Notice of intention to designate

610 and 612 Yonge Street

Take notice that Toronto City Council intends to designate the lands and buildings known municipally as 610 and 612 Yonge Street under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Reasons for Designation

Description
The properties at 610 and 612 Yonge Street are worthy of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for their cultural heritage value, and meet the criteria for municipal designation prescribed by the Province of Ontario under the three categories of contextual, associative and design value. The three-storey commercial buildings at 610 and 612 Yonge Street (1886) are part of an eight-unit row at 596-612 Yonge commissioned by James and Elmes Henderson and occupied by the Rawlinson Cartage Company for nearly three-quarters of a century. The properties were included on the City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties in 1974.

Statement of Significance
With their location on Yonge Street, the properties at 610 and 612 Yonge Street contribute to the character of the street as it evolved from its origins as a military road to become Toronto's most famous commercial thoroughfare. The Rawlinson Cartage Buildings are placed on the west side of the street between Wellesley and Bloor, which is one of the remaining areas of Yonge Street that retains its late 19th and early 20th century character as the setting of low-rise commercial structures. Located south of St. Joseph Street, the properties were part of the lands developed in the mid 1800s by John Elmsley Jr. (1801-1863), a prominent provincial politician who established a country estate on a park lot south and west of Yonge and Bloor streets. As a convert to Roman Catholicism, when Elmsley laid out a subdivision with residential, commercial and institutional uses, he named the streets after saints including St. Alban (now Wellesley Street) and St. Joseph. The properties at 610 and 612 Yonge Street were developed by the mid 1880s as part of a collection of the two- to three-storey commercial buildings with decorative brickwork and varied roof styles that reflect the historical character of Yonge Street from Wellesley to Bloor streets.

When the Rawlinson Cartage Company acquired the existing buildings at 612 Yonge Street in 1895 and 610 Yonge in 1901, the properties became associated with one of the oldest moving and storage companies in Toronto. Founded in 1855 by Marmaduke Rawlinson, the firm was originally located on nearby Gloucester Street before moving to Yonge Street, north of St. Joseph. When the company acquired 612 Yonge Street, it also purchased a nearby commercial warehouse at 11 St. Joseph Street. While the offices of Rawlinson Cartage occupied the storefronts at 610 and 612 Yonge Street, the company commissioned additional warehouses to the rear (west) of the properties, and extended the building at 610 Yonge to connect it to the warehouses at 5 St. Joseph and 15 St. Nicholas (the properties on St. Joseph and St. Nicholas Street that are associated with the Rawlinson Cartage Company are designated under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act). With its visible and accessible location on Yonge Street, the Rawlinson Cartage Company retained the properties, along with the adjoining complex of warehouses, until the late 1960s when the firm was sold.

The Rawlinson Cartage Buildings are also representative examples of late 19th century commercial structures with architectural features drawn from the predominant styles of the era. Above the first-floor storefronts, the upper stories of the buildings display Classical detailing, with brick parapets, brackets, piers and corbels. With the neighbouring properties to the north and south at 606 to 618 Yonge Street, the Rawlinson Cartage Buildings contribute to a continuous street wall of commercial buildings that share a similar scale, materials and detailing.

Heritage Attributes
The heritage attributes of the properties at 610 and 612 Yonge Street are:

• The scale, form and massing
• The materials, with brick cladding, and brick, stone, wood and glass detailing
• The three storey plans on brick foundations, where the east façade of each building is divided into two asymmetrical bays above the first-floor storefronts (the storefronts retain their cornices and rhythm of door and window openings)
• The brick parapets with corbelled brick detailing marking the flat rooflines
• The fenestration on the second and third stories, with flat-headed window openings with brick flat arches, continuous stone sills, and corbelled brickwork beneath the central windows in the third floor
• The detailing, with the horizontal division of the second and third floors with string courses, and the vertical division of the upper stories by piers with corbelled brickwork
• The location of the properties adjoining the complementary commercial buildings directly north and south, including the near-identical structures at 606 and 608 Yonge Street, which share their setback, height, alignment of floors, and brick cladding

Notice of an objection to the proposed designation may be served on the City Clerk, Attention: Rosalind Dyers, Administrator, Toronto and East York Community Council, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, 2nd floor, Toronto, ON M5H 2N2, within thirty days of the 2nd day of February, 2010, which is March 4, 2010. The notice must set out the reason(s) for the objection, and all relevant facts.

Dated at Toronto this 2nd day of February, 2010.

Ulli S. Watkiss
City Clerk