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ATTACHMENT NO. 4 HERITAGE PROPERTY RESEARCH AND EVALUATION REPORT PRINCESS OF WALES THEATRE 300 KING STREET WEST, TORONTO Prepared by: Heritage Preservation Services City Planning Division City of Toronto July 2014 1. DESCRIPTION Above: main (south) entrance and marquee; cover: view of south facade of the Princess of Wales Theatre from the south side of King Street West (Heritage Preservation Services, June 2014) 300 King Street West: Princess of Wales Theatre ADDRESS 300 King Street West (north side, east of John Street) WARD Ward 20 (Trinity-Spadina) LEGAL DESCRIPTION Plan 216E, Part Block A NEIGHBOURHOOD/COMMUNITY King-Spadina HISTORICAL NAME Princess of Wales Theatre CONSTRUCTION DATE 1993 (completed) ORIGINAL OWNER Ed Mirvish Enterprises ORIGINAL USE Commercial (theatre) CURRENT USE* Commercial (theatre) * This does not refer to permitted use(s) as defined by the Zoning By-law ARCHITECT/BUILDER/DESIGNER Lett/Smith Architects, architect DESIGN/CONSTRUCTION/MATERIALS Stone, brick, glass and metals ARCHITECTURAL STYLE See Section 2.iii ADDITIONS/ALTERATIONS See Section 2.iii CRITERIA Design/Physical, Historical/Associative & Contextual HERITAGE STATUS Cultural Heritage Evaluation RECORDER Heritage Preservation Services: Kathryn Anderson REPORT DATE July 2014 Intention to Designate, 300 King Street West, and HEA Authority - 260, 284 & 322 King Street West Attachment No. 4 2. BACKGROUND This research and evaluation report describes the history, architecture and context of the property at 300 King Street West, and applies evaluation criteria to determine whether it merits designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act. The conclusions of the research and evaluation are found in Section 4 (Summary). i. HISTORICAL TIMELINE Key Date Historical Event 1832 Upper Canada College opens its campus on Russell Square, remaining until 1891 1902 Jan Trustees of the University of Toronto register Plan 216E on part of Russell Square 1909 Jan The Gold Medal Furniture Manufacturing Company acquires part of Block A with 55' frontage on King Street West for $8525, selling it for $19,250 three months later1 1912 May Standard Chemicals (which acquires the site after a series of agreements) sells the property to Alexander and Andrew Wilson for $24,750 1912 The revisions to the 1910 Goad's Atlas illustrate the vacant site at present-day 300 King, with the Eclipse Whitewear Building (now 322 King) in place directly west 1923 Jan Andrew Wilson becomes the sole owner of the 55' tract for $70,000 1923 The last update to Goad's Atlas shows the vacant property, with structures on either side, including the Anderson Building at 284 King 1950 Wilson conveys the property to the Canadian General Electric Company, at the same time as the latter business acquires the adjoining vacant site with 103' frontage on King Street from the Trustees of the University of Toronto 1950 When information is compiled in 1950 for the directory published the next year, the subject property is numbered #320 and contains a parking lot 1964 An update to the Underwriters' Survey Bureau atlas illustrates the vacant site 1975 Canadian General Electric Company conveys its parcel with 158' frontage on King Street West to Ed Mirvish Enterprises; the land continues to be used for parking 1993 The Princess of Wales Theatre officially opens at 300 King Street West ii. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND King-Spadina Neighbourhood The property at 300 King Street West is part of the King-Spadina Neighbourhood, the area that developed north of Front Street West between Simcoe and Bathurst Streets with King Street West and Spadina Avenue forming the main cross-roads. After the founding of the Town of York (Toronto) in 1793, the area west of the townsite was reserved for the military. However, the rapid growth of the community led to its westward expansion as 1 While the increase in value would suggest that the property had been built on, Goad's Atlases and other archival documents indicate that it remained vacant Intention to Designate, 300 King Street West, and HEA Authority - 260, 284 & 322 King Street West Attachment No. 4 New Town where the section between present-day Simcoe and Peter Streets became an important institutional enclave in the early 1800s. As illustrated on the historical maps in Section 6 (Images 2 and 3), the original Toronto General Hospital opened at King and John Streets, followed by the relocation of the Provincial Legislative (Third Parliament Buildings) to Simcoe Square on Wellington Street West. In 1831, Upper Canada College (founded in 1829) unveiled its expansive campus on Russell Square, the tract on the north side of King Street West, west of Simcoe Street (Image 7). The private boys’ school moved to its present site in Deer Park in 1891, leaving representatives