‘Living history’ has big future
Toronto’s past may have a future after all. Despite the city’s rush to tear down anything that stands in the way of yet another condo tower, developers are beginning to realize there’s money to be made in heritage.
The most recent example is the Great Hall, a stately Victorian pile that has presided over the corner of Queen and Dovercourt since 1889. During its 128-year history, the building has housed a YMCA, the Royal Templars of Temperance, the Polish National Union Alliance as well as a gallery, theatre centre and an art school. It has also hosted weddings, diverse cultural events and countless indie-rock concerts.
But for decades the Great Hall was a mess. Inside and out, it was shabby and rundown, almost derelict. Visitors had to look hard to see beyond the dirt, dust and peeling paint. Though Torontonians have loved the building forever and feel a personal connection to it, until now nobody was willing to invest the money needed to restore it and bring it up to modern standards.
Enter Steve Metlitski, a Belarusian immigrant who saw the Great Hall and immediately recognized its architectural, cultural, social and economic value. His firm, Triangle Development, bought the building and spent more than $4 million to refurbish the west-end landmark. His goal, he freely admits, was not just to make a profit, but a profit with honour. In its newest incarnation, it is a rental venue available for
Visitors had to look hard to see beyond the dirt, dust and peeling paint
everything from classical music and rock concerts to corporate events and parties.
“The building wasn’t up to code but it had kept its original charm,” Metlitski says. “It has a lot of personality and character. It’s living history; people can feel it when they come. The best use of a real estate asset like the Great Hall is to keep it as is. It’s something you couldn’t build today.”
No doubt about that. Wandering through the urban homogeneity of a city created by bottom-line builders and hapless bureaucrats, it isn’t hard to understand what Metlitski saw in the hall. Though the default response in Toronto is to demolish first and beg forgiveness after, as he points out, “Sometimes it’s about more than money.”
Indeed, the search for the sort of experience offered by the Great Hall has grown intense. According to a U.S. study commissioned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Edge Research and the American Express Foundation, millennials are the reason. The report claims that 80 per cent of millennials “would rather spend money at businesses supporting efforts to preserve and protect buildings, architecture and neighbourhoods over those that don’t.” It also found that twice as many millennials (52 per cent) choose to shop and eat in “historic downtowns . . . and places with historic appeal . . . over malls and planned commercial districts” or newly built places.
“The report reflects what we’ve seen in cities from Los Angeles to Buffalo to Houston,” Trust president and CEO Stephanie Meeks said in a news release, “millennials pre- fer to live, work and play in neighbourhoods with historic buildings. The revitalization of many urban communities is being driven in large part by the influx of young people seeking authentic experiences and places with character that are found in historic neighbourhoods.”
In other words, the Great Hall is one of those special places sought by those bright young things who spend much of their lives confined to 600-square-foot apartments in the glass-and-steel highrises that now form the landscape of downtown Toronto. Its four main rooms are filled with design details and materials that are no longer part of the architectural conversation. Crown mouldings, oak floors, handpainted walls are found throughout. One of the spaces, Longboat Hall, is named for Tom Longboat, who won the Boston Marathon in 1907. The great Indigenous long distance runner trained here on a raised track that serves as the balcony in a space that accommodates 400 people. Several original signs, painted on a wall, enhance the already strong sense of history.
Meanwhile, farther east at Queen and Parliament, the old Marty Millionaire furniture store is also undergoing renovation. Its bilious turquoise exterior has given way to a shockingly elegant glass-and-brick facade. The three-storey Italianate structure, built in 1907, will become the headquarters of Free the Children’s WE Learning Centre. Already the intersection, long one of Toronto’s most depressed, has been transformed. Tellingly, the new Shoppers Drug Mart, which opened on the same corner several years ago, contributes nothing to the area.
More than ever, a little enlightenment goes a long way. Christopher Hume’s column appears weekly. He can be reached at jcwhume4@gmail.com.