IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO
HERITAGE ACT
R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER O.18 AND
CITY OF TORONTO, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO
462 WELLINGTON STREET WEST
NOTICE OF INTENTION TO DESIGNATE
THE PROPERTY
TAKE NOTICE that Council for the
City of Toronto intends to designate the property, including the lands,
buildings and structures thereon known municipally as 462 Wellington Street
West under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.O.18,
as amended, as a property of cultural heritage value or interest.
Reasons for Designation
The property at 462 Wellington Street West is
worthy of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for
its cultural heritage value, and meets Ontario Regulation 9/06, the provincial
criteria prescribed for municipal designation under all three categories
of design and physical, historical and associative and contextual value.
Description
The property at 462 Wellington Street West is situated
on the north side of Wellington Street West between Portland Street and Spadina
Avenue in the King-Spadina neighbourhood. It contains the Northrop & Lyman
Co. Building, a five-storey factory/warehouse type building that was
constructed in 1917 for Northrop & Lyman Co. Ltd, one of the largest
dealers in patent medicines in the country, according to the designs of Leon S.
Yolles and Chapman & McGiffenn, the latter who designed such notable
buildings as Knox College at the University of Toronto. The property is
fashioned in the Edwardian Classical style. The property was occupied for the
greater portion of the 20th century by Northrop & Lyman Co. Ltd and now
serves as an office building.
The property at 462 Wellington Street West was
included on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register on November 21 and 23,
1973. At the time, the property was known as the Houlding Knitwear Building, as
Houlding Knitwear was a later occupant. The property is located within the
proposed King-Spadina Heritage Conservation District, adopted by City Council
in 2017 and currently under appeal.
Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
Design and Physical Value
The Northrop & Lyman Co. Building is valued
for its design and physical value as a representative example of an early-20th
century factory/warehouse type building in the King-Spadina neighbourhood with
Edwardian Classical detailing. The five-storey scale, rectangular form and
massing, brick cladding with stone detailing, and flat roofline are
characteristic of this building type. The Edwardian Classical style can be seen
in the principal (south) elevation in the symmetrical arrangement of the
openings, the segmental-arched openings in the first-storey, the flat-headed
openings in the remaining four-storeys, the stone cladding that rises to the
height of the second-storey windows with cut-stone detailing that wraps around
the southeast and southwest corners, the bulbous stone sills sitting below the
first-storey openings with a stone cornice above, the ornamental stone friezes
that rest atop the second-storey openings and are decorated with scrollwork in
the corners and stone cornices above, the stone lintels and sills in the
openings of the upper three-storeys, and in the pilasters which are punctuated
with stones cornices in the same storeys and the stone banding above that wraps
around the southeast and southwest corners. The style is further evident in the
side (east and west) elevations in the rhythmic arrangement of the
segmental-arched openings, the stone sills and triple-layered arched brick
detailing above, and in the central chimney in the side (east) elevation. Some
of the window openings in the side (west) elevation have since been bricked in.
Historical and Associative Value
The property at 462 Wellington Street West is
valued for its association with Northrop & Lyman Co. Ltd, who commissioned
the building to replace their earlier property on Front Street that had been
destroyed by fire in 1904. The patent medicine company was started in
Newcastle, Ontario, by Henry Stephen Northrop and John Lyman, both travelling
salesmen from Auburn, New York. After buying out Tuttle and Moses and renaming
it Northrop & Lyman Co. Ltd, they moved the company to Toronto after
experiencing exponential growth. They were originally located at 40 Scott
Street in 1874, then 21 Front Street West in 1879, and were temporarily located
at 86-88 Richmond Street West before relocating to the subject property on
Wellington Street West. The company became highly successful, and by the
late-1870s, Northrop & Lyman were being hailed as the largest dealers in
patent medicines in the country.
They continued to occupy the property at 462
Wellington Street West until the late-20th century.
The associative value of the property at 462
Wellington Street West is also through its connection with the two Toronto
architectural firms of Leon S. Yolles and Chapman & McGiffen. Yolles was an
architect practicing in Toronto from 1910-1916 and designed various industrial
and residential commissions for the Jewish community before WWI. Yolles was
amongst the first Jewish architects to work in the province. By 1917, he
changed his title to that of "contractor" and entered into a
partnership with Harry Rotenberg, a lawyer, under the title of Yolles &
Rotenberg, Contractors. They operated one of the earliest property development
companies in the city and designed and constructed several notable properties,
such as the Hobberlin Building and the Sterling Tower. Alfred Hirschfelder
Chapman and Robert B. McGiffin entered into partnership under the name Chapman
& McGiffen from 1908-19 and designed a wide variety of buildings, including
Rosedale Presbyterian Church and Knox College at the University of Toronto.