of the University of Toronto (comprising the College’s Board of Governors) to organize the subdivision and sale of the Russell Square property. After 1900, part of the Russell Square was acquired by a syndicate headed by Cawthra Mulock, known as "Canada's youngest millionaire", which commissioned the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Despite the presence of the first industrial warehouses along this section of King Street West, the location was chosen for its proximity to Government House, the Lieutenant-Governor's official residence that remained on the southwest corner of King and Simcoe until 1915 (Image 11).2 Ironically, the opening of the theatre followed the Great Fire of 1904, which destroyed Toronto's primary manufacturing district near Front and Bay Streets and resulted in its relocation to King-Spadina. Prior to World War I, King Street West adjoining the Royal Alexandra Theatre and the neighbouring streets were filled with large-scale commercial warehouses employing workers who reached the area by streetcar, and commissioned by companies attracted by the proximity to the financial district and the shipping offered by the steam railways whose spur lines transected the area. King-Spadina remained a vibrant industrial centre until the post-World War II era when manufacturers were drawn to the large tracts of land, lower taxes and new highways for truck transport found in Toronto's suburbs. Although the clothing industry continued to anchor King-Spadina (which was known as the Fashion District), restrictive zoning led to high vacancies.3 The development of the neighbourhood during the 20th century is illustrated on the atlases reproduced in Section 6 (Images 4-6). The revitalization of King Street West in King-Spadina was initiated in the early 1960s when Toronto businessman Edwin "Honest Ed" Mirvish (1914-2007) restored the Royal Alexandra Theatre (1907) and converted many of the neighbouring warehouses into eating establishments serving theatre patrons. Roy Thomson Hall opened on the opposite side of King Street West in 1982. The area was dedicated as Toronto's "Entertainment District" in honour of these venues, as well as the Princess of Wales Theatre (1993). 2 Completed in 1870 on the site of Elmsley House, Government House relocated to Rosedale in the World War I era and the property was razed by the Canadian Pacific Railway (its history is described in Dendy (1993), 56-58) 3 In 1996, the former City of Toronto adopted the King-Spadina Part II Plan, which relaxed land-use controls in the neighbourhood Intention to Designate, 300 King Street West, and HEA Authority - 260, 284 & 322 King Street West Attachment No. 4 Princess of Wales Theatre The property at present-day 300 King Street West occupies part of Block A, the section of Russell Square subdivided under Plan 261E and registered by the University of Toronto's trustees in 1902 (Image 8). Although part of the subject property was sold to the Gold Medal Furniture Manufacturing Company in 1909, it was not developed by that enterprise or the members of the Wilson family who acquired and retained the land until 1950. During the latter year, the Canadian General Electric Company purchased that parcel, as well as the adjoining vacant frontage that extended over 100 feet along King Street. The archival photographs attached as Images 11-13 show the site, which was operated as a parking lot during the second half of the 20th century. In 1975, Ed Mirvish Enterprises acquired the subject property and, 15 years later Ed Mirvish and his son, David commissioned the Princess of Wales Theatre as the first privately owned and financed theatre in Canada since the unveiling of the Royal Alexandra Theatre nearly a century earlier. Before the construction of purpose-built facilities in Toronto, theatrical performances were organized in public assembly places, including government buildings, hotels, and outdoor recreational facilities.4 The first custom-designed theatre in the city dated to 1848 when John Ritchey commissioned the Royal Lyceum on King Street West near Bay Street. Like many of the edifices that followed, it was destroyed by fire in 1874.5 In 1890, the Academy of Music opened on the south side of King, east of Simcoe Street as purportedly the "first public building to be lighted by electricity and the first theatre to open the drop curtain from the centre".6 At the turn of the 20th century, the Princess Theatre (the name assumed by the Academy of Music in 1895) and the new Royal Alexandra Theatre were regarded as the two sole "legitimate" theatres in Toronto (Images 9 and 10) that offered "high brow" musical and theatrical performances.7 They were distinguished from other venues, including the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres on Yonge Street that

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