.

Building History & Details

Original Use: Factory for William Mellis Christie's famous baking empire, which expanded across the block bounded by Adelaide, King, George, and Frederick streets.

Architecture: Features classic multi-story red brick masonry, segmental arched windows, and a ground-floor arcade facing the street.

I wrote about Mr. Christie's Cookies in 2013!

The image shows the historic Bank of Upper Canada Building (constructed between 1825 and 1827) located at the northeast corner of Adelaide Street East and George Street in Toronto’s Old Town/St.Lawrence neighborhood.

Architecture: A two-and-a-half-storey Neoclassical stone structure featuring distinctive dormer windows and a slate mansard-style roof.

Significance: Recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada and one of the oldest surviving purpose-built bank buildings in the country, which also shares a complex with Toronto's First Post Office. I've posted this block several times, the latest a few weeks ago.