Old City Hall (Toronto) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Old City Hall |
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Toronto's Old City Hall
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| Former names | City Hall |
| General information | |
| Type | Civic building, court house |
| Architectural style | Richardsonian Romanesque |
| Location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Address | 60 Queen Street West |
| Coordinates | 43°39′9″N 79°22′54″W / 43.65250°N 79.38167°W |
| Current tenants | Ontario Court of Justice |
| Construction started | 1889 |
| Completed | 1899 |
| Inaugurated | September 18, 1899 |
| Renovated | 1980s, 2002 |
| Owner | City of Toronto |
| Height | 103.64 m (340.0 ft) (tower) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 7 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Edward James Lennox |
| Designated: | 1984 |
The Old City Hall is a historic building in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is built in a special style called Richardsonian Romanesque. This building was once the main place where the Toronto City Council met. That was from 1899 until 1966.
Today, Old City Hall is still a very important building in Toronto. It is located at the corner of Queen and Bay Streets. It stands across from Nathan Phillips Square and the new City Hall. The building has a famous clock tower that you can see from far away. In 1984, Old City Hall was named a National Historic Site. This means it is a very important place in Canadian history.
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History of Old City Hall
When Old City Hall was finished in 1899, it was one of the biggest buildings in Toronto. It was also the largest city building in all of North America. This was Toronto's third city hall. It held the city government and courts for both York County and Toronto. York County offices were here from 1900 to 1953.
Building the Hall
A famous Toronto architect named Edward James Lennox designed the building. It took more than ten years to build. The cost was over $2.5 million, which would be about $53 million today. Work started in 1889. The building was made from different types of sandstone. Stone came from the Credit River valley, the Orangeville, Ontario area, and New Brunswick.
Some city councillors were upset about the high costs and delays. So, they did not want to put a plaque with Lennox's name on the building. But Lennox found a clever way to "sign" his work. He had stonemasons carve his name, "EJ LENNOX ARCHITECT AD 1898," under the roof eaves all around the building.
Public Spaces and Memorials
Planners once wanted a big public square in front of Old City Hall. It was going to be called Victoria Square. They imagined a statue of Queen Victoria in the middle. But this plan was never built. A smaller space was made instead.
At the bottom of the steps on Queen Street is the Cenotaph. This is a special monument built in 1925. It honours people from Toronto who died fighting for Canada. This includes those from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and peacekeeping missions. People gather here every Remembrance Day on November 11.
Changes Over Time
Four gargoyles were part of the Clock Tower when it was built in 1899. But they were removed in 1938 because the weather damaged them. In 2002, new bronze gargoyles were put back. These new ones are not exactly like the old ones because the original designs were lost.
Even though it was very big, Old City Hall soon became too small for Toronto's growing government. So, a new city hall was built across the street. It was finished in 1965. In the 1960s, there were plans to tear down Old City Hall to build a shopping mall. But people protested, and the building was saved. After that, Old City Hall became a full-time courthouse.
Future of the Building
Today, the building is used as a courthouse for the Ontario Court of Justice. The City of Toronto has spent a lot of money to fix up the building. This includes restoring the outside and the tall clock tower. There has been talk about turning parts of the building into a museum for the city.
Architecture and Design
Old City Hall looks like a huge square building with a courtyard in the middle. The clock tower is not exactly in the center of the front. This was done on purpose to make it a special view from Bay Street. Even with the tower off-center, the building still looks balanced. This is because of the repeated patterns and details in its design.
The outside walls are made of rough-looking stone. You can see many columns grouped together around the windows.
Romanesque Revival Style
Architect E. J. Lennox designed Old City Hall in a style called Richardsonian Romanesque. This style is a type of Romanesque Revival architecture. It was made popular by an architect named Henry Hobson Richardson. This style uses big, heavy stone shapes and lots of carvings.
