First Municipal Building

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted July, 2007

Photo by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted March, 2011

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted July, 2007

This photo was difficult to take. What you are looking at is the frontspiece from the old municipal hall incorporated into a new building on the site. Unfortunately, there is a wall of glass, including the doors, between the outside and this wall making it impossible, because of reflections, to photograph it from the outside. Inside, there is only a couple of metres space between the doors and this wall. So I aimed the camera up and took the shot. All this took place in Princess Park on the west side of Doris Avenue. There is a City of Toronto plaque in the park which talks about the old municipal hall. Here's what it says:

Plaque coordinates: 43.768868 -79.411174

This elegant frontspiece once served as the front entrance to North York's first municipal hall which officially opened on December 19, 1923 at the southeast corner of Yonge Street and Empress Avenue.

Designed by Murray Brown, a local architect, the building was constructed in response to the formation of North York Township in 1922, and the loss of the temporary offices which once stood at the corner of Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue. In 1946, the municipal hall was enlarged with an addition, incorporating a stylized round-arched entrance with limestone detailing at its east side.

Stylistically, Murray Brown based the first municipal hall on North American colonial architecture, incorporating the imagery of civic authority and a design that was considered appropriate to a small municipal government. Brown was also responsible for the design of the municipality's official crest bearing the inscription "Progress with Economy". In 1942, he was commissioned by the municipality to design North York's first fire hall, whose fire hose tower has also been reconstructed in the adjacent public park.

In 1953, the first municipal hall housed the Magistrate's Court. During the late 1960's, the building was operated by the Emergency Measures Organization and the council chamber served as a courtroom where construction safety law offences were tried. The municipal hall was later used by North York's Parks and Recreation Department until May 1, 1978. Subsequently, the Victorian Order of Nurses took possession of the premises.

The municipal hall was carefully dismantled in 1989. Its principal and east entrances were conserved and reintroduced into this development as architectural artifacts that interpret North York's early municipal heritage.

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted March, 2011

This plaque just inside the Empress Walk east entrance adds to the information:

This "Portico" is the actual front entrance to North York's First Municipal Hall which was located at the southeast corner of Yonge Street and Empress Avenue, and officially opened on December 9, 1923. Menkes Developments meticulously dismantled the Municipal Hall in 1989, and stored these artifacts for reintroduction as the east entrance to Empress Walk. This historical element has been conserved and reconstructed in order to preserve the early heritage of the Municipality of North York for future generations.

Related Toronto plaque
First Fire Hall

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Government Buildings
North York plaques

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