Public Notice

IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO HERITAGE ACT

R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER O.18 AND

CITY OF TORONTO, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO

55 ELM STREET

(ENTRANCE ADDRESS 650 BAY 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 55 Elm 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 

Description 

Located at the southwest corner of Bay and Elm Streets in the historic St. John's Ward neighbourhood, the property at 55 Elm Street (entrance address at 650 Bay Street) contains a 3-storey commercial building constructed in 1891 along with the abutting row of house-form buildings at 57-65 Elm Street. 

In 2015, Heritage Toronto recognized the property with a historical plaque commemorating the notable public health dentist, Dr. John G. C. Adams, whose public health dental clinic was located there in the late 19th - early 20th century. The plaque stands in the public right-of-way directly across from the building's main entrance at the southwest corner of Bay and Elm streets.

The subject property was listed on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register in March 2021.

Design and Physical Value

The subject property is valued as a representative example of Renaissance Revival architecture, which was a popular Victorian-era style derived from 16th-century Italy and favoured for commercial architecture in late-19th century Toronto. Features typical of the astylar version of the style and found in the design of 55 Elm Street include the Florentine-esque preference to forego columns and ornate applied decoration; the hierarchical arrangement of the flat-headed and arched window openings at the second and third storeys, respectively, with their stepped, brick drip moulds and continuous string-coursing; the flat roof with parapet and finials (the latter element has been removed); and, the defining tripartite Palladian windows at the first-floor level.

Historical and Associative Value

The property at 55 Elm Street is also valued for its ability to yield information about the historic St. John's Ward community bounded by Yonge Street, Queen Street West, University Avenue and Bloor Street West. Also known as 'The Ward' and Toronto's first immigrant neighbourhood, the area's historic character was defined as a low-scale, predominantly residential area interspersed with social and cultural institutions and charitable organizations serving the local working-class residents from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century. Today, the largest contiguous collection of The Ward-era heritage properties is located along three blocks of Elm Street between Yonge Street and University Avenue where it continues to provide an understanding of the building types and uses associated with this significant historic community. Among that collection stands the three-storey heritage property at 55 Elm Street, located along the historic spine of The Ward at the corner of Bay (then Teraulay Street) and tenanted over the course of that time by institutions significant to The Ward community. 

Throughout its history, The Ward attracted various social reformers who sought to influence the neighbourhood’s working-class population and the property at 55 Elm Street is valued for its direct historical association with the rich social history of institutions and organizations in The Ward. Firstly, the property is valued for its direct association with the Canadian Temperance League and its associated Temperance League Coffee House Company who commissioned and initially tenanted the subject property which was designed to address the perceived social ills of alcohol in working-class communities. Secondly, the property is valued for its direct association with the notable dentist, Dr. John Gennings Curtis Adams, whose Dental Institute was located here from 1897-1913. Dr. Adams is considered the father of public health dentistry in Canada, devoting his practice to providing free dental care to families in poverty, particularly children. Also noted as the first dentist of record employed at Sick Kids hospital in 1883, Dr. Adams' significant efforts helped establish the model for public health dentistry in local public schools beginning in 1911. 

Contextual Value

The property at 55 Elm Street, along with more than twenty other Ward-era heritage properties located along Elm Street between Yonge Street and Chestnut Street, is valued for maintaining the historic St. John's Ward character defined by social and cultural institutions and organizations interspersed among house-form buildings, and exhibiting an eclectic array of Victorian-era styles with an overall 2-4 storey scale, brick and/or stone materiality and little to no setbacks.

Anchoring the southwest corner of Bay and Elm streets, the property at 55 Elm Street is visually and historically linked to its surroundings where it knits together the city's largest contiguous collection of surviving properties associated with the historic St. John's Ward neighbourhood. Stretching along three contiguous blocks of Elm Street between Yonge and Chestnut streets, this significant collection includes the heritage properties on both sides of Elm Street, east of Bay with those west of Bay including the abutting row of house-form buildings at 57-71 Elm Street and the former House of Industry at 87 Elm Street, west of Elizabeth Street. 

Heritage Attributes

Design and Physical Value

The following heritage attributes contribute to the cultural heritage value of the subject property as being representative of a late-19th century commercial building designed in the Renaissance Revival style:

• The flat roof (currently missing its brick parapet)
• The arrangement and type of window openings with their stone sills on the two principal (east and north) elevations, including Palladian, round-arched and flat-headed
• The round-arched main entrance at the base of the northeast chamfer corner fronting onto the intersection of Bay and Elm Streets
• The red brick detailing, including voussoirs, stepped drip moulds and continuous string-courses 

Contextual Value

The following heritage attributes contribute to the cultural heritage value of the subject property as maintaining the character of the historic St. John's Ward neighbourhood:

• The scale, form and massing of the 3-storey commercial building on a rectangular plan with two principal (east and north) elevations and chamfered northeast corner
• The materials with the red brick cladding and brick and stone detailing

The following heritage attributes contribute to the cultural heritage value of the subject property as being visually and historically linked to its surroundings:

• The setback, placement and orientation of the building on its lot at the southwest corner of Bay and Elm streets, and abutting the historically associated, Ward-era house-form buildings at 57-71 Elm Street

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 August 4, 2026, which is September 3, 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=2026.PH32.15.