THE CITY THAT WAS
May Warren finds stunning architecture long lost but never forgotten,
Walking this city’s condo-filled, mostly modern streets, you wouldn’t have any idea what treasures used to stand at various spots.
May Warren unearths some of the late greats that were demolished but not forgotten University Avenue Armouries Built between 1891 and 1893, this brick building stood on University Ave., just north of Osgoode Hall, until it was torn down in 1963.
Local historian, author and tour guide Richard Fiennes-Clinton calls it a “squat version of Casa Loma,” just a few storeys high but reminiscent of a Scottish castle.
Troops trained there for both of the world wars, and public events such as a turn-of-the-century car show, were also held in the imposing structure, Fiennes-Clinton said.
Decades after it was demolished, a large bullet was found near the site, triggering an evacuation of a construction site, according to a Toronto Star article from 2015. Chorley House Call it Toronto’s lost Downton Abbey, Chorley House was the official residence and working office of Ontario’s lieutenant-governor.
Fiennes-Clinton calls it a “stunning piece of architecture” that wouldn’t seem out of place among the grand French châteaus.
“It’s probably one of the most beautiful homes that ever existed in Toronto,” Fiennes-Clinton said.
Built in 1915, and set in Rosedale’s leafy Chorley Park, the mansion was closed during the Great Depression amid concerns over government spending.
It later served as a military hospital and then RCMP Toronto headquarters, as well as refugee housing, before being demolished by the city in 1961.
A small stone bridge in the park is all that remains.
“It is too bad. They put all this effort into it and they built this beautiful home and it was used for like 20 years,” said Fiennes-Clinton. Shea’s Hippodrome Theatre This enormous theatre opened in 1914 on Bay St. at Albert St., only to become a casualty of the creation of Nathan Phillips Square.
It was demolished in 1957, according to city of Toronto archives.
Originally built as a vaudeville music hall, it featured live musical acts with chorus lines and even trained animals.
“It was kind of like the Muppet Show, except live and with people,” said Fiennes-Clinton.
Luckily, one of the hallmarks of an evening out there has survived. Its organ now sits in Casa Loma after a stint at Maple Leaf Gardens, said Fiennes-Clinton.
“When they showed vaudeville or they played silent movies, this big, massive organ would rise,” he said. “It would come up out of the stage with the organist playing it.” Registry of Deeds and Land Titles Built between 1914 and 1917, according to the city of Toronto archives, this neo-classical building looks like something out of ancient Greece, with its grand Ionic columns.
Designed by architect Charles S. Cobb, it stood at 94-98 Albert St., until it was razed during construction of Nathan Phillips Square.
It’s shown here in the shadow of the modernist new city hall in this photo from 1964. Toronto Star building The Star’s old building at 80 King St. W. is now distant history, demolished in the early 1970s, after the newsroom moved to its current location at 1 Yonge St. But its spirit lives on in Superman comics and movies.
It was the inspiration behind the Daily Planet, the fictional paper at which Clark Kent and Lois Lane work.
Superman creator Joe Shuster worked at the art deco office tower, built in 1929, in the 1930s as a teenage newsboy.