This will be the final installment of The Buildings of St. Lawrence Market, and it’s difficult to narrow down the candidates to be included in this final post.

There are so many historic buildings in my neighborhood, and until I sat down to write this feature, I truly wasn’t aware of just how many buildings and just how much history there truly is.

Today’s post starts with a couple of the oldest buildings, and finishes with the place I call “home.”

Bank of Upper Canada – built in 1825

Address: 252 Adelaide Street East (NE corner Adelaide/George)
Current Use: Harbinger Communications Inc.
History: Of all the buildings I have profiled in the last week, this is the oldest building to still remain in it’s original state having first been built in 1825, although some reports have the building first constructed in 1827.  Chartered in 1821, the Bank of Upper Canada was one of British North America’s leading banks for forty-five years until it’s demise in 1866.  It played a significant role in Upper Canada’s development by supplying currency, protecting savings, and making loans, as it aided Toronto’s rise as the commercial centre of the colony.

During the 1837 rebellion, the infamous William Lyon Mackenzie and the Reformers marched down Yonge Street to attack the building and steal the gold stored within, but their efforts were unsuccessful.

Look at the early black-and-white photo of the building at the top of the page.  Notice the timber stored across the street on the site which is now home to George Brown College, but also notice the building annexed to the right of the Bank.  This building became home to De La Salle Institute in 1871.

Here is a closeup of the east wing of the building:

Information on whether these two buildings were built at the same time and/or used together is somewhat contradictory, but that is just a by-product of the Internet as we know it today.

The building was abandoned after the Bank collapsed in 1866, and it was later used as a meat processing plant and a Catholic boys school, among other uses.  A serious fire caused catastrophic damage to the building in 1978, and it was scheduled for demolition for a year before it was declared a National Historic Site in 1979 and then restored.

Personally, I can’t fathom the idea of demolishing this building and all it’s history, and I’m thankful that there are people who care enough to see to it that the building is designated as Historical and will remain as a part of our city for generations to come.

Toronto’s First Post Office – built in 1833

Address: 260 Adelaide Street East (Adelaide west of Sherbourne)
Current Use: Museum & Post Office
History: This post office was actually the fourth post office in York but it became Toronto’s first post office when the town was incorporated as a city in 1834.  The building is the oldest purpose-built post office in Canada and the only surviving example of a post office that functioned as a department of the British Royal Mail.  Originally all post offices in Upper Canada were owned by the Postmaster in charge, who were imperial appointments.

The bank’s dictatorship was made up of political elite known as the “Family Compact,” who drew the wrath of those who argued for a more egalitarian system of government.

This building was constructed for Postmaster James Scott Howard and functioned as the town’s post office until Howard’s dismissal in 1837.  Howard was a political neutral but got caught up in the rebellion of 1837 and was framed as an ally to the rebels and unfairly dismissed without formal charges.

Also rescued from the slated demolition in 1978 along with the Bank of Upper Canada, the building currently thrives as a full-service post office, as well as a museum with full library and archives available to researchers by appointment. 

Imperial Bank of Canada – built in 1908

Address: 230 King Street East (NE corner King/Sherbourne)
Current Use: Condominium
History: Just look at this building in all its beauty; this is where I call “home,” at King’s Court Condominium.  How many other condominiums in the city incorporate a piece of Toronto’s history like this one?

This two-storey Edwardian Classical bank was built in 1908 for the Imperial Bank of Canada around the same time as the Sovereign Bank of Canada was constructed just a block away at 172 King Street East; both banks were incorporated into current condominium buildings.  In 1961, the Imperial Bank of Canada merged with the Canadian Bank of Commerce, giving us the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, or CIBC as we know it today.  The branch continued to function until 2000.

Fortunately, the building was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1998, and thus it had to be used in part by the developers, Camrost-Felcorp in their new condominium project.  King’s Court was finished in 2005 and is a fantastic combination of “new and old” in Toronto.

I have lived in this building now for two full years, and every single day that I walk through the front doors, I am reminded of Toronto’s history and all the people that inhabited this great city and neighborhood before us.