The Whitney Block is a
Government of Ontario
The government of Ontario (french: Gouvernement de l'Ontario) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of Ontario. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown—represented in the province by the lieutenant governorâ ...
office building located 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 anch ...
,
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 C ...
, Canada. It is located across the street from the
Ontario Legislative Building
The Ontario Legislative Building (french: L'édifice de l'Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is a structure in central Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It houses the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and the viceregal suite of the Lieutenant Governor ...
, and contains the offices of the
Premier of Ontario and most cabinet ministers. The street address of Whitney Block is 99 Wellesley Street West, though the principal facade faces west towards Queen's Park Crescent and the Ontario Legislature. The building is linked to the legislature by a tunnel under the street, by a bridge to the Macdonald Block, and through there via another tunnel to the subway. The
Modern Gothic-
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts DĂ©coratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
structure was built in 1926 by architect
F. R. Heakes and the tower was added in 1932. Whitney Block is faced with Queenston limestone. The facade is ornamented by repeated sequences of
quatrefoils, and figures designed by
Charles Adamson, which represent abstract ideals like justice, tolerance, wisdom and power, as well as more ordinary pursuits such a mining, forestry, labour, law, education and farming. The floors are made of marble mined in
Bancroft.
At its completion it was one of the tallest buildings in Toronto. It was originally known as the East Block, but it is now known as the Whitney Block in honour of former
Premier James P. Whitney.
While no longer used for office space, the tower remains as a distinctive feature of the building and contains one of the few operational hand-cranked elevators remaining in Toronto. The building also once contained a bowling alley and a section set aside for live domestic and farm animals.
The Ministries of Natural Resources and Forestry, Government and Consumer Services, and Northern Development and Mines are located at Whitney Block.
Other government buildings nearby include:
*
Mowat Block
*
Macdonald Block
*
Ontario Power Building
The Intact Centre is an office building located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that serves as the head offices of Ontario Power Generation and Intact Financial. It was originally built in 1975 for Ontario Hydro (of which OPG is a successor company) a ...
*
Hearst Block
The Macdonald Block Complex is a set of office buildings in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that houses 12 cabinet ministers, 15 Ontario government ministries (as of 2016) and the largest concentration of Ontario public servants. Its address is 900 Ba ...
*
Frost Building
References
External links
Ontario Parliament Virtual Tours
{{coord, 43.663124, N, 79.389774, W, region:CA-ON_type:landmark, display=title
Ontario government buildings
Buildings and structures in Toronto