Massey Harris Lofts is a loft condominium in

Liberty Village Liberty Village is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered to the north by King Street West, to the west by Dufferin Street, to the south by the Gardiner Expressway, to the east by Strachan Avenue, and to the northeast by the ...

area of downtown

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The building is the former head office of Massey-Harris Limited, later known as

Massey Ferguson Massey Ferguson Limited is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company was established in 1953 through the merger of farm equipment makers Massey-Harris of Canada and the Ferguson Company of the United Kingdom. It was based in T ...

, a large agricultural implements manufacturer. It is the last building remaining from a large factory complex that Massey-Harris operated on King Street West from the 1870s until the 1980s.

History

Built in 1899 by well known Toronto architect

E.J. Lennox Edward James Lennox (September 12, 1854 – April 15, 1933) was a Toronto-based architect who designed several of the city's most notable landmarks in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including Old City Hall and Casa Loma. He d ...

, the

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

building is located at 915 King Street West and served as head office for Massey Harris (formed in 1891 from the merger of Massey Manufacturing Company of Toronto and Alanson Harris, Son and Company Limited of Brantford and later

),http://www.libertyvillagecondo.com/massey-harris-lofts-915-king-st-w part of a large complex. By the late 1970s, the head office building had become vacant, as the company used office space downtown. The surrounding manufacturing complex, which at one time employed 9,000 workers, began scaling down its operations, moving manufacturing to

Brantford, Ontario Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independ ...

leaving only a small-scale operation. After closing the plant completely in October 1982, Massey Ferguson started making plans for a mixed-use development of its manufacturing lands. Under therThe head office building was to have a community space on the first floor, with residences above. The Massey Harris lands were rezoned to permit a new "high-tech zone" south of King, and residences to the north. After rezoning, The remaining complex was sold in 1988 to Counsel Property Corp for $52 million. However, by 1990, the real estate market crashed and ownership reverted to the mortgage holder,

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC; french: Banque canadienne impériale de commerce) is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered at CIBC Square in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario. ...

(CIBC), which had intended to build a data centre on the lands. CIBC cancelled its plans for a data centre on the property, leaving the redevelopment stalled. The terms of the rezoning agreements were revised, dropping the high tech zone, permitting the head office building to become fully residential. Residential uses were now permitted on all of the former industrial lands. The head office building was converted into the Massey Harris Lofts after 2002. The four-floor structure was converted in 2003 for residential use. The other M-F buildings including the plant were demolished. Massey Harris Park is located next to the lofts.

References

Bibliography

* {{coord, 43.641540, -79.412939, region:CA-ON, display=title Residential condominiums in Canada Residential buildings in Toronto E. J. Lennox buildings