The Great Hall is a music and cultural events venue in

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, Canada. Built in 1889 by

Gordon & Helliwell Gordon & Helliwell was a start-of-the-20th-century architectural firm based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Principals were Henry Bauld Gordon, RCA, (1854–1951) and Grant Helliwell (1855–1953). Selected works * Queen's Theological Hall, Kin ...

for the West End branch of the Toronto Young Men's Christian Association, the building has served as the headquarters of several organizations throughout its history, including the Royal Templars of Temperance, the

Independent Order of Foresters The Independent Order of Foresters, operating as Foresters Financial, is a fraternal benefit society headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that provides life insurance and other financial solutions in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United ...

, and the Polish National Union. It underwent a significant restoration project by Triangle Development that was completed in 2016 and reopened as an events venue in September of that year. Following its restoration, The Great Hall serves as a venue for corporate events, weddings, concerts, and cultural events, including the

Toronto Fashion Week Toronto Fashion Week (TFW), held in February (for fall/winter collections) and September (for spring/summer collections) of each year, is a semi-annual event celebrating fashion, arts and culture where Canadian and international fashion collectio ...

Building

The Great Hall is a

High Victorian High Victorian Gothic was an eclectic architectural style and movement during the mid-late 19th century. It is seen by architectural historians as either a sub-style of the broader Gothic Revival style, or a separate style in its own right. Promo ...

building with Queen Anne Revival architectural features located at 1087

Queen Street West Queen Street is a major east-west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original east-w ...

, Canada. The building is three-storeys high with a basement and attic, measuring high from ground to tip of the roof. The exterior facade is mostly made of red brick with coloured joints, with the sills and lintels of the windows and doors made of brown stone. It has a slated roof and a tower on the east end of the Queen Street front which is also slated and topped with a flagpole. The corner features rounded

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...

s that project out on the second and third floors and are topped by an ogee roof. An oriel window on the second floor can also be found in the middle of the Queen Street front and oriel windows on the second and third floor are located on the Dovercourt Road side. A

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

window is located between the tower and ogee roof on the Queen Street side and a similar dormer window above the oriel windows can be found on the Dovercourt Road side, flanked by two chimneys. The Queen Street front features the main entrance which is wide with

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s on either side. The interior includes four event spaces. The Main Hall takes up much of the second and third floors and has an elevated stage and a horseshoe-shaped balcony. The Main Hall measures with capacity for 460 people. Adjacent to the Main Hall on the second floor is the Conversation Room which includes the rounded oriel window in one corner and a dormer window in the middle which looks out over Queen Street. The Conversation Room is and has capacity for 117 people. Above the Conversation Room is the Drawing Room on the third floor which also features a rounded oriel window but does not have a dormer window like the Conversation Room. The Drawing Room measures and has capacity for 97 people. The Longboat Hall has its own entrance on Dovercourt Road and is located on the ground floor. The space includes a balcony – part of what used to be the indoor running track. It has exposed brick walls and the original wood running track floor on the balcony. The Longboat Hall measures with capacity for 400 people.

History

West End Y.M.C.A.

The West End branch of the Toronto Young Men's Christian Association began searching for a site to erect a building in 1887. The organization, founded in 1882, initiated a subscription fundraiser that, by late 1888, had raised 14,000. Around the same timeframe, West End Y.M.C.A. acquired a lot measuring on the corner of Queen Street West and Dovercourt Road, and engaged a firm,

, to design a building that would cost no more than 30,000. S. J. Moore, chairman of the West End Y.M.C.A., laid the cornerstone for the building on November 13, 1889, and the construction completed in less than a year. The building was dedicated on October 9, 1890, and served as a gymnasium featuring a bowling alley, running track and library on the lower level with the main assembly hall on the upper level. The gymnasium is said to be the location of some of the earliest games of basketball. It was also a training facility used by

Tom Longboat Thomas Charles Longboat (4 July 18869 January 1949, Iroquois name: Cogwagee) was an Onondaga distance runner from the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario and, for much of his career, the dominant long-distance runner. He was known as the ...

