A vintage postcard depicting the auditorium on the 7th floor.
On a personal note, back in 1977 when I was in high school I had a girlfriend who worked as an elevator operator at Eaton's College (she operated the elevator and called out the floors, just like the movies) and drove downtown the night it closed to pick her up.
The Eaton family was there to celebrate the opening of the new Eaton Centre down the street.
Eaton's began secretly assembling land at Yonge and College Streets in 1910 for a new store. The
First World War put the plans on hold, but Eaton's retained the land. During the 1920s, plans were made to shift all Eaton's operations from their existing location at Yonge Street and
Queen Street West to the College Street site. Eaton's even offered to sell part of its landholdings to its main competitor,
Simpson's, in an effort to shift the heart of Toronto retailing northward and to preserve the synergy created by having two retail giants next to one another. The effort was unsuccessful, and Simpson's chose instead to expand its Queen Street store.
In 1928, Eaton's announced plans for the largest retail and office complex in the world to be constructed on the site, featuring 5,000,000 square feet (465,000 square metres) of retail space and a 38-storey 1920s era skyscraper. Just as the war had intervened a decade earlier, however, the
Great Depression curtailed the grandiose plans for the site. The first phase of the project, a department store of 600,000 square feet (56,000 square metres), was the only part of the complex that was ever built. On October 30, 1930, the new store was opened by
Lady Eaton, the matriarch of the
Eaton Family, and her son
John David Eaton, the future president of the company.Even though the rest of the complex was never constructed, the new store was nonetheless a true retail palace, the likes of which had never been seen in Toronto, and was a testament to the retail dominance of the Eaton's chain at that time.
Tyndall limestone was used for the imposing exterior. Accentuating the Tyndall limestone was granite and a corrosion-resistant alloy of nickel and copper (Shoemaker, and Smith 22) called monel metal. The monel metal was used copiously on the building as trim and in panels along the window and door frames (CARLU: College Park - Canada's Landmark for Style and Elegance). In addition to this metal trim, cast stone and carvings acted as detailed decorative elements on the façade
Marble was imported from Europe for the interior columns and colonnade. Lady Eaton arranged for two entire rooms to be removed from two manor houses in England and reassembled in the furniture department of the College Street store. The French architect
Jacques Carlu (who later designed the Rainbow Room in New York City and the
Eaton's Ninth Floor (or the "9ième") in Montreal), was retained to design the interior of the
Eaton's Seventh Floor, including the 1300-seat
Eaton Auditorium and the elegant
Round Room restaurant. Itself an
Art Moderne masterpiece, the Eaton's Seventh Floor was at the heart of Toronto's cultural life for many years. The Auditorium played host to the major performers of its day, including
Billie Holiday,
Duke Ellington,
Frank Sinatra, and the
National Ballet of Canada. Canada's own
Glenn Gould, fond of the Auditorium's excellent acoustics, used the hall for a number of his recordings.
The lobby of the seventh floor.
Classified specifically as a stripped classical art deco style, Eaton’s College Street emphasized symmetry in the plan and rhythm in the arrangement of the fenestration, doors, and pilasters. A distinct repetitive pattern can be distinguished with the windows and pilasters as well as with the arrangement of large entrances. There are three small windows on the upper levels between each pilaster, and three large shop windows between each entrance. The original Eaton’s College Street was designed with large shop windows on the floor level in order to attract window shoppers and pedestrians. The floor level also highlights another classical art deco characteristic of having a large distinctive base. Aside from the oversized windows, on Eaton’s College Street, the base was made even more prominent through the use of the granite and stone carvings framing it. On higher levels however, the fenestration became long vertical strips separated by large pilasters which highlighted the verticality of the structure as opposed to its mass (another distinguishing feature of art deco buildings).
The pilasters of the upper levels have fluting and capitals of ionic composition and support a rather large entablature. Art Deco architecture, well known for its geometric patterns and ornamentation is demonstrated in the detailed entablature, with a sculpted architrave, dentils on the cornice, and a monel metal trim along the top. Along the frieze are round ornamental metal pieces placed in a rhythmic order between the pilasters. Each entrance is flanked by a slightly protruding cast stone frame decorated with sculpted square shapes, dentils and bordered by a spiral ribbon-shaped cast stone. The monel metal trim on the window frames represents the art deco style of having natural shapes such as flowers or sunbursts, as influenced from the Egyptian and Mayan styles (New York Architecture). As can be observed, the trim is indeed a very natural organic shape.
However these features are only present on the Yonge Street and College Street frontage. The back of the building, facing the park, while still maintaining a rather symmetrical and repetitive fenestration pattern, is sparse on decoration and entrances have been kept rather nondescript.
The focus of Eaton's College Street, as the store was known, was on furnishings and housewares, although the latter were very broadly defined. In fact, Eaton's boasted that the store was "the largest furniture and house furnishings store in the British Empire". The larger Eaton's Main Store, only a few blocks south on Yonge Street, was never closed, as had been originally intended in the 1920s, and Eaton's ran a shuttle bus between the two stores for two decades until the
Toronto subway opened in 1954.
A selection of photos over the years.
During Subway construction 1952.
