From Bruce Bell. I was wrong. It seems the park was going to be the CBC building.
www.brucebelltours.com/ht...art_2.html
In 1960 a real estate firm wanted to buy up the land bounded by King, Jarvis, Market and Front streets the original Market Square (as stated in the 1803 document signed by Gov. Peter Hunter) and build a modern high rise and a parking garage.
One plan called for the entire St. Lawrence Market area to be completely eradicated off the map and replaced with an enormous entertainment complex rivaling New York City’s Lincoln Centre.
The famed Gooderham or Flatiron at the apex of Church and Front was to be replaced with a giant obelisk and today’s Berczy Park behind it was to be home to giant glass and steel skyscrapers.
What is now St. James Park beside the Cathedral on King was to be home to the new CBC Broadcasting headquarters.
The land that a century and a half previous set aside for a Public Market and what is now the North Market was to be turned into a paved concourse.
The Market area was to be no more.
This almost happened, remember no one lived around these parts to object, and except for a few lone voices of dissent including historian and architect Eric Arthur there was nothing to stop the developers who were already obliterating the downtown core.
Urban Renewal was sweeping across North America and nothing was going to stop the powers that be from turning our cities into modern mega-metropolises, if Europe could re-build after WW2 then so should we.
Why should they have all the glass and steel and super highways?
Mind you they had to, we just wanted to. Sometimes Toronto’s renewal projects worked brilliantly like with the space-aged New City Hall (though I would liked to have seen the massive and opulent 3000 seat Shea’s Hippodrome theatre that once stood there) and other times urban renewal was a complete and utter waste.
The Grand Post office that once stood on Adelaide at the head of Toronto Street was regarded as one of the most beautiful buildings on the continent and the first public building built by the new Federal Government after Confederation.
It’s replacement, an enormous glass and steel monstrosity that recently underwent a reno-job, was the norm as far as the ‘new look’ of structures was concerned.
In the middle of all this destruction and mayhem lay the fate of our beloved Market and the Great Hall that bore its name.
At a meeting involving various like minded historical preservation groups it was suggested that they urge the City to acquire St. Lawrence Hall immediately.
On September 29th 1961 Royal Assent was given to the National Centennial Act which set out ‘the organization and financial pattern for the great observance of Canada’s 100th birthday.’
George Bell, Toronto Parks Commissioner, recommended a park be built next to St. James and the renovation of St. Lawrence Hall as part of Toronto’s Official Centennial Project.
Unlike the other 20,000 buildings that were destroyed during Urban Renewal St. Lawrence Hall was to be spared but not so the north Market.
Built in 1904 as an exact copy of today’s South Market, the 4th market to stand on that site was demolished and replaced with what is today without exception the ugliest public building in Toronto, the North Market or Farmers Market as it is better known.
On the evening of December 28, Governor-General Roland Michener along with architect Eric Arthur officially re-opened St. Lawrence Hall by igniting a still in use gas fireplace in the Great Hall in front of a glittering crowd.
At the end of the evening Mayor Dennison announced that Northern Affairs Minister Arthur Laing had designated St. Lawrence Hall a National Historical site.
In 1971, the City’s planning board and a consultant’s report had proposed that the South Market be demolished.
A public meeting held in the fall of 1971 something extraordinary happened, a crowd of angry citizens who wanted to keep the landmark Market shouted down the City planners.
The long suppressed voice of a citizens led movement, that was years in the making, was finally being heard.
In 1969, John Sewell running for City Council, used as a political poster, a picture of himself standing amongst the rumble of a demolished building with a caption reading When will this stop?
The group who wanted to save St. Lawrence Market called themselves Time and Place and they recommended that it be renovated and The Council Chamber, which sat unused for 70 years, turned into a public gallery.
So with money from all three forms of Government in place, the outside was cleaned, a new floor was poured, the brick piers supporting the roof trusses were re-enforced, and one half of the roof was replaced.
Downstairs, which once housed the former jails and later, used for wholesale storage and the unloading of trucks, was gutted and refurbished.
After years of being covered-up and forgotten, the original foundation bricks and graceful vaulted arches that today skip above our heads as we shop at Phil’s or buy rice at Rubes or grind our coffee on the lower level, were exposed.
St. Lawrence Market when first opened 200 years ago was the only game in town. Today it’s just one of thousands.
It’s survived the onslaught of the Super Market revolution of the 1950’s, home deliveries, fast foods, corner stores, frozen foods, chicken franchise, microwave dinners, MacDonald’s, fad diets, 24/7 shopping and the internet.
But it still stands as a testament to our past. It stands today as a testament to our past.
It defines who we are as Canadians and as Torontonians, it’s where we came from and it’s where we are headed.
To our European visitors who come to our city and say Well isn’t that cute, our market back home just celebrated its 1000th birthday!
You can tell them as charming as our little birthday may be the reason the Market is where it is in the first place was because for centuries previous Canada’s First Nations used this spot as their spring fishing grounds making the catching and trading of fish in the St. Lawrence Market area a practice that could be over 10,000 years old.
How cute is that?
