IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO
HERITAGE ACT
R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER O.18 AND
CITY OF TORONTO, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO
1206, 1208 AND 1210 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 1206, 1208 and 1210 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 1206, 1208 and 1210 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
Built in 1907-1908, the set of three Main Street
Commercial Row buildings at 1206-1210 Yonge Street is located on the west side
of Yonge Street just north of 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 resulted in partial
excavation of the basement level and the addition of raised and recessed entry
stairs to the main storefront entrances at 1206 and 1208 Yonge Street to align
with this newly defined street level. The subject buildings, together with the
abutting Main Street Commercial Block at 1196-1204 Yonge Street (1889), anchor
the northwest quadrant of this historically significant intersection of Yonge
Street 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, standing 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 collection of three, 2-storey, brick Main
Street Commercial Row-type buildings at 1206-1210 Yonge Street is valued as a
significant representative example of the commercial and residential main
street row buildings constructed in Toronto during the Edwardian era. The
principal (east) elevations fronting onto Yonge Street maintains much of its
1907-1908 design, style and detailing including the floor-to-ceiling storefront
window openings with off-set entrances at street level with wooden cornice
above, centred bay window with brick header at the second storey, and all
surmounted by a decorative brickwork cornice at the roofline at 1206 and 1210.
Archival photos indicate that the middle
property at 1208 Yonge Street originally contained a semi-circular parapet wall
that has since been removed.
The architectural response to the newly lowered
and sloped street grade along this portion of Yonge Street required the
addition of raised and recessed stairs up to the main entrances on the
principal (east) elevations to permit pedestrian access. The properties at
1206-1208 1206-1208 include a short flight of entrance steps that lead up to a
recessed ground floor entrance while the stairs at 1210 Yonge are internal to
the entrance. This physical adaptation and evolution of the entry stairs is
valued as an enhancement to the original design rather than a detraction.
Historical and Associative Value
The row of mixed-use buildings at 1206-1210
Yonge Street, along with the adjacent corner property at 1196-1204 Yonge 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 entries of the subject
properties by partially excavating and exposing the original basement to align
with the new street grade.
All of these elements contribute to an understanding of the collection's physical
and design evolution while maintaining many of the 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 properties are also
valued for the information they yield 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 set of three Main Street
Commercial Row buildings have cultural heritage value for maintaining and
supporting the historic character of this portion of Yonge Street. Situated
together on the west side of Yonge Street between Birch Avenue and Alcorn
Avenue, along with the adjacent Main Street Commercial Block building at
1196-1204 Yonge, the properties survive as important contributors in
maintaining the late-19th to early-20th century main street commercial built
form evolution of the area. Here, a broader 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 Row at 1206-1210
Yonge Street is historically, visually, functionally
and physically linked to its surroundings where it stands on the west side of
Yonge Street north of Birch Avenue as a significant example of its type with
its massing and stylistic details characteristic of the early-20th century and
typically located along the city's main commercial thoroughfares. The
conversion of the subject buildings following their lowering in 1914-1916 to
incorporate raised and recessed entry stairs speaks to the inextricable
historical, visual, functional and physical linkages
of their 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 Row at 1206-1210 Yonge Street being a significant
representative example of the type with Edwardian era styling:
·
The setback, placement and orientation of the properties on their adjacent
mid-block lots on the west side of Yonge Street between Birch Avenue and Alcorn
Avenue
·
The 2-storey scale, form and massing of the properties on a rectangular plan
with a flat roof
·
The materials, with
the red brick cladding (currently painted) and the brick and wood detailing
·
The corbelled brick
cornice along the roofline at 1206 and 1210 Yonge Street on the east elevation
·
The semi-circular
parapet wall along the roofline at 1208 Yonge Street (currently missing)
·
The east elevation of
the three properties, each with commercial storefront space at street level and
residential bay window above (bay currently missing at 1206 Yonge Street)
·
The continuous wooden
cornice above the first storey that spans the east elevation of all three
properties
·
At the second-storey
level, the decorative brick headers above the centred window openings
Historical or Associative Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
subject buildings for their association with the 1914-1916 regrading of this
portion of Yonge Street:
·
The raised and
recessed main entrances on the east elevations, including the internal main
entrance stair alteration at 1210 Yonge Street
Contextual Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
Main Street Commercial Row buildings at 1206-1210 Yonge Street as defining,
supporting and maintain the historic character of the area and being
historically, visually, functionally and physically
linked to their setting:
·
The setback, placement and orientation of the properties on their adjacent
mid-block lots on the west side of Yonge Street between Birch Avenue and Alcorn
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