The original Romanesque style came from Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries. It had features like square towers, round arches, and heavy stonework. In the mid-1800s, this style became popular again. Richardson added things like round towers with cone-shaped roofs. He also used stones of different colours. Carvings of people and animals are also common in this style. Lennox was very interested in Richardson's work. He even traveled to the United States to study it while planning Old City Hall.
You can see these influences in Old City Hall. It has many arches and towers. The use of different coloured stones also shows the Romanesque style. The outside and inside of the building have amazing details. Near the entrance, there are many carved faces in the stone. It is said that one of these faces, with a handlebar moustache, is a carving of Lennox himself! The others are said to be caricatures of city councillors.
The whole building has decorations inspired by ancient Roman art. The different coloured stones also create patterns. The stone carvers worked for a year after the building opened to finish all the decorations.
Old City Hall is mostly made of sandstone. It has two different colours of stone on its outside. One is a light brown-grey sandstone from New Brunswick. The other is a darker reddish-brown sandstone, also from New Brunswick. It took over 1,360 train cars full of stone to bring the materials to the building site. That's like a train nine miles long!
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The sandstone is interesting because of its different colours and textures. The stone looks rough, but not jagged. It looks like it has been naturally weathered. This rough stone makes the building feel very solid and strong. It looks as if the building was carved right out of the rock. Old City Hall looks similar to city hall buildings in Cincinnati and Minneapolis.
Inside the Hall
When you enter Old City Hall from Queen Street, you go through three large oak doorways. Inside, there are steps leading to a two-storey main hall. In the entrance area, you can see murals painted by George Agnew Reid. These murals show Toronto's early settlers and angels. They tell stories of discovery, fame, fortune, and adventure.
Across from the entrance, there is a grand staircase and a beautiful stained-glass window. This window was designed by Robert McCausland. It is called The Union of Commerce and Industry. It shows the growth of Toronto. The window is huge, about 16 by 23 feet. It has 12 life-sized figures and scenes of Toronto's waterfront. Below the window is a marble memorial for those who died in the Second World War.
The main hall was once considered the grandest indoor space in the city. Today, you can see display cases with old photos and items from the building's history. When court is not in session, you can also visit the old Council Chamber. It still looks much like it did in the late 1800s.
The Clock Tower
Old City Hall has a very tall clock tower, standing 103.6 metres (340 feet) high. It is a landmark that you can see from many parts of the city. For 18 years, from 1899 to 1917, it was the tallest structure in Canada. The clock itself was made in Croydon, England.
The clock worked by hand until the 1950s when it became automated. In 1992, the clock was stopped for the first time in over 100 years for repairs. The room at the top of the tower holds the clock's mechanism. You can only reach it by climbing 280 steps! The clock's face is 6 metres (20 feet) across.
Bells of the Tower
Inside the clock room, there are three large bells. Two smaller bells ring every 15 minutes. A very large bell, called a bourdon bell, rings every hour. This bourdon bell alone weighs 5,443 kilograms (12,000 pounds). It rarely rings for special events, but it did ring for the "Bells of Peace" program in 2014. This marked 100 years since the end of World War I.
Old City Hall in Culture
Old City Hall has appeared in many cultural works. Artist William Armstrong painted a watercolour of the building before it was even finished. It is also a main setting in the novel Old City Hall by Robert Rotenberg.
In 2009, for the Luminato arts festival, an artist named Kurt Perschke put a giant red ball inside the main arch of Old City Hall's entrance. The building is also used for filming movies and TV shows. You might have seen it in shows like Flashpoint or Covert Affairs. The inside of the building was used for trial scenes in the 1999 movie The Boondock Saints.
Images for kids
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An 1898 drawing of a proposed square in front of Old City Hall.
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Architectural drawings of Old City Hall from Queen Street West from 1887.
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Council Chambers of Old City Hall. The chambers have been used as a courtroom since the building became a dedicated courthouse.
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Children pose by one of Kurt Perschke's Redball Project installations in the central arch of the Queen Street main entrance to Old City Hall in 2009.
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See also
In Spanish: Old City Hall (Toronto) para niños
