Old City Hall (Toronto)

Toronto's Old City Hall was home to its city council from 1899 to 1966 and remains one of the city's most prominent structures. It is at the corner of Queen and Bay Streets, east of the new City Hall in the centre of downtown Toronto. It has a distinctive clock tower which heads the length of Bay Street from Front St. to Queen.

Old City Hall was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1984.

History

Toronto Old City Hall was one of the largest buildings in Toronto and the largest civic building in North America. Although it is called Old City Hall, it is not actually the oldest one, it is the third one. Toronto’s third City Hall is located in 60 Queen Street West, heart of the city’s financial district. Edward James Lennox who was the winner of Toronto architecture competition finally accepted the council’s offer of a fee for his services in 1887. The building was under construction for more than a decade with a cost of more than $2.5 million. Due to the high thickness of the basement walls (more than 7 feet thick) and the massive foundation, the progress of the building was quite slow. Also devoting so much attention and time to details on exterior and interior of the building was possibly another reason to slow down the progress. The building is made of grey and red stone from Ontario’s Credit River Valley and New Brunswick. The advantage...
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