Looking northwest towards Yonge St and Queen St W in Toronto’s Downtown Yonge area.
The archive photo shows the corner building when the storefront was a Royal Bank branch. The short-lived RBC branch appears in the Toronto City Directory from 1988 to 1992.
The original building, constructed between 1895 and 1896, was home to the Philip Jamieson & Company clothing store. Designed in the Renaissance Revival style by the architectural firm Curry, Baker & Co., the building featured a unique rounded corner, a suggestion made by Mr. Jamieson to improve traffic flow. This distinctive design element was prominently highlighted in many of the store’s advertisements, which included the phrase “The Rounded Corner – Queen and Yonge Sts.” In 1909, Mr. Jamieson sold both the building and the land lease.
From 1912 until the mid-1970s, the building housed an F.W. Woolworth store. In 1970, the exterior was clad in porcelain-finished aluminum and Woolworth’s new colours, white and blue. During the 1980s, architect Lloyd Alter’s heritage conservation efforts led to the removal of some of this cladding, exposing the original brick underneath, as shown in the archive photo. After RBC left the building, the storefront served as various retail establishments, including Tower Records, Coast Mountain Sports, Atmosphere, and SportsChek.
In 2018, major restoration work began to transform the building into a high-end retail space connected to the Eaton Centre. Although the plan was to salvage and restore much of the original structure, it had deteriorated beyond repair due to decades of wear and the overcladding. ERA Architects and Zeidler Architecture collaborated on restoring the terracotta and masonry façade, reconstructing it with over 40,000 replica bricks, stones, and terracotta pieces.
Then and Now
SOURCE
- City of Toronto Heritage Register
- Heritage Toronto
- Ontario Heritage Trust
- Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada
- The Globe Newspaper Archives: Jul 24, 1895, pg 8
- The Globe Newspaper Archives: Mar 2, 1896, pg 7
- The Globe Newspaper Archives: Feb 2, 1909, pg 1
- The Globe Newspaper Archives: Feb 22, 1909, pg 5
- The Globe and Mail Newspaper Archives: Mar 24, 1970, pg B1
- Canadian Architect and Builder, Volume 9, Number 1, Jan 1896, pg 14
- ERA Architects: 2 Queen Street West
- Zeidler Architecture: 2 Queen West
- Photo: Denise Marie for TorontoJourney416
- Vintage Photo: City of Toronto Archives
- City of Toronto: Maps
- Toronto City Directory, courtesy of Toronto Public Library
