Notice of intention to designate

618 Yonge Street

Take notice that Toronto City Council intends to designate the lands and buildings known municipally as 618 Yonge Street under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Reasons for Designation

Description
The property at 618 Yonge Street is worthy of inclusion on the City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties and designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for its cultural heritage value. The property meets the criteria for municipal designation prescribed by the Province of Ontario under the categories of contextual and design value. The 2½-storey commercial building was in place by 1884 when Henry Turner operated a drug store on the premises.

Statement of Significance
With its location on Yonge Street, the Henry Turner Building contributes 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 commercial building is 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 property was 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 southwest 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 property at 618 Yonge Street was developed by the mid 1880s as part of a collection of 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.

The Henry Turner Building is a representative example of a 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 building displays features associated with the Italianate and Gothic Revival styles, particularly the round-arched window openings and the application of distinctive pattern brickwork for the corner quoins and window trim. With the neighbouring properties to the south at 606 to 616 Yonge Street, the Henry Turner Building contributes to the continuous street wall of commercial buildings that share a similar scale, materials and detailing.

Heritage Attributes
The heritage attributes of the Henry Turner Building are:

• The scale, form and massing
• The 2½-storey plan, where the east façade is divided into two bays above the first-storey storefront (the original storefront has been altered)
• The materials, with red brick cladding, contrasting buff brick trim, and stone, wood and glass detailing
• The gable roof, with a segmental-arched dormer on the east slope
• The fenestration on the east façade, where the second floor has a pair of round-arched window openings with brick and stone voussoirs and stone keystones
• On the north elevation facing St. Joseph Street, the round- and segmental-arched door and window openings with brick and stone detailing
• The detailing, with decorative corner quoins on the east and north walls
• The location of the property, which anchors the southwest corner of St. Joseph Street, where it shares its setback, alignment of floors, and brick cladding with the adjoining commercial buildings to the south

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