Item - 2021.PB21.6

The Toronto Preservation Board recommends to the Toronto and East York Community Council that:  

1. City Council include the following properties on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register in accordance with the Listing Statements (Reasons for Inclusion), attached as Attachments 3-5 to the report (January 25, 2021) from the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning:

55 Elm Street (entrance address at 650 Bay Street)

57 Elm Street

59 Elm Street

61 Elm Street

63 Elm Street

65 Elm Street

67 Elm Street

69 Elm Street

71 Elm Street

Liz McFarland, Planner, Heritage Preservation, Urban Design, City Planning gave a presentation on Inclusion on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register- 55 Elm Street (650 Bay Street) and 57-71 Elm Street.

This report recommends that City Council include the following nine properties on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Register for their cultural heritage value:

55 Elm Street (entrance address at 650 Bay Street)

57 Elm Street

59 Elm Street

61 Elm Street

63 Elm Street

65 Elm Street

67 Elm Street

69 Elm Street

71 Elm Street

The subject properties are situated on the south side of Elm Street, between the southwest corner of Bay & Elm streets and Elizabeth Street. The group contains a 3-storey corner commercial building featuring Renaissance Revival styling and built together with five attached 2.5-storey Bay-n-Gable dwellings in 1891. Completing the row of house-form buildings at the west end are three Edwardian brick dwellings built c.1903-1909 to replace earlier wood-frame structures on the site.

Historically located within The Ward, one of Toronto's most significant neighbourhoods in the 1840s-1950s, this collection of late 19th century-early 20th century buildings is valued as the only surviving group dating from that period on this block of Elm Street between Bay and Elizabeth streets. The block of Elm Street east of Bay toward Yonge Street shares a similar history on its south side with its numerous house-form dwellings (many with retail space at grade) also dating to the second half of the 19th century and already included on the City's Heritage Register. On the north side of Elm Street, the Richardsonian Romanesque Arts and Letters Club and St. George's Hall complete the remaining heritage building stock from this early period at the east end of Elm, while the former House of Industry at 87 Elm Street bookends the collection west of Elizabeth Street. Together, this 19th century collection of various historic building types and uses speaks to the uniqueness of Elm Street – a destination for locals and visitors alike.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the city's "forgotten neighbourhood" called Greenwich Village thrived in this immediate area, where 19th century house-form buildings were painted in bright colours and served as bookstores, cafes and studio spaces for significant Canadian artists, writers and singers. The heart of the Village, located directly north of the subject properties (on Gerrard Street West between Bay and Elizabeth streets), contains six 19th century house-form dwellings already listed on the Heritage Register. The surviving collection of buildings directly south at Bay and Elm further support an understanding of this Greenwich Village neighbourhood vibe, while much of the rest of the area's early streetscape was demolished to make way for new civic buildings, offices and hospitals, and forcing the local arts community to relocate further north in Yorkville through the 1970s.    

Following further research and evaluation, it has been determined that the properties at 55 Elm Street (650 Bay Street) and 57-71 Elm Street meet Ontario Regulation 9/06, the criteria prescribed for municipal designation under Part IV Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, which the City of Toronto also applies when evaluating properties for its Heritage Register.

Properties on the Heritage Register will be conserved and maintained in accordance with the Official Plan Heritage Policies.

The subject properties were identified in Heritage Planning's Elm Street Survey in 2018.