City
A visual history of Queen and Bay
It wouldn't be too difficult to make the case that the intersection Queen and Bay streets is one of Toronto's most important hubs — or at least that it has been for the last 112 years or so. This time-span, of course, covers the period in which the intersection in question has housed Toronto's City Hall, first with E.J. Lennox's Romanesque Revival masterpiece on the northeast corner (1899-1966) and then with Viljo Revell's modernist icon (completed in 1965), which still serves as our house of municipal governance today.
Although there was a brief period in the 1960s during which it appeared Old City Hall might be lost to the development of a much larger Eaton Centre than was eventually built, looking back it was the construction of Revell's building that most changed the surrounding area. Over and above the buildings that were demolished for its enormous site (which included Nathan Phillips Square), the City also expropriated a swath of land on the south side of the street because the buildings that were there didn't match the architecture of the new centerpiece. In their place, (amongst other things) we now have the Sheraton Hotel, which while a successful Brutalist structure, is just awful at street level.
Lastly, I must mention that the southwest corner was once home to what's commonly referred to as Toronto's first skyscraper — the Temple Building. Demolished in 1970 to make way for the anonymous Queen-Bay Centre, its loss remains one of the most painful preservation failures in Toronto's history.
Here is a visual history of Queen and Bay streets.
1899 - A cyclist approaches Bay Street
1900 - When (old) City Hall was young
1911 - Looking north
1916 - Postal pillar box
1916 - Southeast corner
1923 - Looking northwest
1924 - Snowy Queen Street
1931 - Orange Parade
ca. 1940s - The Temple Building (southwest corner, now demolished)
1947 - Union Hotel (demolished)
1947 - Municipal Hotel (demolished)
1955 - Looking south
1962 - Construction begins on (new) City Hall
1964
1964
1964
1966 - The new Nathan Phillips Square
ca. 1970 - Across from what is now Nathan Phillips Square
ca. 1970 - Different Angle
ca. 1970 - Bay Theatre (demolished around 1963/4)
1976 - Looking east
Today
Photo by royhenry.
Photo by Cameron McMaster.
Photo by Keith.ca.
If you know of photos from the 1980s and 90s, I'd love to fill that gap. Let us know in the comments.
Unless marked otherwise, images are from the Toronto Archives.
Discussion
18 Comments
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but I will say, that Temple building was gorgeous and it's the only building that I would say I miss. It would be wonderful to see a developer make a sort of "new" temple building.
Oh well!
Anyway thanks again :) I've shared this with my co-workers.
Mary
street sign gives it away. The Simpson
Tower was open by 1970; so the photo is
somewhere in between those dates.
This is going to make me sound like an old fart (I'm 43), but I'm struck by the fact that in all the street level shots from the 1960's, you can't spot a single piece of litter.
When I was kid, it was drilled into my head at school, at home and even on TV and radio ad's not to throw your crap on the ground. And for some reason, it was one of those things that even the rebellious kids just did, for the most part. Why can't we be like that today? Are we not now a more advanced society?
I love the city today. It's one of the best in the world. But if there's one thing I could carry forward from the old days, it's the "not littering".
Also interesting: the photo captioned "1911 - Looking north" shows where Bay St originally ended at Queen St. Not sure when the SW corner of Queen and Bay was widened/curved to join up with Teraulay/Terauley St, which was the original name (with at least two different spellings I have found on antique maps) of what is now Bay St running north of Queen.
the roof of old city hall has never been painted. it's always been copper, which turns green over time. in the last few years the roof was replaced with new copper (or perhaps cleaned up?).
anyway, this is why the parliament buildings in ottawa have green roofs - they didn't start this way. the change is very slow and gradual, and a good example of a roof currently in transition from 'new' to 'green' is mississauga city hall.