Old City Hall - Toronto, ON
Posted by: 
hykesj
N 43° 39.166 W 079° 23.015
17T E 630349 N 4834577
Monumental turn-of-the-century municipal building in Toronto on a 1971 Canadian postal card.
Waymark Code: WM190F5
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 11/02/2023
Views: 1
Toronto’s New City Hall is a monument to modernist architecture and a sight to behold, but the building it replaced, now called Old City Hall, ain’t too shabby either. When Canada Post issued a set of 15 “view cards” in 1971 commemorating that year’s Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, both city halls were included. Though referred to as ‘old’ and ‘new,’ these buildings are actually the third and fourth city halls as Toronto’s municipal government was housed in two locations prior to this building's construction. The first was only temporary and the second was quickly outgrown during the city’s rapid expansion toward the end of the nineteenth century.
The Old City Hall was designed by prominent Toronto architect E. J. Lennox in a Romanesque Revival style made popular by American Henry H. Richardson and was built between 1889 and 1899. Forming a large quadrangle, it features different colored sandstone on the exterior, steeply pitched roofs with gables and turrets, gargoyles and other grotesques and a clock tower that was the tallest structure in Toronto for seventeen years. And the interior is every bit as ornate as the exterior.
Due to be demolished after completion of the New City Hall in the mid-1960s, a public outcry caused it to be preserved and it is now an Ontario Heritage Property and a Canadian National Historic Site. The building currently serves as a courthouse for the Ontario Court of Justice.
Stamp Issuing Country: Canada
Date of Issue: 1971
Denomination: 7c
Color: multicolored
Stamp Type: Single Stamp
Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]
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