Top 10 Lost Toronto Buildings

What 10 local buildings, that are now demolished, do you consider to be our greatest losses?

Are we counting the replacement value of what took their places?

The Arcade building is the one that jumps out to me. If that had survived I think it would be an incredibly well-loved building even today. And what we have in its place is so unredeeming that I think it qualifies as an total loss.

I'd also suggest the Uptown theatre, the Mutual St Arena, the original Trinity College, Walnut Hall, the Empress, the Bata HQ, the Temple Building, the old building at the NE corner of Front/Yonge (can't remember the name), and the original Opera House

Edit: And it was partially saved through relocation, but I miss the greenhouses at College/University. Especially now with the new construction to the SE it would've had even more of an impact in its original location.

whatever said:

Are we counting the replacement value of what took their places?

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In a case like Carrere & Hastings' Bank of Toronto (or, come to think of it, Bata), it shouldn't, necessarily.

Toronto Board of Trade Building. One of Toronto's first skyscrapers. ( demolished in 1958.)

Sad loss, I just love how the building meets the street.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Board_of_Trade_Building_Front_Street.jpg

I wish they could have saved this building. The Regal Constellation Hotel

Top 10 (in no particular order):

1) The Berczy Park Block:





2) The Exchange Building (Wellington and Leader Lane):



3) The Provincial Lunatic Asylum:



4) St. Andrew"s Church and its Victorian replacement (Church and Adelaide):





5) Chorley Park:



6) The Manning Arcade (King Street West):



7) The Broadway Tabernacle (NE corner Spadina & College):



8) The Old Customs House (SW corner Front and Yonge):







9) The Odeon Carlton:





10) The Adelaide Street Post Office (and Toronto Street):





Plus:

The trees of Jarvis Street:



(Not to mention the Globe and Mail Building, The Toronto Star, The Bank of Montreal, Loretto Abbey, the Mechanics Institute, numerous CNE buildings and the old Union Station)

Those images thecharrioteer makes me sad. We lost some wonderful structures.

that was Jarvis street ? As in the downtown stretch ?

Wonderful list, charioteer. The one that gives me the greatest pang is St Andrews. A wonderful building that could habve been by Hawksmoor (it practically was). I can't think of any standing churches in Ontario that are so clearly English baroque style. Are there any?

thecharioteer said:

4) St. Andrew"s Church and its Victorian replacement (Church and Adelaide):

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From the Toronto Public Library website:

The Toronto Armouries would be near the top of my list:

Being a fan of Deco and Moderne, The Star, Globe and Mail, and BMO buildings are up there for me. My list would also include the Board of Trade building, the Temple building, the original Arcade, the Toronto St. vista (including the Post Office and Masonic Hall buildings), Chorley Park, the Armoury, and probably the lost St. Lawrence/Berczy Park structures as a whole.

k10ery said:

Wonderful list, charioteer. The one that gives me the greatest pang is St Andrews. A wonderful building that could habve been by Hawksmoor (it practically was). I can't think of any standing churches in Ontario that are so clearly English baroque style. Are there any?

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That's a lovely church. Is it the same congregation as the St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church on King St, just west of University, the one that gave the subway stop its name? That is a distinguished, and much larger, building but nowhere near as attractive as this one, in my view. (Edit) I answered my own question. It is the same congregation. It sounds like they needed a bigger building and hence made the move. http://www.standrewstoronto.org/church_info.htm

"St. Andrew's, home to one of the oldest Presbyterian congregations in Canada, was founded in 1830 "in connection with the Mother Church of Scotland". It was first located at the southwest corner of Church and Adelaide Streets but this building was abandoned when it became too small for the expanding congregation.

The present building was opened for worship in 1876. At that time the King and Simcoe Streets location was a busy place and most of the congregation lived within easy walking distance of the church. Across the street stood Government House, the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. Upper Canada College stood on a second corner and on a third was a popular tavern. With St. Andrew's, the four corners were known locally as Legislation, Education, Damnation and Salvation!!"

St. Andrews and the Manning Arcade are the only two pictured above that seem like genuine losses.

The French Second Empire stuff is ambitious but noisy and fairly crude; and Chorley Park is absolutely hideous.

Chorley Park, the original Mcmansion? It's awesome!

There have certainly been large-scale houses from that period that have been engaging, even masterful--but Chorley Park looks like a stack of boxes with "Instant Turret Candyland Kit" stuck all over it.

Casa Loma is absurd, but at least it is massed dramatically.