By Bruce Bell, History Columnist –
For the next couple of months, the iconic Gooderham or Flatiron Building at the apex of Church, Wellington and Front will be shrouded in scaffolding for renovation, masking what is arguably the most photographed structure in Toronto.
Before the summer tourist season the scaffolding might be removed, once again revealing the commanding image of the 124-year-old Flatiron framed between the towering modern skyscrapers of the financial district behind it.
In its very existence this building tells the story of how Toronto, once a lonely British colony, became the economic powerhouse of Canada a century later. Surviving two world wars, several stock market crashes, the devastation of urban renewal, numerous takeover bids, and even its own destruction (twice), it still looks as it did the day it was completed in 1891. In addition, the site the Flatiron dominates is as historic as the building.
In 1820 Peter MacDougall built a small farmhouse on the corner of what would later become Church and Wellington Streets, where the Works burger place now stands. By 1829 the house was remodeled by John Brown and turned into the Ontario House hotel.
In 1845 the Ontario House was taken over by Russell Inglis and renamed The Wellington. The hotel prospered because the area was now a stage coach terminus. In order to supply enough rooms for his overnight guests, Inglis annexed a pie-shaped three-storey commercial building dubbed the Coffin Block across the street.
In 1860 Inglis died and his hotel was demolished. In 1862 the hotel site became home to the Bank of Toronto. It was then the most sophisticated and luxurious bank building in the city, owned by the Gooderham family, who made their fortune in whiskey.
As their distillery flourished, patriarch George Gooderham expanded his other business interests, later including the Toronto and Nipissing Railroad and the Manufacturers’ Life Insurance .
With this new wealth and his keen business sense, in 1882 George became the president of the Bank of Toronto (now TD Canada Trust).
By 1890 the bank and the connecting office building were getting overcrowded, so Gooderham commissioned architect David Roberts Jr. to erect a larger office building at the astonishing cost of $18,000.
The old Coffin Block was demolished and in its place the Gooderham Building rose as the most modern and stylish office building in 19th-century Toronto. It even had a new-fangled-state-of-the-art Otis safety elevator – still in use today.
Toronto’s Flatiron building predated New York’s famed Flatiron (Fuller) Building by 10 years and Atlanta’s by five. On the fifth floor, underneath the green cone-shaped cupola, George Gooderham set himself up in an office that overlooked the busy intersection below.
George Gooderham died on May 1, 1905. His namesake building stayed in the family until 1957 when the Gooderhams sold the Flatiron Building to Velco Investments, who in turn sold it to David Walsh and Robert Phillips for $600,000 in 1973.
They saved the Flatiron from demolition by giving it a half-million-dollar overhaul, resulting in the Gooderham Building being designated a historic site in November 1975.
According to David Walsh, in the days when banks printed their own money the Gooderhams used an underground tunnel to bring worn-out bills from the Toronto Bank to the Flatiron to burn in the furnace. On one occasion, thousands of unburnt bills flew out the chimney onto the street, much to the delight of passersby.
In 1998 Michael and Anne Tippin took control of Toronto’s Flatiron building and once again it underwent another painstaking restoration. A few years ago the Tippins moved to Budapest to convert that city’s awe-inspiring stock exchange building into a hotel, and sold the Flatiron to Paul Oberman and his Woodcliffe Corporation. They in turn sold to the Lee Chow Group, its present owners.
The Gooderham Building has had the great fortune of falling into the hands of people who care deeply about the heritage of our city. This most recent renovation may help one of our most cherished landmarks stay around for another century and a quarter.
