Notice of intention to designate

297 George Street (Salvation Army Rest Home)
Take notice that Toronto City Council intends to designate the lands and buildings known municipally as 297 George Street (Salvation Army Rest Home) under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Reasons for Designation

Description
The property at 297 George Street is worthy of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for its cultural heritage value, and meets the criteria for municipal designation prescribed by the Province of Ontario under the three categories of design, associative and contextual values. Located on the east side of George Street between Dundas Street East and Gerrard Street East, the property contains a 2½-storey house form building (1856).

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
The house form building at 297 George Street has design value as a rare surviving example of a residential structure in downtown Toronto dating to the mid 1800s. Its period origins are seen in the narrow rectangular plan and three-bay principal (west) façade that complements the neighbouring house at 295 George Street that was constructed at the same time (the latter structure was modified in the late 19th- and early-20th centuries).

For over half a century, the property at 297 George Street was associated with the Salvation Army in Canada, an institution of international importance. Founded by William Booth in England before Confederation, the Salvation Army is a Christian religious body that became noted for its social welfare work after its arrival in Canada in 1882. Four years later, with the donation of the George Street property by Toronto businessman and philanthropist William Gooderham, Jr. (son of the co-founder of the Gooderham and Worts Distillery), the Salvation Army opened a rest home (shelter) on the premises.

Contextually, the property at 297 George Street is historically linked to its surroundings in the neighbourhood adjoining Sherbourne Street where the former 'park lot' acquired by the prominent Allan family was subdivided for residential developments beginning in the mid 1800s. The former Salvation Army Rest Home and the neighbouring town house at 295 George Street were constructed as a pair of semi-detached houses that remain the oldest surviving buildings in this section of George Street. The house form building at 297 George Street forms part of a streetscape of extant 19th and early-20th century residential buildings that includes the Thomas Meredith House at 305 George Street, which is designated under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Heritage Attributes
The heritage attributes of the property at 297 George Street are:

• The scale, form and massing of the 2½-storey house form building
• The rectangular-shaped plan, with a narrow three-bay principal (west) façade on George Street
• The materials, with brick cladding, and brick and stone trim
• The gable roof with a firebreak on the north end, a brick chimney at the south end and, beneath the eaves, corbelled brickwork
• The symmetrical placement of the door and window openings on the west façade with the main entrance placed in the left (north bay of the lower floor)
• The exposed north elevation that is viewed from George Street.

Further information respecting the proposed designation is available for viewing from the City Clerk's Office.

Notice of an objection to the proposed designations 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, West, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 2N2, within thirty days of May 7, 2012, which is June 6, 2012. The notice must set out the reason(s) for the objection, and all relevant facts.

Dated at Toronto this 7th day of May, 2012.

Ulli S. Watkiss
City Clerk