Looking northeast towards the corner of Richmond St W and York St, in the Financial District neighbourhood of Toronto.
The archive photo shows various buildings that once stood near the corner of two streets, along with pedestrians on the sidewalk, a portion of a horse pulling a wagon, and a boy in the street. The wood-frame building directly at the corner, which housed Rocco Gianvecchio’s grocery store at the time, was originally Crispin’s Tavern, which operated from around 1830 to the 1840s.
The left side of the vintage photo also features a billboard for Heuther’s Wuerzburger lager, produced by the Lion Brewery in Waterloo, Ontario. In the centre and right background, the taller building was home to the Reliance Moulding Co. Limited.
In the early 1940s, the wooden buildings at the corner, including the former tavern, which was over 110 years old, were demolished and replaced with a parking lot. The factory building was torn down in the 1960s. In 1972, the Four Seasons Sheraton Hotel, now known as Sheraton Centre Toronto, opened on the block.
Then and Now
SOURCE
- City of Toronto Heritage Register
- Heritage Toronto
- Ontario Heritage Trust
- Landmarks of Toronto: Volume 1 by J Ross Robertson (1894), pgs 464-466
- The Globe Newspaper Archives: Oct 29, 1902, pg 10
- The Globe and Mail Newspaper Archives: Dec 23, 1941, pg 6
- Photo: Denise Marie for TorontoJourney416
- Vintage Photo: Toronto Public Library
- City of Toronto: Maps
- Toronto City Directory, courtesy of Toronto Public Library
