Muddy York: Toronto Real Estate Blog

By Richard Fiennes-Clinton

Saint Lawrence Market lies at Jarvis and Front Streets, in the heart of what was the original ten blocks of Old Town  Toronto.  Long before the Eaton Centre or the banking towers in the financial district were built, long before visitors to Toronto thrilled to ascend the CN Tower or take in a show in Toronto’s theatre district, the Saint Lawrence Market complex was the heart and soul of Toronto.  It what we now think of us at the south Saint Lawrence Market building, was the home of one of the first police precincts for Toronto, as well as the second city hall.  As visitors walk through the main entrance on the south side of Front Street, they enter an old red brick structure.  This is all that remains of the original structure, which dates back to the middle of the 1840s.

On the second floor is the Market Gallery, which features rotating displays on the archival and artistic heritage of the city.  It is a museum offering free admission, and is open during regular market hours.  There are usually three to four different exhibits showcased in the Market Gallery each year.  One item that is permanently on display is a former mayor’s chair, dating back to the end of the nineteenth century.  It was here, in what is now the Market Gallery, that various mayors of Toronto have sat and presided over the city council.  This space served as the mayor’s office from 1845 to 1899.  Thus it was the second city hall for Toronto, operating until construction on a new city hall was completed in 1899.  The “new city hall”, on Queen Street, between Yonge and Bay Streets, is the one that modern day Torontonians think of as “old city hall”.  When the new city hall opened on Queen Street, the Market Gallery area was shut down, and lay unused for over seven decades.

Two floors below the Market Gallery, in the basement of the south Saint Lawrence Market complex, was an early police station.  Toronto actually boasts one of the oldest paid, regular police forces in North America.  Inmates in this area were detained in a somewhat rudimentary manner.  The old field stone walls are held together with mortar, and at various places within the mortar, wooden pegs can be seen, nailed into the wall.  Early inmates were simply tied or chained to these pegs, and left dangling from the wall.  There were no bars or cells, and male convicts of all ages were strung up against the brick.

This arcane landmark is somewhat hidden away from the crowds of shoppers who frequent Saint Lawrence Market.  The modern market is a vibrant one, which can become quite crowded with shoppers, especially on a Saturday morning.  A number of butchers, fishmongers and cheesemongers are located on the main floor, and on the lower level, visitors can shop for produce, pastries and any number of harder to find items.  The market is home to a number of specialty vendors, including a mustard shop on the main floor, and a caviar vendor, a specialty honey vendor and a preserve seller on the lower level.  The market is an important grocery vendor for the rising number of people who are moving in to live in the Saint Lawrence Market neighbourhood.

One block north of the market lies King Street, one of the oldest civilian streets in Toronto.  At King and Church Streets is Saint James Cathedral.  The cathedral spire towers over the local landscape, and its height makes it the second tallest church in Canada.  The parcel of land at King and Church Streets was set aside for the Anglican Church in 1797, shortly after the initial ten blocks of the town were set up.  The cathedral building that we have today is the fifth incarnation of the church to be built there, and it is by far the grandest.  It opened in the 1850s, after a devastating fire in 1849 destroyed the former building.  The initial church structures were simple wooden buildings, that did not even boast a spire.

At King and Jarvis Streets is the impressive Saint Lawrence Hall building, which was also constructed in the aftermath of the 1849 fire.  It was Toronto’s leading entertainment venue for the second half of the nineteenth century, and several Canadian and international politicians and celebrity entertainers have performed there.  In the 1850s, Sir John A. MacDonald and other leading Fathers of Canadian Confederation would meet there, and give lectures on why Canada should become a nation.  When Queen Victoria’s son, Edward, the Prince of Wales visited Toronto, he was feted at Saint Lawrence Hall.  He went on to become King Edward VII on the death of his mother.  Jenny Lind, who was the world’s first pop star singing sensation toured North America, she gave a performance at Saint Lawrence Hall.  This was at a time long before records, tapes, radios, Compact Discs or online downloads, and the only way to hear the most famous singer in the world was to get a ticket to hear her perform live at Saint Lawrence Hall.  The ballroom on the third floor was packed, tickets were sold so that people could come and stand on the staircase, and the windows were opened so that people could stand out on the street and hear her voice cascading down.  If you were lucky enough to get a ticket, you might not actually see her, but you would tell your grandchildren that you’d heard her perform.  Saint Lawrence Hall has been revitalized in recent decades, too, after some neglect, and it is still a popular venue.  It seems that almost every weekend in the summer, people are getting married at Saint James Cathedral and then crossing the street to have their reception in Saint Lawrence Hall.

North and east of Saint Lawrence Hall, at 260 Adelaide Street East, sits Toronto’s First Post Office.  The post office was constructed in 1833, and the following year, the city of Toronto was incorporated out of the old Town of York, nicknamed “Muddy York”.  So, the post office, which was the fourth for the Town of York, became the first post office for the new city of Toronto.  It continued to function as a post office for a few more years, but a new post office was eventually built.  The building at 260 Adelaide Street East went through a number of conversions, including a private residence, a management office for the Christie bakery, which used to stand across the street, and a cold storage venue for dairy products.  In the summer of 1978, a devastating fire broke out, and the building was nearly lost.  However, it was restored, and in 1983 – when the building was celebrating its 150th birthday – it reopened as a post office.  Today, visitors to the post office enjoy the convenience of having a fully functional postal outlet that is open seven days a week, except on some major holidays.  Patrons of the post office can send parcels, by stamps or rent a post box.  If they’re not in a rush, they can wander into the reading room, and try their hand at writing with a quill tip pen, or look at the historical displays and learn about the history of the local postal system.  In the back room there is even a scale model of how the city looked back in 1837.

In the years after the end of the Second World War, suburban Toronto was booming, and people were moving out of downtown Toronto.  Only the market’s most dedicated supporters were still making the pilgrimage to shop there every Saturday morning.  But by the 1980s, younger couples were reconsidering the commute from suburban Toronto to the downtown core, and there was renewed interest in once again living downtown.  The area surrounding Saint Lawrence Market and its nearby neighbour, the Distillery District, has seen a boom in fashionable condominium and residential development.  People are once again taking up residence in the most historic part of Toronto.

Historians and property developers have not always lived comfortably side by side.  But in many ways, an influx of new residents has helped the historical community to prosper.  More amd more shoppers seem to be visit the Saint Lawrence Market every weekend.  Over the last few years, Toronto’s First Post Office has enjoyed increased trade from those now living in the neighbourhood.  And the new residents have brought a lot of culture with them.  An old gas refinery was converted into the Canadian Opera Company at 227 Front Street East.  The Young Centre for the Performing Arts has moved into the Distillery District, along with a number of other popular restaurants and art galleries.  The Saint Lawrence Market neighbourhood has transitioned again and again, from its role as the original downtown Toronto, to a forgotten commercial and industrial area, and back again to a vibrant residential neighbourhood, complete with shops, services and entertainment all at hand.

Richard Fiennes-Clinton is the founder of Muddy York Walking Tours, which is a company dedicated to bringing Toronto’s past back to life in fun and exciting ways. For more information on Muddy York Walking Tours visit www.muddyyorktours.com or call 416.487.9017.