, a

Onondaga Onondaga may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Onondaga people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois League * Onondaga (village), Onondaga settlement and traditional Iroquois capita ...

runner who later won the 1907 Boston Marathon and competed in the marathon at the 1908 Summer Olympics.

Royal Templars and the Independent Order of Foresters

By May 1912, the West End Y.M.C.A. had begun construction on a new building located at the corner of

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and Dovercourt Road. Its former building on Queens Street West was sold to the Royal Templars of Temperance on May 20, 1912, for a price between 30,000 and 35,000. Soon after, the Royal Templars elected to consolidate their offices and move their headquarters from

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

, to their newly acquired building which they were due to take possession of in October 1912. The Royal Templars planned to renovate the building into a convention hall with a banquet room and offices. Then known as the Royal Templar Hall, the building was the site of cultural and political events, such as lectures, entertainment, and a "well-baby" clinic. In 1920,

Albert Durrant Watson Albert Durrant Watson (January 8, 1859 – May 3, 1926) was a Canadian poet, and physician. Life He graduated from Victoria University, and Edinburgh University. He practiced medicine for more than forty years in the city of Toronto T ...

, the author of the

spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) ...

book ''The Twentieth Plane'', promoted his book by hosting a

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

event on

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at the venue. In 1929, the Royal Templar Hall hosted a debate between

Sam McBride Sam (Samuel) McBride (July 13, 1866 – November 14, 1936) was a two-time Mayor of Toronto serving his first term from 1928 to 1929 and his second term in 1936 which ended prematurely due to his death. He was also a member of the Orange Order ...

and

Bert Wemp Bert Sterling Wemp (July 3, 1889 – February 5, 1976) was a Canadian journalist and mayor of Toronto. He was also a member of the Orange Order in Canada. Born in Tweed, Ontario, he was raised in Cabbagetown and attended Dufferin School and J ...

in the election for

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. On June 2, 1931, the Royal Templars of Temperance was merged into the

(IOF) and the building came into the possession of the latter

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. After being renovated again, the building was rededicated as the IOF's headquarters in February 1933. The IOF eventually moved its headquarters to a different building on the corner of

Bay Street Bay Street is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Canada's financial services industry since succeeding Montreal's St. James Stree ...

and

Richmond Street Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a ...

Polish National Union

The Polish National Union, an organization founded in 1930 and took in Polish refugees during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, acquired the building in the early 1940s. It served as the headquarters of the organization and the publishing house for its weekly newspaper, the ''Polish Voice''. The Polish National Union hosted events featuring Polish and Slavic culture, including a fundraiser during the war for the Aid to Russia Fund and later a 25th anniversary celebration of the organization in 1955 when it had grown to a membership of more than 2,000 families. The building continued to host events for the Polish National Union until as late as 1971. It was designated a historic heritage site by

Heritage Toronto Heritage Toronto is an agency of the Municipal Government of Toronto that works to builds a better city by bringing people together to explore Toronto’s shared past and peoples’ lived experiences. It is located in St. Lawrence Hall in the city. ...

Recent history

From the mid-1980s, the building housed several artistic organizations. For a period in the 1990s, it was known as Ceilidh Arts Centre before becoming known by its current name, The Great Hall. In the 1990s, it housed the Toronto Art School. Resident organizations during subsequent periods included the Music Gallery, which featured experimental music, Theatre Centre, for staged productions, and YYZ Gallery, which exhibited visual arts. Steve Metlitski and his firm Triangle Development acquired the building and completed a 4-million restoration. For a few decades before its recent restoration, the building had gone into disrepair. The restoration took two years and included the installation of an elevator to allow accessibility and a new cooling system. Following completion of the project in August 2016, the building was reopened the following month. In October 2017, the restoration of The Great Hall received the William Greer Architectural Conservation and Craftsmanship Award from

in the Honourable Mention category reserved for smaller projects. Since its restoration, the venue has played host to number of cultural events in Toronto, including the

. It also serves as a venue for events such as concerts, weddings and corporate gatherings.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Great Hall, The Music venues in Toronto Performing arts in Toronto Queen Anne architecture in Canada Sports venues in Toronto Sports venues completed in 1890