Looking northeast towards the corner of Richmond St W and York St, in the Financial District of Toronto.
The archive photo shows the various buildings that once lined the two streets, along with a few men standing at the corner by a street lamp. The wood-frame building directly at the corner, which housed a jewelry exchange and second-hand goods store in the old photo (and had two sets of street signs on it), was originally Crispin’s Tavern, which operated from around 1830 to the 1840s. In the early 1940s, the buildings along this stretch of York St, including the former tavern, which was over 110 years old, were demolished and replaced with a parking lot.
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
- Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada
- Landmarks of Toronto: Volume 1 by J Ross Robertson (1894), pgs 464-466
- 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
