Cherry Street Hotel

Last updated

Cherry Street Hotel
Exterior of Canary restaurant.jpg
The building awaiting redevelopment, in 2008
Cherry Street Hotel
Former names
  • Palace Street School
  • D'Arcy Hotel
  • Eastern Star Hotel
General information
Address425/441 Cherry Street
Town or city Toronto, Ontario
Country Canada
Coordinates 43°39′09″N79°21′27″W / 43.65250°N 79.35750°W / 43.65250; -79.35750
Opened1859
Design and construction
Architect(s)Joseph Sheard [1]

The Cherry Street Hotel is an 1859 heritage building [1] in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the southeast corner of Front Street and Cherry Street, in the West Don Lands neighbourhood. The structure was originally the Palace Street School, which closed in 1887. The building was converted into a hotel, and later became an industrial building housing small industry. In the 1960s, the Canary Restaurant opened. The building became a type of incubator, renting small spaces for artists and small businesses. The restaurant closed after the area around the building was demolished for the new West Don Lands community. The building has been integrated into the new community and its facade retained and restored. Its next use has not been announced. [2]

Contents

History

The building being used by the Tippet-Richardson moving company Cherry and Front SE corner TPL pictures-r-2793.jpg
The building being used by the Tippet-Richardson moving company

The Palace Street School opened in 1859. The school was designed by Joseph Sheard [1] who later became Mayor of Toronto. The original name of Front Street in this area was Palace Street, giving the school its name. At the time, the area was a residential area. The building was built to serve an increasing number of residents in the area. It was a free school of the Toronto Board of Education. The school had two rooms, each holding 80-90 students; one for boys and one for girls. [3] In 1882, when the structure was still a school, Georgina Riches was appointed its principal, stirring controversy. [4] According to Nancy Kiefer, writing in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography , this controversy is often attributed to Riches being Toronto's first female principal to be paid the same as a man. Kiefer, however, wrote that some of the opposition came from other female teachers, who had more experience, or who had the first class teaching certificate Reid lacked. The school was closed in 1887, its students transferring to a school on nearby Sackville Street, where Riches was also transferred. [4]

The building was sold to Robert Irvine, who remodelled it as a 40-room hotel known as the Irvine House. It was later sold to Mr. Darcy, who renamed it the Cherry Street Hotel. In 1904, the hotel was renamed the Eastern Star Hotel. [5] By 1910, the hotel had failed, and it was vacant from 1910 until 1922. It was taken over for industrial purposes by the Thomas Davidson Manufacturing Company, maker of enamel ware and Antipitzky Metal Company. An addition was built on the east side of the building and used for industrial and warehouse purposes, including the operation of General Steel Ware. [3] Later, Tippet & Richardson operated out of the building.

The neon sign for the old Canary Restaurant. Canary at Front and Cherry.jpg
The neon sign for the old Canary Restaurant.

In 1965, the Canary Restaurant relocated here from its original location at Dundas Street and University Avenue. Known as the Canary Grill, the restaurant was operated by the Vlahos family and it retained its 1960s era decor. [2] Its preserved decor was used for location shots for films set in that era. [6] The restaurant rented studio apartments to artists and spaces for small business. [3] The restaurant was likely located in the former tavern of the hotel. [3] The building was designated as a heritage structure on August 18, 1976. [1] The restaurant closed in 2007, unable to survive the decline in business due to the demolition of the area. [7] The interior was gutted, the signage removed and the brickwork and facades restored. [8]

Canary District

To the east, the former industrial site of the Maple Leaf Mills pork processing plant lay vacant after its closure. The Government of Ontario started the Ataratiri redevelopment plan in the 1980s to convert the brownfield site and proceeded to demolish many of the buildings nearby. The hotel building was bought by the Government of Ontario and plans were made to convert it into a community centre. However, the ballooning cost of the project and a downturn in the real estate market led the Ontario government to cancel the project. To the south, the nearby Gooderham and Worts distillery complex closed in 1990, but it was repurposed as the Distillery District pedestrian district of shops, restaurants and a brewery (Mill Street Brewery) in the old buildings in the early 2000s. [9]

