IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO
HERITAGE ACT
R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER O.18 AND
CITY OF TORONTO, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO
262-264 ST. GEORGE 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 262-264 St. George 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 comprising the Annex style
house-form building at 262-264 St. George Street are worthy of designation
under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for their cultural value
and meet Regulation 9/06, the provincial criteria prescribed for municipal
designation.
Description
Located on the west side of St. George Street
between Dupont Street and Bernard Avenue in the Annex neighbourhood, the two
semi-detached properties at 262-264 St. George Street were constructed together
in 1893 as a 3-storey brick and stone house-form building comprising of two
single-family residences, which now contain multiple units.
The subject properties have been recognized on
the City's Heritage Register since July 2, 1974, for their cultural heritage
value.
Statement of Cultural
Heritage Value
The pair of semi-detached properties at 262-264
St. George Street have design and physical value for being an early
representative example of the Annex style building constructed in 1893 within
Simeon H. Janes' Annex subdivision. The Annex style, identified as a blend of
the Richardsonian Romanesque and Queen Anne architectural styles, was coined to
describe one of the most prevalent residential architectural styles found in
the Annex neighbourhood. Defining features of the style include the asymmetrical
and complex roofline including gables, roof dormers, sleeping porches, chimneys
and turrets, each of which are present across the roofscape of the pair of
semi-detached properties at 262-264 St. George Street. Further defining
features of the style found at the subject properties include the material use
of rusticated stone, red brick, clay, and wood, including: the sandstone
foundation, stone brackets, sandstone sills, lintels, corner blocks and
capitals; red brick laid in stretcher bond and raised brick aprons; clay tile
shingles with their fish scale patterning and set within the gable; and the
wooden balustrade with flanking, fluted pilasters on the sleeping porch, and
the detailed wooden cornice moulding below the second and third storeys.
The subject properties have historical value for
their role in the history and evolution of the Annex community, where they
survive as a part of a collection of the house-form buildings directly
associated with the late-19th century subdivision that contains the presence of
diverse and unique building forms that housed its community of
multi-generational residents from its inception as a neighbourhood as
envisioned by Simeon H. Janes. The properties form one of the earliest
structures built on the block between Dupont Street and Bernard Avenue,
following Simeon H. Janes’ subdivision of this portion of the Annex
neighbourhood in 1886, which were designed to attract the wealthy elite. Due to
shifts in demographics during the 1920s, whereby the city's elite that first
established the area moved on to Rosedale and farther north from downtown as
the city grew northward, the properties at 262-264 St. George Street survived
through conversion from single-family dwellings into an apartment house, at 262
St. George Street, and a multi-tenant rooming house, at 264 St. George Street,
contained within their original house-form envelope. This second wave of
residents to the Annex neighbourhood included students, wartime workers and,
increasingly, nearby immigrant communities. The properties contribute to an
understanding of the evolution of housing
in the Annex and demonstrates how the earliest built forms have been adapted to
evolve and grow within the community to accommodate its residents.
Contextually, the properties at 262-264 St.
George Street are important in defining, maintaining, and supporting the
overall historic character of the Annex neighbourhood, which encompasses the
lands between Bathurst Street and Avenue Road and between Bloor Street West and
Dupont Street. The subject properties contribute to the character of St. George
Street which features an intermingling of the neighbourhood's earliest single
family residences, which retain their grand architectural form following the
conversion of use beginning in the 1920s to multi-tenant residential buildings,
alongside mid-century low- to high-rise apartment buildings.
The properties are historically linked to their
setting and surroundings in the Annex neighbourhood, where their scale and form
reflect the late-nineteenth to early-twentieth century development of the area
where the city's leading citizens occupied large-scale houses.
Heritage Attributes
Design and Physical Value
The following heritage attributes contribute to
the cultural heritage value of the properties at 262-264 St. George Street as a
representative example of the Annex style:
·
The 3-storey scale,
irregular form and massing of the semi-detached properties on their rectangular
plans including the gables and openings on the flanking elevations
·
The organisation of
the two main (east) elevations with their arrangement of window and door
openings, including a 2-storey projecting bay window and a stained glass window
on the south elevation of 262 St. George Street
·
The asymmetrical
roofscape, including the main (east) front gable with sleeping porch roof
gabled roof dormer with window opening on the south elevation at 262 St. George
Street, a centred red brick chimney articulated with two bas-relief arches, and
roof dormer window with conical roof and 2-storey corner turret capped with a
conical roof containing four flat-headed window openings at 264 St. George
Street
·
The raised and
recessed entrance at 262 St. George Street, including the paneled wooden door
with transom, red brick columns with their stone caps supporting broad stone
lintels, wooden railing, and stairs
Contextual Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
properties at 262-264 St. George Street as helping to define, maintain, and
support the historic early character of the Annex community:
·
The 3-storey scale
and red brick, stone, most of which is sandstone, and wood materiality
·
The location of the
properties within the concentration of late-nineteenth and early twentieth
century residential structures and mid-century low- to high-rise apartment
buildings in the Annex
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
properties at 262-264 St. George Street as being historically linked to their
surroundings:
·
The setback,
placement and orientation of the properties on St. George Street, north of
Bernard 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:
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.PH26.13.
Dated at the City of Toronto on December 22, 2025.
John D. Elvidge
City Clerk