The Broadview Hotel is a 58 room

boutique hotel Boutique hotels are small inventory, design driven, unique hotels with their own character, personality and storytelling at the heart of their concept. Positioning is secondary for these hotels as they focus on authenticity and personalization ...

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. It is located at the intersection of

Broadview Avenue Broadview can refer to: Places Australia *Broadview, South Australia Canada *Broadview (electoral district), in Ontario * Broadview (TTC), a Toronto subway station * Broadview Avenue, a street in Toronto * Broadview, Saskatchewan United States *B ...

and

Queen Street East Queen Street is a major east-west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street (Toronto), King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline f ...

in Toronto's

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neighbourhood. Built in 1893, the building was originally a hall with retail and office space and later converted into a hotel. Until 2014, the establishment was occupied by the New Broadview House Hotel, a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

and boarding house housing low-income persons with a

strip club A strip club is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease or other Erotic dancing, erotic or exotic dances. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or Bar (establishment), bar style, and can also ...

named Jilly's on its ground level. It was closed and converted to an up-scale establishment with several restaurants and a roof patio. 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 ...

style structure was built for Archibald Dingman and designed by Robert Ogilvie as a commercial hub and public hall known as Dingman's Hall. Its design includes arched windows and a tower characteristic of Romanesque Revival. The southeast vertical edge of the building is rounded using curved, elongated bricks. The building's gray lintels above the windows were likely carved from Credit Valley sandstone, popularly used during Toronto's Victorian era. The east and south exterior walls feature 21 terra cotta relief sculptures each with a unique image, often including a human face. The building had the

Canadian Bank of Commerce The Canadian Bank of Commerce was a Canadian bank which was founded in 1867, and had hundreds of branches throughout Canada. It merged in 1961 with the Imperial Bank of Canada to form the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. History In 1866 a ...

as a tenant on the ground floor and doctors' and lawyers' offices on the middle floors. Atop the building were two public halls which acted as a venue for concerts and assemblies.http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2014/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-69516.pdf In 1907, the building was sold to Thomas J. Edwards who hired architect

George Wallace Gouinlock George Wallace Gouinlock (August 1, 1861 – February 13, 1932) was a prominent Canadian architect. Gouinlock practiced mostly in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, including several designated buildings at Exhibition Place. His son George Roper Gouinloc ...

to transform Dingman's Hall into The Broadview Hotel, which let rooms for $1.50 or more a night. It was known as the Lincoln Hotel for a time in the 1930s before reverting to its original name in the 1940s. By the 1970s, it was the Broadview House, a boarding house renting rooms by the week, with a

(later known as Jilly's) on the main floor. On May 13, 2014, Streetcar Developments and Dream Unlimited announced their purchase of the Hotel, announcing they would close the hotel and redevelop it into a 58-room

with a ground floor restaurant and a rooftop bar. The redevelopment is part of an ongoing

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and urban planning, planning. Gentrification ...

of the neighbourhood. The developers began the process of moving 45 long-term tenants and closed Jilly's that July. The tenants, many of whom received disability or social assistance, were rehoused through a partnership between Streetcar, Dream Unlimited, the

City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city of Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a rec ...

, and WoodGreen Community Services. The developers paid first and last months' rent and paid WoodGreen to hire two staff persons to assist the tenants in finding new homes, Sleep Country contributed mattresses, and The Furniture Barn contributed furnishings In late 2016, the exterior of the building had completed renovations. Black cornices that were removed in prior years were recreated based on period photos. The renovation was awarded a Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation. A major addition during the renovation was the addition of a glassed-in rooftop restaurant on the building's north side. While the bulk of the building is four stories high, the rooftop restaurant and the hotel tower are on higher levels. As part of the redevelopment, the owners renamed the hotel from the "New Broadview Hotel" to "The Broadview Hotel". Some of the guest rooms feature prints of pin-up girls, a reminder of the former Jilly's. The new facility will also have two event spaces, a cafe/bar and two other restaurants. There is also a space displaying memorabilia from Jilly's, such as posters, dancing poles and entertainers' lockers. The building uses extensive lighting to highlight the brickwork. File:New Broadview Hotel.jpg , Hotel before restoration File:XBroadviewHotel.jpg , Hotel in 1945

References

External links

Photo, 1945
from the

City of Toronto government Archives A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

* - Tour describing features of the hotel and its restoration. Published by

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on July 29, 2017. {{coord, 43.658993, N, 79.350075, W, region:CA-ON_type:landmark, display=title Hotels in Toronto Hotel buildings completed in 1893 Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in Canada

See also

References

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