In 2001, the new Waterfront Toronto agency was established, and one of the projects to be undertaken was to redevelop the Ataratiri site and the surrounding properties as part of a general waterfront revitalization. As part of the new plan for the "West Don Lands", the structure, and the CN Railway Police building across the street were preserved and restored when almost all the other buildings east of Cherry Street were demolished. In 2013, construction began on the residential condominiums buildings, larger and taller buildings, that dwarf the hotel. Those buildings served as the 2015 Pan American Games Athletes' Village. [2] After the games, the buildings became private residences, the "Canary District" development, named after the restaurant. Several other condominiums have been and will be developed. [2]

Related Research Articles

The Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, commonly known as the Gardiner Expressway or simply the Gardiner, is a partially at grade and elevated municipal expressway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Running close to the shore of Lake Ontario, it extends from the foot of the Don Valley Parkway (DVP) in the east, just past the mouth of the Don River, to the junction of Highway 427 and the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) in the west, for a total length of 18.0 kilometres (11.2 mi). East of Dufferin Street to just east of the Don River, the roadway is elevated for a length of 6.8 kilometres (4.2 mi), unofficially making it the longest bridge in Ontario, as it runs above Lake Shore Boulevard east of Spadina Avenue. The Gardiner Expressway is wholly owned and operated by the Province of Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Lawrence, Toronto</span> Neighbourhood in Canada, Ontario, Toronto

St. Lawrence is a neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The area, a former industrial area, is bounded by Yonge, Front, and Parliament Streets, and the Canadian National railway embankment. The Esplanade off Yonge St., lined with restaurants, cafés and hotels runs through the middle of the area. In previous times, the area was sometimes referred to as 'St. Lawrence Ward' or more often today as 'St. Lawrence Market', synonymous with the large retail vendor market which is the neighbourhood's focal point. The area is the site of a large city-sponsored housing project of the 1970s, which revitalized an old brownfields area. The boundaries of the St Lawrence Neighbourhood Association and the St Lawrence Market BIA are somewhat larger than those noted above. Both groups have boundaries that extend from Yonge to Parliament Streets and Queen Street East to the rail corridor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harbourfront, Toronto</span> Neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Harbourfront is a neighbourhood on the northern shore of Lake Ontario within the downtown core of the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Toronto waterfront, Harbourfront extends from Bathurst Street in the west, along Queens Quay, with its ill-defined eastern boundary being either Yonge Street or York Street. Its northern boundary is the Gardiner Expressway. Much of the district was former water lots filled in during the early 1900s to create a larger harbour district. After shipping patterns changed and the use of the Toronto harbour declined, the area was converted from industrial uses to a mixed-use district that is mostly residential and leisure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto waterfront</span> Shore of Lake Ontario in Toronto, Canada

The Toronto waterfront is the lakeshore of Lake Ontario in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It spans 46 kilometres between the mouth of Etobicoke Creek in the west and the Rouge River in the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Street (Toronto)</span> Thoroughfare in Canada

King Street is a major east–west commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was one of the first streets laid out in the 1793 plan of the town of York, which became Toronto in 1834.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto Harbour</span> Bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Toronto Harbour or Toronto Bay is a natural bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Today, the harbour is used primarily for recreational boating, including personal vessels and pleasure boats providing scenic or party cruises. Ferries travel from docks on the mainland to the Islands, and cargo ships deliver aggregates and raw sugar to industries located in the harbour. Historically, the harbour has been used for military vessels, passenger traffic and cargo traffic. Waterfront uses include residential, recreational, cultural, commercial and industrial sites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Front Street (Toronto)</span> Thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario

