Looking northeast towards the Ryrie Building at the corner of Yonge St and Shuter St in the Downtown Yonge area of Toronto.
The archive photo shows the corner as it looked over a century ago. A year after the vintage photo was taken, the buildings on the corner were torn down and replaced, except the four-storey brick building on the left, which faces Yonge St (with the Empire Wall Paper sign). Completed in 1914 at a cost of $250,000, it was extended to the corner, heightened by one storey, and modified to match the design of the new building. Architects Burke, Horwood & White designed it for James Ryrie, a Toronto jeweller. The ground floor was for shops, while the upper floors served as office space, a role the heritage-designated building continues to serve today.
Then and Now
SOURCE
- City of Toronto Heritage Register
- Heritage Toronto
- Ontario Heritage Trust
- Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada
- The Globe Newspaper Archives: Jan 30, 1913, pg 8
- Photo: Denise Marie for TorontoJourney416
- Vintage Photo: City of Toronto Archives
- City of Toronto: Maps
- Toronto City Directory, courtesy of Toronto Public Library
