Looking southeast on Dundas St E towards George St in the Garden District of Toronto.
The archive photo features the sign for the One Minute Lunch & Ice Cream Parlor on the right. Directly across the street is Wagner Brake Service Co. Ltd., and behind it stands a 2.5-storey Second-Empire style house that once belonged to the Farquhar family.
This grand, two-family house was built in the early 1870s and served as the home for James and George Farquhar and their families. Although descendants of the Farquhars continued to live in part of the house until the 1940s, it was also an apartment building and later a rooming house. The last record of this house appears in the Toronto City Directory from 1961. After that, it was demolished, and the site became a parking lot. Today, the area features green space that backs onto the Gabrielle-Roy schoolyard, along with a condo tower.
The Farquhar family were contractors who operated a stone-cutting business, selling lime, stone, and wood from a yard located just east of Church St, between The Esplanade and Front St E. Since the early 1870s, Farquhars Lane has continued to bear the family’s name. Some of the Farquhars’ first contracts in Toronto included work on City Hall, which is now part of St. Lawrence Market, and St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica. James Farquhar was born in Scotland, and the name “Farquhar” is pronounced “fa-kwa” .
Then and Now
SOURCE
- City of Toronto Heritage Register
- Heritage Toronto
- Ontario Heritage Trust
- Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada
- Photo: Denise Marie for TorontoJourney416
- Vintage Photo: City of Toronto Archives
- City of Toronto: Maps
- Toronto City Directory courtesy of Toronto Public Library
