Looking northeast towards the Ideal Bread Company Factory, now the Argyle Lofts, at Dovercourt Rd and Argyle St in the Beaconsfield Village neighbourhood of Toronto.
In the 1870s, John Dempster owned a bakery at the corner. In 1908, he sold the bakery to brothers William and Charles Carruthers, along with Robert McMullen. The three bakers gradually expanded their property holdings at the location, and in 1914, they named their business the “Ideal Bread Company.” They hired Montreal-based architect Sydney Comber to design their new factory, which was built in 1919, with expansions in 1923 and 1933.
Each floor handled a different stage of bread making: the 5th floor was for mixing, the 4th floor was the dough room, the 3rd floor was for shaping and baking, the 2nd floor was for packaging, the 1st floor was for loading goods onto wagons and trucks, and the basement was for storage. There was also a 400-seat assembly hall on the 5th floor.
The factory operated as a bakery until 1957, after which the building housed a variety of businesses, suppliers and manufacturers. The heritage-designated building was converted into residential units, with the conversion completed in 2007.
Then and Now
SOURCE
- City of Toronto Heritage Register
- Heritage Toronto
- Ontario Heritage Trust
- Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada
- Ontario Heritage Trust: 183 Dovercourt Rd
- The Toronto Daily Star Newspaper Archives: Sep 15, 1919, pg 9
- Construction: Jan 1920, Volume 8, Issue 1, pgs 14-18
- Photo: Denise Marie for TorontoJourney416
- Vintage Photo: City of Toronto Archives
- City of Toronto: Maps
- Toronto City Directory, courtesy of Toronto Public Library