Front Street is an east–west road in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. First laid out in 1796, the street is one of the original streets of the Town of York. The street was laid out along the shoreline of Lake Ontario as it existed during that time. It remains an important street, with many important uses located along it, including the St. Lawrence Market, Meridian Hall, Union Station and the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The eastern section of Front Street, in the West Don Lands, east of Cherry Street, is being rebuilt as a broad tree-lined boulevard, intended to be the pedestrian-friendly commercial spine of the new neighbourhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queens Quay (Toronto)</span> Street in the Harbourfront neighbourhood of Toronto, Canada

Queens Quay is a prominent street in the Harbourfront neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street was originally commercial in nature due to the many working piers along the waterfront; parts of it have been extensively rebuilt in since the 1970s with parks, condominiums, retail, as well as institutional and cultural development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Distillery District</span> Neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Distillery District is a commercial and residential district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, east of downtown, which contains numerous cafés, restaurants, and shops housed within heritage buildings of the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery. The 13 acres (5.3 ha) district comprises more than forty heritage buildings and ten streets, and is the largest collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Downtown Toronto</span> Central business district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Downtown Toronto is the main central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the northwest, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don Valley to the east, and Bathurst Street to the west. It is also the home of the municipal government of Toronto and the Government of Ontario.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Lands</span> Neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Port Lands of Toronto, Ontario, Canada are an industrial and recreational neighbourhood located about 5 kilometres south-east of downtown, located on the former Don River delta and most of Ashbridge's Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Don Lands</span> Neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The West Don Lands are the site of a neighbourhood under construction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The area is bordered by the Don River, King Street, Parliament Street and the rail line adjacent to the Gardiner Expressway. It is 80 hectares in size. A former industrial area, the area is being rebuilt as a mixed-use neighbourhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliament Street (Toronto)</span> Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Parliament Street is a north–south street in the eastern part of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street runs from Bloor Street to Queens Quay and is the first major street west of the Don River.

East Bayfront LRT, also known as the Waterfront East LRT, is a planned Toronto streetcar line that would serve the East Bayfront and Port Lands areas in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It would run from Union station under Bay Street and along Queens Quay and Cherry Street to a new Villiers Loop along Commissioners Street east of Cherry Street on Villiers Island. It would complement the existing 509 Harbourfront service that connects Union Station to Queens Quay west of Bay Street. Longer-term plans are to extend the East Bayfront line from Cherry and Commissioners Streets to the planned East Harbour Transit Hub along GO Transit's Lakeshore East line and the planned Ontario Line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherry Street (Toronto)</span> Thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario

Cherry Street is a north-south arterial roadway in the eastern downtown of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is situated in a former industrial area, that is now the site of redevelopment. It connects Eastern Avenue south to Lake Shore Boulevard, then to the Toronto Port Lands district, and terminates at Lake Ontario at Cherry Beach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CN Railway Police building, Toronto</span> Heritage building in Ontario, Canada

The Canadian National Railway Police Building, also known as the Canadian National Railways Office Building is a 1923 heritage building in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the corner of Front Street and Cherry Street in the West Don Lands neighbourhood. The building served as the Toronto headquarters for the Canadian National Railways (CNR) police. It is one of two preserved buildings on Cherry Street that weren't demolished to make way for a new housing development, the other being the Cherry Street Hotel, across the street on the southeast corner. On April 14, 2005, the City of Toronto Council approved the listing of the property on the City of Toronto Heritage Property Inventory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canary District</span>

The Canary District is a planned neighbourhood in Toronto's West Don Lands mixed-use development. The area was formerky industrial land, cut off from the city by an elevated roadway and two rail corridors, sitting in a floodplain. Six initial buildings initially served as the 2015 Pan American Games Athletes' Village for the 2015 Pan American Games. Those buildings were then finished and converted to private residences. More buildings have since been constructed for private residences, with Front Street lined with stores, businesses and restaurants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 Pan American Games Athletes' Village</span>

