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AlbertC

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From Urbandreamer on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/urban__dreamer

Heydon House Hotel at St Clair & Old Weston Rd to be renovated, aka Drake-ish with new residential project beside it? 1834 St Clair West

Photo by JohnFitzgerald on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jfitzg/3156821942/

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It's about frickin' time! My father's social club is on St. Clair (now closed) and every time we would go down from Weston Road; we'd drive by this building and over the years I've seen it deteriorate. I sincerely hope it's restored and the finished product is outstanding!
 
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This has now happened a couple of times that people will post things to twitter (without any hard facts) causing somewhat rampant speculation. I think we need to be a bit more careful as a forum about using twitter as fact.

100 tower at Yonge and Bloor (BlacktowerTV)
Condo BLDG at Yonge and Dundas (BlacktowerTV)

and this...
 
It would be a dream to see this classy Victorian restored to its former glory, and it's essential in order to transform that horrible area. Get rid of that horrible concrete bunker housing a flea market right to the north as well for a start.
 
It's about time this grand building receives some attention. It has many great details like the Romanesque arches and "Heydon House" is still chiselled in sandstone at the base of the rounded corner. (This was the base of a turret that was removed at around the 1950s.) But it has been neglected to the point that the storefront has painted plywood where a window once was. So many details have been stripped over the years like the turret and cornice, but its grandeur still shines through. It was formerly the vibrant centre of Carlton Village, part of the City of West Toronto (Junction). It has a lot of history. Here's a well-known 1911 photo of it from the Toronto Archives showing its original details:

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This is a pretty sketch intersection right now, so hopefully new developments can bring back some life into this area. The bingo place on the southside of St. Clair was recently demolished, I can see that lot redeveloped too.

It's not that sketchy. The bingo hall wasn't demolished; rather, it was renovated and at least looks better than it did before. But it's a very disposable building.

Towered said:
It would be a dream to see this classy Victorian restored to its former glory, and it's essential in order to transform that horrible area.

It's an area that's definitely in need of revitalization but hardly "horrible". It's not very attractive due to lack of investment in the public realm (aside from the recent St. Clair ROW project) and lack of any interesting urban planning. I'm puzzled by how underdeveloped St. Clair is there. There are many empty lots fronting St. Clair. It's possible that the plan to have Highway 400 slice through the area to link with the Gardiner resulted in uncertainty and a flight of capital, and after the plans died no one really noticed the area. It may have also had to endure the smells of the Stock Yards because of west-to-east wind patterns. I'd also have to say that reconstructing the underpass just west of the Heydon House is essential to revitalization, and that a pedestrian arcade may have to be built through this building to accommodate St. Clair West's present configuration of the ROW + 2 car lanes in each direction.
 
http://www.blogto.com/city/2014/01/whats_next_for_the_heydon_house_at_old_weston_road/

What's next for the Heydon House at Old Weston Road?

Posted by Rick McGinnis / JANUARY 12, 2014



Plans to redevelop Heydon House came to light last year, when Ward 17 councilor Cesar Palacio held public meetings to consult on the future of the building and the adjacent area. Officials in the city planning department confirm that the owners have submitted drawings for an extensive renovation of the building, but that nothing more formal has been discussed.

While details are sketchy, it would appear that Heydon House is likely to be given what historical preservation activists call a "facadomy," where exterior walls will be retained but the building behind it, which has been landmarked since the '80s, will be demolished.

"Whatever happens there, the facade of the building has to be preserved," Palacio tells me. "All the elements of the historical aspects are maintained - there's no negotiating that."

Whatever happens to Heydon House, it likely won't happen too soon, but all four corners of the intersection have been targeted for increased density by the city's avenue study. On every side of the old hotel, empty lots and moribund storefronts make for a desolate streetscape, but the biggest change that's likely to happen to St. Clair and Old Weston Road in the next few years is the widening of the underpass beneath the bridge just a few hundred yards to the west, where the Brampton GO line currently runs, and the new express line to Pearson is being built.
 
Additionally, the St. Clair West TMP addresses this area directly.

