Lost Toronto Hotels

[LowPolygon]

I've often wondered why Toronto seemed to have so few grand old hotels downtown. Now i know--we tore them all down! Actually not all of them are grand or even all that large. Its kind of surprising how utilitarian and/or small many of these hotels are--many of them are more like inns almost. Some of the nicest ones are still with us, in degraded form. The Heydon House at Weston and St. Clair for instance. Others sadly, are long gone...

IROQUOIS HOTEL, northwest corner of King and York streets

WALKER HOUSE HOTEL, located on the south west corner of Front St. W. and York St.

PRINCE GEORGE HOTEL, southeast corner of King and York streets

SCHOLES HOTEL, located at 201-203 Yonge St., between Queen St. E. and Shuter St.

AVONMORE HOTEL southwest corner of Gerrard and Jarvis streets

BABLOOR HOTEL located at 1163-1167 Bay St., east side, between Charles St. W. and Bloor St. W.

BROADVIEW HOTEL on the north west corner of Queen St . East and Broadview Ave.

DOMINION HOTEL located at 498-500 Queen St. East, on the north west corner of Queen and Sumach St.

EDISON HOTEL located at 335-339 Yonge Street.

GRAYMAR HOTEL located at 29-31 Jarvis St., between Front St. E. and King St. E.

HEYDON HOUSE HOTEL, northwest corner of Weston Road and St. Clair Avenue

LENNOX HOTEL, 831 Yonge Street

HOTEL BREADALBANE, located at 2-8 Breadalbane St., on the north west corner of Yonge and Breadalbane.

HOTEL FALCONER, located on the northwest corner of King St and Spadina Ave.

HOTEL GERRARD, southeast corner of Parliament and Gerrard St.

HOTEL MUNICIPAL located at 67 Queen St. W., between Bay and York Streets.

HOTEL WIDMER, south-west corner of Bay Street and Adelaide Street.

NATIONAL HOTEL, located at 249-251 King St. E., on the south east corner of King and Sherbourne St.

OCEAN HOUSE HOTEL, located on the corner of King St and Queen St in Sunnyside

OULCOTTS HOTEL, 2388 Yonge Street

PICCADILLY HOTEL, Sandwich Bar, Dining Room located at 104-108 King St. W., on the north east corner of King and York St.

POWER HOUSE HOTEL, southeast corner of King Street and Spadina Avenue.

QUEENS HOTEL, site of Royal York Hotel.

HOTEL QUIGLEY, located at 2301 Danforth Ave., at Morton Rd.

ROSEDALE HOTEL, located at 1145 Yonge St., on the north east corner of Yonge and Shaftesbury Ave.

ROYAL OAK HOTEL, located at 376-380 Dundas St. E., on the north east corner of Dundas and Ontario St.

SHAMROCK HOTEL, southwest corner of River and Gerrard streets.

HOTEL SHELDON, located at 81 Victoria St., on the south east corner of Victoria and Richmond St. E.

ULSTER ARMS HOTEL, located at 1345 Gerrard Ave. E. , south side at Highfield Rd.

UNION HOTEL, located at 71-73 Queen St. W., south side, between York St. and Bay St.

 

[junctionist]

The Heydon House is now in rough shape. The lovely turret was gone by the 1950s.

It's typical of what happened with many of these hotels. They were converted into apartments with retail on the bottom. The Junction had its share of hotels.

 

[Mystery White Boy]

Toronto once again has done a great job preserving it's history...in books.

 

[jaborandi]

HOTEL BREADALBANE, located at 2-8 Breadalbane St., on the north west corner of Yonge and Breadalbane.

The Parkside - yeah!!!

 

[adma]

Ah the marvels of viewing things on the Web: scrolling down and BLAM the sign hits you...

 

[ShonTron]

The Heydon House is now in rough shape. The lovely turret was gone by the 1950s.

It's typical of what happened with many of these hotels. They were converted into apartments with retail on the bottom. The Junction had its share of hotels.

It took me a minute to recognize this one too, and the Weston Road and St. Clair intersection threw me until I figured out it meant Old Weston Road. Hotels like this (and the Gladstone, and the Rosedale) thrived on the railway strade - casual travellers, employees, but more likely travelling salesmen who would stay in railway hotels.

There's a few that are still "hotels", like the one that is now Jilly's, and the Falconer, later the Spadina Hotel, now a hostel. York and Adelaide or King and York seemed to be a major hotel corner from the mid 1800s through to the 1920s. Some of the big hotels now gone aren't included, like the Lord Simcoe (posthumously giving a title to the founder of York) and the Ford.

The grandest hotels survived.

 

[Fad225]

great thread! I wish we valued our heritage a little more back then!
amazing stuff!

 

[JasonParis]

I believe the Ulster Arms on Gerrard St E still exists on the west side of the Gerrard India Bazaar strip as a fading memory of the "orange" Toronto of yore.

 

[Archivist]

Poor old Heydon House. Not gone, but severely savaged. Interesting to see what it looked like in it's heyday.

 

[Redroom Studios]

great presentation! I wish we still had some of the cobblestone streets that are shown in some of those photos...

 

[Edward Skira]

Toronto once again has done a great job preserving it's history...in books.

A bunch of those still exist.

NATIONAL HOTEL, located at 249-251 King St. E., on the south east corner of King and Sherbourne St.

 

[Mustapha]

deep,

Thanks for this!!

Besides the long gone buildings it's neat to see the street scenes; the people going about their business. They are long gone too. Wonder what their stories were?

 

[Blovertis]

Re: the Heydon House before and after shots:

I would truly love to know what goes through the minds of property owners when they decide to deface these types of buildings. The same goes for the building next to the Heydon, which had its dormers lopped off.

 

[cabbagetowner]

where did you get these photos from? amazing!

 

[adma]

Re: the Heydon House before and after shots:

I would truly love to know what goes through the minds of property owners when they decide to deface these types of buildings. The same goes for the building next to the Heydon, which had its dormers lopped off.

An expedient way of dealing with obsolete, unsightly, and structurally unsound Victorian-era doodads that are of little use to anyone. Remember: this kind of post-Confederation eclecticism was deemed execrable until the 1960s, even by Eric Arthur types (who, at most, might have sniffed at it as an amateurish and provincial toe in the Richardson-Romanesque water). That they kept the buildings at all is probably because it paid the taxes, and was cheaper than tearing down and building anew. (Today, the philistines might choose to entomb Heydon House in EIFS, instead.)

As for this one...

...quite a mind-bender to note those dapper gents in front of where the Coffee Time (and the most sublimely Edward-Hopper-on-crank Coffee Time of all) now sits...