The Athlete's village for the 2015 Pan American Games and 2015 Parapan American Games cost $735 million CAD and had the capacity to hold up to 7,200 athletes and officials. After the games the village was converted to 746 market priced condos, 41 market-priced town homes, 250 affordable-rent apartments, 257 student dormitory units for George Brown College, office and retail units, and a YMCA recreation centre. The Athlete's Village was located in the West Don Lands along Front Street between Bayview Avenue and Cherry Street in Toronto. The development was certified LEED Gold. Five satellite villages were also used to house athletes that were competing in venues far from the main village.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Villiers Island</span> Island in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Villiers Island is a 22-hectare (54-acre) area in Toronto's Port Lands being converted to an island. The project is a part of Port Lands Flood Protection Project by Waterfront Toronto. To prevent flooding from the Don River, a channel is being created to extend the river south and then west into Toronto Harbour providing another outlet and a more natural mouth for the Don River. The new channel effectively creates the island, which is also bounded by the Keating Channel and Toronto Harbour. Mixed-use residential development is planned for Villiers Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Distillery Loop and Cherry Street branch</span> Streetcar loop and branch line in Toronto

Distillery Loop is a streetcar loop in the Toronto streetcar system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that lies at the south end of the Cherry Street branch – originally dubbed the Cherry Street streetcar line – that runs from a streetcar junction on King Street East south along Sumach and Cherry Streets. The loop opened in June 2016 and is some of the newer streetcar infrastructure in the city. The Cherry Street branch is currently served by the 504A King streetcar route which has its eastern terminus at Distillery Loop.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Heritage Property Detail: 441 CHERRY ST". City of Toronto. Retrieved November 12, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Dempsey, Amy (May 30, 2012). "Is Toronto's newest neighbourhood named after a yellow bird?". Toronto Star . Retrieved August 2, 2013. Long before it was a greasy spoon, the brick building that housed the Canary was the Palace Street School. Constructed in 1859, it is now the oldest surviving public school building in the city.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Palace Street School and Cherry Street Hotel". Lost Rivers. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Nancy Kiefer. "Reid (Reed, Read), Georgina Stanley (Riches)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography . Retrieved August 3, 2013. On September 6, 1882 Riches was appointed principal of Palace Street School, at the corner of Front and Cherry streets. The appointment immediately generated controversy. A number of female teachers with higher certificates protested "ill-judged favoritism". In addition, two petitions were presented, one from the ratepayers of St Lawrence Ward and the other from the parents of children attending the school, against a female head.
  5. "Cherry St. Hotel, Front St. E., s.e. cor. Cherry St". Toronto Public Library. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  6. David Fleischer (December 29, 2009). "Reel Toronto: Get Rich or Die Tryin'". Torontoist . Retrieved August 2, 2013. More bad doings here, at the former Canary Restaurant. There's some love for the interior…
  7. "This Canary is singing the blues: The venerable Canary Restaurant has died, unable to survive the lean times while awaiting waterfront revitalization". Canada.com. April 3, 2007. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved August 2, 2013.
  8. Rick McGinnis (January 22, 2010). "The Gutting of the Canary Reveals Its Past, but Can it Survive the Wrath of the Pan Am Games?". Blog TO . Retrieved August 1, 2013.
  9. "West Don Lands precinct plan" (pdf). Waterfront Toronto. May 2005. p. 12. Retrieved November 12, 2015. The re-use of the historic street pattern, wherever possible, combined with the preservation of key landmark buildings that remain, also forms a critical basis to the development of this Plan. The successful redevelopment of the historic Distillery becomes a key reference point, as does the recommended preservation of the Canary Restaurant and former CN Police Building at the intersection of Front and Cherry Streets. This intersection forms the heart of the community that emerges here over time, with the historic buildings at the corners, providing a key link to the area's past.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Cherry Street Hotel at Wikimedia Commons