IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO
HERITAGE ACT
R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER O.18 AND
CITY OF TORONTO, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO
1196 YONGE STREET
(ENTRANCE ADDRESSES AT 1198 YONGE STREET AND 2
BIRCH AVENUE)
1202 AND 1204 YONGE STREET
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 1196 Yonge Street (including
entrance addresses at 1198 Yonge Street and 2 Birch Avenue), 1202 and 1204
Yonge Street 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 properties at 1196 (including entrance
addresses at 1198 Yonge Street and 2 Birch Avenue), 1202 and 1204 Yonge Street
are worthy of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act
for their cultural heritage value, and meet Ontario Regulation 9/06, the
provincial criteria prescribed for municipal designation under the categories
of design and physical, historical and associative, and contextual value.
Description
The Main Street Commercial Block building at
1196-1204 Yonge Street is located at the northwest corner of Yonge Street and
Birch Avenue – a historic transit hub in the City's north end where a busy
Yonge Street thoroughfare intersected at grade with the CPR rail line and its
train station south of the tracks, as well as the proposed southern terminus of
the Toronto and York Radial Company streetcar line whose tracks and terminals
were planned and partially executed just west of Yonge Street from Farnham to
Birch Avenue in 1911-1912 before the project was reversed by order of Privy
Council in the following year.
The City's regrading of this portion of Yonge
Street to increase pedestrian and vehicular safety through grade separation
between the street and the CPR tracks in 1914-1916 transformed this unique Main
Street Commercial Block building originally completed as a three-storey
structure in 1889. Over a series of alterations and excavation on the east and
south elevations of the subject building in response to this major
infrastructural project the basement level was exposed, increasing the building
height by one-storey and requiring relocation of the
original storefronts to this newly defined street level. The creatively
adaptive four-storey conversion resulting from this unique situation is
prominently situated directly north of the CPR rail line that necessitated the
vehicular underpass/rail overpass where it crosses Yonge Street at the edge of
the city's Summerhill neighbourhood. The subject building, together with the
abutting Main Street Commercial Row at 1206, 1208 and 1210 Yonge Street
(1907-1908), anchor the northwest quadrant of this historically significant
intersection of Yonge Street and the railway crossing and stands as a remnant
portion of the area's streetscape condition prior to the early-20th century
projects culminating in the current configuration of transportation
infrastructure at this location.
Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
Physical and Design Value
The existing four-storey, brick, Main Street
Commercial Block-type building at 1196-1204 Yonge Street is valued as a
significant representative example of the commercial and residential main
street row buildings constructed in Toronto during the Late-Victorian era that,
in this case, is also unique for its creative adaptation of an existing
late-19th century building to the regrading of this portion of Yonge Street
(1914-1916) to accommodate a new vehicular underpass/railway overpass across
Yonge for the intersecting CPR rail line. The architectural response to the new
topography of the site required excavation and exposure of the basement level
for relocation of the original storefronts to align with and permit pedestrian
access at the newly lowered and sloped street grade. This physical adaptation
and evolution of the building is valued as an enhancement to the original
design rather than a detraction.
The east elevation of the red brick Main Street
block maintains its overall 1889 design, style and detailing including its
five-bay vertical arrangement delineated by brick pilasters, a regular rhythm
of largely symmetrically-arranged window openings at the upper two storeys with
continuous brick string-coursing and drip-mouldings, and detailed cornice
woodwork with carved scroll brackets surmounted by distinctive
"birdhouse"-shaped capitals that wrapped around the corner of the
building at the east end of the south elevation.
Alterations to the 1889 building are evident in
the addition of an exposed basement level during the regrading of Yonge Street
followed soon after by the relocation of the original storefronts down to this
lower level, and the new second storey (former first storey) refitted for
additional residential units in keeping with the original two upper storeys.
Though a bay-by-bay approach to reconfiguration of the new second storey spaces
eschewed plans for a unified design for their east elevations, the bricking in
of the large original storefront openings and their replacement with smaller,
punched sash windows in vertical alignment with the two upper storeys clearly
indicates the intention to transform this level functionally, formally and
visually from retail to residential use in keeping with the two storeys above.
Historical and Associative Value
The building at 1196-1204 Yonge Street is valued
for its association with the widening and regrading of this portion of Yonge
Street in 1914-1916, a contentious and highly publicized infrastructural
project involving the City of Toronto, the Toronto and York Radial Company and
Canadian Pacific Railway Company. The resulting 2.5 degree slope of Yonge
Street to produce an 18ft height clearance below a new rail overpass is
physically manifested in the adapted and enhanced form of the subject property
from a three- to four-storey building by excavating and exposing the original
building's basement level as retail space to align with the new street grade.