An ad from the Toronto Star 1945.
Looking north up Yonge during construction, 1930.
Two of my favourite things from the sixties. Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's Rat Fink driving George Barris' 1966 Batmobile.
Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, holding a model of "The Outlaw" model and box in front of the real "Outlaw" circa 1964.
The kit.
Rat Fink.
2010
This is Glenroy Avenue in Etobicoke looking east from Royal York Road at the turn of the century (1900).
A similar view in 2010.
Almont Hotel, July 1953.
2010.
The north side of Dundas West looking east towards the Humber River in 1890 or so.
Lambton Mills Methodist Church, built in 1878.
The Church was re-purposed years ago, first as an antique store and now a rug store.
Gordon's Dairy and Watt's Hardware 1946.
The same location today with the photo reproduced as a mural on the front of the building.
Looking west along Queen at the foot of today's Ossington. When this photo was taken in 1919
This photo is from 2010 (Google) and while the old hotel is still there it won't be for long.
The old hotel during demolition in the summer of 2010.
A section of the original wall (1846) surrounding the Asylum.
The original Provincial Lunatic Asylum was designed by John Howard and stood on the same site as today's facility on Queen at the foot of Ossington.
Looking south down Ossington in 1920 the Asylum's dome is visible in the distance.
A hand tinted postcard of the Asylum from 1910.
Brave and the Bold #80
Unless you'd been there it's almost impossible to describe the interior of that store.
My membership card circa 1971.
Back of card. Not sure what V.W.O. stands for.....
Captain George being interviewed by the CBC in 1970.
An ad for Markham Street from 1969.
The story has now come full circle as I've recently purchased this page of production art from Brave and the Bold #80.....
The N/E corner of Dundas and Victoria in 1923.
2010 and reasonably intact.
This old gas station on Dundas near Jane has been closed for years.
This house located on Dundas near Kipling has managed to survive and remain intact despite being surrounded by strip plazas.
Eaton's began secretly assembling land at Yonge and College Streets in 1910 for a new store. The First World War put the plans on hold, but Eaton's retained the land. During the 1920s, plans were made to shift all Eaton's operations from their existing location at Yonge Street and Queen Street West to the College Street site. Eaton's even offered to sell part of its landholdings to its main competitor, Simpson's, in an effort to shift the heart of Toronto retailing northward and to preserve the synergy created by having two retail giants next to one another. The effort was unsuccessful, and Simpson's chose instead to expand its Queen Street store.
In 1928, Eaton's announced plans for the largest retail and office complex in the world to be constructed on the site, featuring 5,000,000 square feet (465,000 square metres) of retail space and a 38-storey 1920s era skyscraper. Just as the war had intervened a decade earlier, however, the Great Depression curtailed the grandiose plans for the site. The first phase of the project, a department store of 600,000 square feet (56,000 square metres), was the only part of the complex that was ever built. On October 30, 1930, the new store was opened by Lady Eaton, the matriarch of the Eaton Family, and her son John David Eaton, the future president of the company.Even though the rest of the complex was never constructed, the new store was nonetheless a true retail palace, the likes of which had never been seen in Toronto, and was a testament to the retail dominance of the Eaton's chain at that time. Tyndall limestone was used for the imposing exterior. Accentuating the Tyndall limestone was granite and a corrosion-resistant alloy of nickel and copper (Shoemaker, and Smith 22) called monel metal. The monel metal was used copiously on the building as trim and in panels along the window and door frames (CARLU: College Park - Canada's Landmark for Style and Elegance). In addition to this metal trim, cast stone and carvings acted as detailed decorative elements on the façade
Marble was imported from Europe for the interior columns and colonnade. Lady Eaton arranged for two entire rooms to be removed from two manor houses in England and reassembled in the furniture department of the College Street store. The French architect Jacques Carlu (who later designed the Rainbow Room in New York City and the Eaton's Ninth Floor (or the "9ième") in Montreal), was retained to design the interior of the Eaton's Seventh Floor, including the 1300-seat Eaton Auditorium and the elegant Round Room restaurant. Itself an Art Moderne masterpiece, the Eaton's Seventh Floor was at the heart of Toronto's cultural life for many years. The Auditorium played host to the major performers of its day, including Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, and the National Ballet of Canada. Canada's own Glenn Gould, fond of the Auditorium's excellent acoustics, used the hall for a number of his recordings.
The lobby of the seventh floor.
The pilasters of the upper levels have fluting and capitals of ionic composition and support a rather large entablature. Art Deco architecture, well known for its geometric patterns and ornamentation is demonstrated in the detailed entablature, with a sculpted architrave, dentils on the cornice, and a monel metal trim along the top. Along the frieze are round ornamental metal pieces placed in a rhythmic order between the pilasters. Each entrance is flanked by a slightly protruding cast stone frame decorated with sculpted square shapes, dentils and bordered by a spiral ribbon-shaped cast stone. The monel metal trim on the window frames represents the art deco style of having natural shapes such as flowers or sunbursts, as influenced from the Egyptian and Mayan styles (New York Architecture). As can be observed, the trim is indeed a very natural organic shape.
During Subway construction 1952.
Posts
