IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO
HERITAGE ACT
R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER O.18 AND
CITY OF TORONTO, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO
6-8 AND 10-12 SUMACH 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 6-8 and 10-12 Sumach 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 6-8 and 10-12 Sumach 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/physical, historical/associative, and contextual value.
Description
Located at the foot of "old" Sumach
Street, just north of Eastern Avenue in the historic Corktown neighbourhood,
the four properties at 6-8 and 10-12 Sumach Street comprise two adjacent pairs
of 2.5-storey semi-detached house-form buildings completed between 1886 and
1889.
The subject properties were identified as having
cultural heritage value through the King-Parliament Secondary Plan Review
(2019) and were included on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register in December
2020.
Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
Built as two identical pairs between 1886 and
1888, the four properties at 6-8 and 10-12 Sumach Street are valued as fine
surviving examples of Late Victorian-era workers' housing, which proliferated
in the King-Parliament area during the second half of the 19th century. As two
pairs of semi-detached house-form buildings, the subject properties represent a
key building typology in King-Parliament, which originated in the 1800s as a
residential and institutional enclave where the side streets and many of the
main streets were lined with detached, semi-detached and row houses.
The semi-detached properties at 6-8 and 10-12
Sumach Street are distinguished by their adaptation of the Ontario House type
in response to the narrow lots and high density of housing in one of the city's
poorest neighbourhoods. Defining features of the type include a centred
entrance on the principal elevation surmounted by a small roof gable containing
a round-arched opening and with rooms located to either side. The semi-detached
variation found at 6-8 and 10-12 Sumach Street maintains the perception of symmetrical
organization of openings characteristic of the Ontario House type but
accommodates two centred main entrances to two separate dwellings beneath a
shared centred roof gable. Additional features of the Ontario House type found
at the subject properties include the Gothic Revival styling, with their
dichromatic brickwork, decorative bargeboards in the centred gables, and carved
wooden brackets beneath the eaves and sills.
The properties at 6-8 and 10-12 Sumach Street
are valued for their historic association with the history and development of
the King-Parliament area during its Urban & Industrial Expansion
(1850-1914) period of significance, as an urban townscape combining industrial,
commercial and residential functions. They are also valued for their role in
the King-Parliament theme of Industrial Decline & Post-War Urban Renewal
(1945-1970), whereby the four residential properties narrowly escaped
demolition to make way for the adjacent Don Valley Parkway-related Richmond
Street Bridge and Adelaide Street Bridge that cut through Corktown's 19th to
early-20th century built fabric, including the removal of over 200 residential
properties.
Contextually, the properties at 6-8 and 10-12
Sumach Street are valued for their role in supporting the low-scale, 19th
century residential character of the King Parliament area containing the
historic Corktown neighbourhood and reflecting the area's evolution from a
19th-century residential and institutional enclave and one of Toronto’s
manufacturing centres in the first half of the 20th century, to its current
status as a mixed-use community. Having narrowly survived the replacement of
much of the earlier residential building stock in the area during the 20th
century, in this case due to construction of the adjacent Richmond Street
Bridge and Adelaide Street Bridge, the subject properties are valued as
surviving examples of the impact on housing and communities of urban renewal
efforts that transformed the area in the mid-20th century.
The properties at 6-8 and 10-12 Sumach Street
are also historically and visually linked to their setting on the original
southern portion of Sumach Street at Eastern Avenue. Significant transportation
projects in the 1960s severed this southernmost block into a stub, including
the construction of the Richmond Street Bridge from the westbound off-ramp of
the Don Valley Parkway and the eastbound Adelaide Street Bridge, as well as the
realignment of Sumach Street south of King Street East on a slight curve to the
west and connecting to Cherry Street at the intersection of Eastern Avenue.
Despite these interventions on the area's streetscape, the subject properties
survive among a significant collection of late-19th to early-20th century
residential, institutional and commercial buildings on both sides of the
overhead parkway ramps, including the adjacent James Quinn Row Houses to the
north at 2-10 and 1-17 Percy Street (1885-1890), Sackville Street Public School
at 19 Sackville Street (1887), and the warehouse at 506 King Street East
(1923), all of which are recognized on the City's Heritage Register.
Heritage Attributes
Design or Physical Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the properties as fine
examples of a semi-detached variation on the Ontario House type with Gothic
Revival styling:
·
The 2.5-story scale,
form and massing of the two pairs of semi-detached house-form buildings on
their rectangular plans with rear tails and gable roofs
·
The principal (east)
elevations of the four properties, perceived on the exterior as two Ontario
House buildings but each containing two mirrored properties organized into two
bays, with the inner bay containing the main entrance and the outer bay containing
a flanking window opening at the first and second storeys
·
On each of the two
semi-detached buildings, the small, centred gable roof containing a
round-arched, louvered opening
·
The materiality with
the red and buff brickwork; wooden bargeboards and finial, door and transom
trim, and carved brackets; stained glass door transom (8 Sumach); and stone
sills
Contextual Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
properties at 6-8 and 10-12 Sumach Street in supporting the low-scale, 19th
century residential character of the area:
Attributes that contribute to the value of the properties at 6-8 and
10-12 Sumach Street as being historically and visually linked to their setting:
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:
Registrar Secretariat, City Clerk's Office, Toronto City Hall, 2nd Floor West,
100 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 2N2.; Email: RegistrarCCO@toronto.ca within thirty (30) days
of December 22, 2025, which is January 21, 2026. 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:
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.PH26.15.
Dated at the City of Toronto on December 22, 2025.
John D. Elvidge
City Clerk