The property at 462 Wellington Street West has
additional associative value for its contribution to the understanding
of the historical development and evolution of the King-Spadina neighbourhood,
which originated as part of the Military Reserve that was established in the
late 1700s west of the Town of York and afterward subdivided and sold in the
early-19th century to support the westward expansion of the community. The plan
of subdivision incorporated two significant public spaces (Clarence Square and
Victoria Memorial Square, the latter with a military burial ground) that were
linked by an unusually wide boulevard named Wellington Place. As the area
changed from a residential precinct to Toronto's main industrial centre after
the Great Fire of 1904, most of the estate houses were replaced by large-scale
factories and warehouses, including the Northrop & Lyman Co. Building.
Contextual Value
Contextually, the Northrop & Lyman Co.
Building at 462 Wellington Street West supports and maintains the historic
character of the King-Spadina neighbourhood as it developed and evolved in the
19th and 20th centuries from its origins as an institutional and residential
community to the city’s manufacturing centre. In King-Spadina, the property at
462 Wellington Street West reflects the second phase of development of the
former Wellington Place from a 19th century residential enclave to an extension
in the early 20th century of the industrial district where warehouses,
including the Northrop & Lyman Co. Building, lined most of the street. Through
its placement, setback, and orientation on the north side of Wellington Street
West between Portland Street and Spadina Avenue, the Northrop & Lyman Co.
Building is physically, functionally, visually and historically linked to its
setting where with the neighbouring heritage properties, it contributes to the
enclave of former industrial buildings on Wellington Street West.
Heritage Attributes
Design and Physical Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
property at 462 Wellington Street West being a representative example of an
early 20th century factory/warehouse type building in the King-Spadina
neighbourhood with Edwardian Classical detailing:
·
The five-storey
scale, rectangular form and massing, and flat roof
·
The materials
including buff brick cladding with stone detailing
·
In the principal
(south) elevation:
·
The symmetrical
arrangement of the openings, the segmental-arched openings in the first-storey,
and the flat-headed openings in the remaining four-storeys
·
The stone cladding
that rises to the height of the second-storey windows with cut-stone detailing
that wraps around the southeast and southwest corners
·
The bulbous stone
sills sitting below the first-storey openings with a stone cornice above
·
The ornamental stone
friezes that rest atop the second-storey openings and are decorated with
scrollwork in the corners and stone cornices above
·
The stone lintels and
sills in the openings of the upper three-storeys, and in the pilasters which
are punctuated with stones cornices in the same storeys and the stone banding
above that wraps around the southeast and southwest corners
·
In the side (east and
west) elevations, the rhythmic arrangement of the segmental-arched openings,
the stone sills and triple-layered arched brick detailing above, and in the
central chimney in the side (east) elevation
Contextual Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
property as supporting the historic character of the King-Spadina
neighbourhood:
·
The five-storey
scale, rectangular form and massing, and flat roof
·
The materials
including buff brick cladding with stone detailing
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
property as being physically, functionally, visually and historically linked to
its setting where with it contributes to the enclave of former industrial
buildings on Wellington Street West:
· The placement, setback, and orientation of the property on the north side of Wellington Street West between Portland Street and Spadina Avenue
Notice of Objection to the Notice of Intention to Designate
Notice of an objection to the Notice of
Intention to Designate the Property may be served on the City Clerk, Attention:
Administrator, Secretariat, City Clerk's Office, Toronto City Hall, 2nd Floor
West, 100 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 2N2.; Email: hertpb@toronto.ca within thirty days of May 17, 2022, which is June 16, 2022. The notice
of objection to the Notice of Intention to Designate the Property must set out
the reason(s) for the objection and all relevant facts.
Getting Additional Information:
Further information in respect of the Notice of
Intention to Designate the Property is available from the City of Toronto at:
http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2022.CC43.5
Dated at the City of Toronto on May 17, 2022.
John D. Elvidge
City Clerk