Public Notice

TAKE NOTICE that Council for the City of Toronto intends to designate the property, including the lands, buildings and structures thereon known municipally as 224 Davenport Road 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 224 Davenport Road (now known as the Canada Bread Building) 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, associative and contextual value.

Description

Located on the north side of Davenport Road west of Avenue Road, the property at 224 Davenport Road contains a detached, two-storey brick commercial building originally designed in 1930 by architect F. H. Wilkes for the Canada Bread Company.

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value

Physical and Design Value

The property at 224 Davenport Road has design value as a representative example of an early-20th century classically-inspired brick-clad commercial building with its symmetrically-arranged four bays of flat-headed openings and stone entrance door surround on the principal (south) elevation. Decorative classical detailing is evident in the fluted door surround columns, carved stone inset above the entrance and stone and copper banding at the cornice line.

Historical and Associative Value

The property at 224 Davenport Road is valued for its association with the Canada Bread Company, for whom the building was designed in 1930 for its Toronto-based head office. One of the founders of the Canada Bread Company was Mark Bredin of the former Bredin Bread Company whose residence and factory were located around the corner at 158 and 160-164 Avenue Road.

The subject property contributes to an understanding of the character and community of the Avenue and Davenport area in the late-19th to early-20th century, when residential and commercial typologies in a range of architectural styles were constructed along these two streets at the edge of the Yorkville and Annex neighbourhoods.

The Canada Bread Company building is also valued for its association with the Canadian architect, Frances Hilton Wilkes, who was commissioned to design the company's new Toronto head office in 1930.

Contextual Value

Developed at the crossroads of two of the City's earliest annexed neighbourhoods, the Canada Bread Building is valued as a commercial property with historic, physical and visual links to its surroundings since the late-19th and early 20th century.

Heritage Attributes

• The setback, placement and orientation of the building on its lot on the north side of Davenport Road west of Avenue Road
• The scale, form and massing of the two storey rectangular plan on a raised stone base with flat roof
• The materials, with the red brick cladding on the principal (south) elevation and the stone and copper banding at the cornice line
• The principal (south) elevation of the building, which is organized into four symmetrical bays with openings
• The flat-headed window openings with their stone surrounds and sills on the principal (south) elevation
• The offset, raised main entrance at the east end of the principal (south) elevation with its stone door surround containing fluted columns, a decoratively carved stone inset and double doors with transom above
• The decorative metal fencing at street level on the principal (south) elevation

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 February 14, 2023, which is March 16, 2023. 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=2023.DM3.1