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Our Throwback Thursday series usually doesn't need to delve too far into the past to uncover major changes to Toronto's streetscapes. While most of these articles highlight recent additions to the cityscape, this week's feature follows up on our mid-December article that faced east from the same intersection, focusing on a cluster of manufacturing buildings that have been preserved and updated to modern uses as the city grew around them.
Back in 1933, the view north on Sherbourne Street was framed by the Heintzman Building, side-by-side red brick structures to the east—at this point the former piano factory was home to Malcolm & Hill Furniture—and the six-storey Imperial Optical Warehouse to the west. Its upper three storeys are visible behind two low-rise structures immediately north of then-Duke Street. Down the centre of the image, rail tracks carried the Sherbourne streetcar along this route until January, 1947, when the service was replaced by a bus route.
Fast forward to 2016, and Duke Street is now a part of Adelaide Street East, the stretch between Jarvis Street and Parliament Street having been joined to it in 1965. The brick and timber structures that once housed Heintzman and Malcolm & Hill at the northeast corner of the intersection have been converted into the Studio City office complex, now home to the offices of UrbanToronto amongst many other companies. Across Sherbourne to the west, the former Imperial Optical Warehouse and an adjacent late Art Deco three-storey structure occupying the northwest corner of the intersection have been converted into the residential development Imperial Lofts.
We will return next week with another look at the changing face of Toronto!