View attachment 283768

I feel like this plan still lacks a few connections. Why not connect the proposed extensions of Davenport and Keele directly, instead of creating a new jog via Union and the Gunns extension? Why not restore the Old Weston Rd bridge to Dundas? Seems obvious to me because not only was it there in the past, but it would serve as a relief valve for the horrible traffic in the area caused by all the railway bottlenecks.
 
I feel like this plan still lacks a few connections. Why not connect the proposed extensions of Davenport and Keele directly, instead of creating a new jog via Union and the Gunns extension? Why not restore the Old Weston Rd bridge to Dundas? Seems obvious to me because not only was it there in the past, but it would serve as a relief valve for the horrible traffic in the area caused by all the railway bottlenecks.

for me, the only major flaw in this plan is the lack of an integrated connection between the 512 streetcar and the GO station. I love that the TTC supports rerouting bus routes to directly service the station, just like they do with subways, but to get to St Clair one will have to brave the elements and walk down a long uncovered ramp.

I get that there would be major costs to rectify that, but I don’t even see any acknowledgement of how suboptimal that connection is going to be.

(from https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/u...Study-TMP-Final_June-18-19-AODA-Chapter-5.pdf)
 
Looks like the corner convenience store has closed down, as the St. Clair fronting signage has been removed. Some people also there patching up a piece of the western section of the building:

Dec 19, 2020

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One of my old high school mates is a current day member of the Heydon family, who I still remain good friends with. Anyways, here's an interesting article about the building and the greater Junction area as a whole:



Both Heydon House, located at the northwest corner of (Old) Weston Road and St. Clair, and Brown’s Hotel, located further north, had a reputation for fights and general rowdiness. For several years Heydon House, the Junction’s largest hotel in 1903, was also a regular venue for cockfighting, and sometimes the subject of police raids. On February 22, 1903, Rev. T.E.E. Shore gave a sermon at the Annette Street Methodist Church on “Some Needed Reforms in Toronto Junction.” Shore outlined several problems he believed to be plaguing the town, including the existence of gambling dens, to which he accused the local police of brazenly turning a blind eye. He reserved most of his ire, however, for the local hotels, the primary (legal) purveyors of alcohol in the Junction. The Star quotes Shore as saying “Many a poor fallen girl has told me down in yonder mission how she fell into sin and degradation in Junction hotels. Men do not go to those hotels merely for refreshments or to quench their thirst. They are cesspools, I say. Cesspools of harlotry, vice, and iniquity.”

The sermon ignited a debate over local option which raged in Toronto Junction throughout 1903. The town divided into those who saw alcohol as the root of the problem, and the moderates who argued that they could make do with more vigorous enforcement of the current laws and an investigation into the liquor licensing system. The pro-local option side was led by several prominent townspeople, in particular the Protestant ministers, who increasingly called for prohibition in their sermons. The cause was also championed by some members of the town council, particularly Councillors A.H. Perfect and future MPP William A. Baird. The “Antis,” as the opposition was known in the press, were understandably led by the local hotel owners, whose livelihood depended on alcohol sales; on the town council, their political champion was councillor and former Junction mayor James Bond.

That autumn, both sides held public meetings around the town, each believing their opinion to be that of the local majority. The issue was amplified by a fight at Heydon House that September. The fight is described in a 1987 family history by A.J. Heydon, who writes that the fight “was said to have been fought between some cattlemen from the Union Stockyards and a group of C.P. railway workers—the subject of disagreement having been the favour of one of the neighbourhood prostitutes… It was largely the result of this incident that public sympathy began to side with the prohibitionist cause.”
 
For many years that building housed the Casa del Baby Beef, at that time (1970s) one of the few places Argentinians and other Latin Americans could find meats like chorizo. Spent many afternoons there shopping with my Dad, looking at carcasses in the back (no "safe spaces" for kids back then) while he shopped. He probably discovered the place while driving the Keele bus which used to stop in front of it.

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Source: https://transittoronto.ca/photos/images/ttc-4779-old-weston-sb-st-clair-0950-19760613.jpg
 
I came across this "proposal" by Marzotto Architects that seems to have been posted in 2018/2019. Anyone know if this is still in the works?


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