The 1889 wooden cornice stretching across the top of the current second storey
on the east and (part of the south) elevations, survives as a reminder of the
location of the 1889 storefronts and the original grade of the street, as does
a floating door on the Birch Avenue (south) elevation.
All of these elements contribute to an
understanding of the building's physical and design evolution while maintaining
many of its original features that yield an understanding of the earlier,
historic condition of this portion of Yonge Street where it crossed the railway
tracks at grade. The building is also valued for the information it yields about
the turbulent political situation created by the ensuing civic transportation
infrastructure project involving all levels of government including the Privy
Council of Canada, as well as the City Beautiful movement during which it was
undertaken – an early urban planning effort promoting civic beauty through
architectural and urban design, of which the heritage-designated Beaux-Arts
style North Toronto Rail Station designed by Darling & Pearson in 1916 on
the southeast quadrant of this intersection stands as the crown jewel following
its own adaptations to the concurrent infrastructure activity on site.
Contextual Value
Contextually, the property has cultural heritage
value as it maintains and supports the historic character of this portion of
Yonge Street. Situated at the northwest corner of Yonge Street and Birch
Avenue, it is an important contributor as it maintains the late-19th to
early-20th century main street commercial built form evolution of the area.
Here, a historic precinct is formed at three of four points where Yonge Street
intersects with the CPR overpass, anchored by the landmark CPR North Toronto
Station (1916) with the adjoining late-19th century commercial buildings at
1095-1099, 1101 and 1105 Yonge and, on the west side of Yonge south of the
tracks, the collection of ten late-19th to early-20th century properties at
1148-1176 Yonge Street as well as the former Pierce Arrow Showroom (1930) at
1140 Yonge. All of the latter sites are
recognized on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register for their cultural
heritage value.
The Main Street Commercial Block building at
1196-1204 Yonge Street is historically, visually, functionally and physically
linked to its surroundings where it anchors the northwest corner of Yonge
Street and Birch Avenue as a significant example of its type with its massing
and stylistic details characteristic of the late-19th century and typically
located along the city's main commercial thoroughfares. The early-20th century
conversion of the subject building at 1196-1204 Yonge Street from three- to
four storeys speaks to the inextricable historical, visual, functional and
physical linkages of the property's evolved form to contemporary civic
infrastructural changes required by the adjacent and pre-existing CPR rail line.
Heritage Attributes
Design or Physical Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
Main Street Commercial Block building at 1196-1204 Yonge Street being a
significant and unique representative example of the type with Late-Victorian
era styling:
·
The setback,
placement and orientation of the building on its lot at the northwest corner of
Yonge Street and Birch Avenue
·
The existing
four-storey scale, form and massing on a rectangular plan with a flat roof
·
The materials, with
the red brick cladding (currently painted) and the brick, wood and stone
detailing
·
The corbelled brick
parapet along the roofline on the east elevation (currently missing on the
three southern-most bays of the building corresponding to 1196-1200 Yonge
Street)
·
The east elevation of
the building, which is organized vertically into five symmetrical bays, each
with sloped commercial storefront space at street level
·
The existing
arrangement of the segmental-arched window openings with their stone sills at
upper two storeys on the east elevation
·
The continuous
string-coursing and drip moulding between and above the window openings on the
upper two storeys of the east elevation and third storey of the south elevation
·
At the second-storey
level, the existing arrangement of the bricked in elevations with punched
window openings, which indicates the early-20th century affinity of this
original storefront level with the upper residential levels rather than the new
storefront level below
·
The south elevation of
this corner lot building (comprising 1196 Yonge Street plus its three-storey
tail with entrance address at 2 Birch Avenue), including the return openings at
the southeast corner of the first and second storeys that continue on the east
elevation and the wooden cornice and window surrounds with decorative wooden
scroll bracket surmounted by a "birdhouse" capital between the first
and second storeys at all five bays (currently missing on the south elevation)
Historical or Associative Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
subject building for its association with the 1914-1916 regrading of this
portion of Yonge Street:
·
The current first
storey of the building with its sloped grading and storefronts, as adaptively
relocated
·
The projecting wooden
cornice line and window surrounds spanning the east elevation and wrapping
around to the east end of the south elevation at the current second storey
residential level that originally defined the location of the 1889 storefronts
·
The
"floating" door opening near the west end of the second-storey on the
south elevation
Contextual Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
Main Street Commercial Block building at 1196-1204 Yonge Street as defining,
supporting and maintain the historic character of the area and being
historically, visually, functionally and physically linked to its setting:
·
The setback,
placement and orientation of the coroner building on its lot on the west side
of Yonge Street and north side of Birch 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 July 26, 2022, which is August 25, 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.CC47.39
Dated at the City of Toronto on July 26, 2022.
John D. Elvidge
City Clerk