[Urban Shocker]

... so if the hotel at the present location was once called the New Strathcona Hotel, I appear to have unearthed its earlier location.

 

[Urban Shocker]

We have a few aereal photos here from the early 70s that show a white building ( about seven storeys tall, stretching right the way from York to University ), but I'm not sure if that is the Strathcona. I suspect not, because it looks as if it's on the site that was cleared for that wedge-shaped office building that went up in the '80s where University, York, and Front converge. Anyhow, it's immediately to the north of the slightly lower building that Gord Rayner did that jazzy wall mural on a few years later. There is a lower building to the north of it, too - which was more likely the Strathcona. It suggests to me that they added a few storeys to the hotel before they put that horrible siding over the whole shebang.

 

[jaborandi]

What precious little I can recall from pre-recladding is that it was not a particularly attractive building hence I felt no regret about the later changes. It is a prime site for redevelopment in the core though.

 

[adma]

It must have been sided in the 80s, at the earliest. But what I recall was straight-off 50s (white brick?) vernacular modern, not unlike a lot of what came to line lower University during those years. (Maybe that's where the "New Strathcona" comes in.)

The present window pattern suggests 50s modern screaming to get out, too--which, in this day and age, could be worth creative recovery...

 

[androiduk]

Maybe this will help a little Archivist. Front St. east of York looking northwest. The building I've marked should be the one you're looking for.

 

[Urban Shocker]

I've just unearthed a street scene - again, from the early '70s - that shows the lower floors of the Strathcona as exactly the sort of white building adma recalls, with five banks of windows ( starting on the second floor, so the present two-storey podium is an affectation of the reno. ) facing York. There's a large Strathcona HOTEL neon sign jutting out from the building.

Bardi's has plenty of signage, of a more recent vintage, including a big bovine head image with the words TAVERN and STEAKS above and below it.

 

[SP!RE]

So was it covered with siding because a few floors were added and they didn't match the existing architecture?

 

[adma]

No, it was covered with siding because it was a cheap and easy remedy for what was deemed an ugly and dated and perhaps "deteriorating" 50s facade. A generation later, they might have used EIFS instead.

 

[TKTKTK]

Maybe this will help a little Archivist. Front St. east of York looking northwest. The building I've marked should be the one you're looking for.

Same general view as this, but further away:

The later site of the Strathcona is where those 3 or 4 story brick buildings rise above the shacks. The building you're pointing to is the Currie building/warehouse.

 

[adma]

Is that where the 1904 Great Fire started?

 

[TKTKTK]

Is that where the 1904 Great Fire started?

Wow! apparently:

The fire was first spotted at 8:04 p.m. by a constable on his regular street patrol. The flames were rising from the elevator shaft of the Currie neckwear factory at 58 Wellington Street West, just west of Bay Street. The factory was situated in the centre of a large industrial and commercial area. The exact cause of the fire is still not known, but a faulty heating stove or electrical problem is suspected.​

Obviously not that same building though (since the photo's from 1925). Good location pick Archivist!

 

[adma]

Obviously not that same building though (since the photo's from 1925).

And the location's different, too--58 Wellington would be about where the SE entrance to the TD Concourse is now. (And besides, that building looks like it just might post-date 1904, even though the old Currie factory apparently survived the fire it started.)

 

[Joe R.]

So I decided to contact the general manager of the hotel and ask whether he'd consider the prospect of uncovering the original brick facade. He appears to be interested. Here's his reply:

"Definately worth exploring....what are the pros and cons ....,..why would they have covered the brick in the first place?....how would brick impact heat retension.....part of the building is dry wall and part cement....?"

 

[jimha]

brick? I seem to recall its more like block. It was covered with siding when floors were added in the late eighties. We used to refer to it as the concrete country club. As ugly as the siding is what's underneath is not any better.

 

[Joe R.]

brick? I seem to recall its more like block. It was covered with siding when floors were added in the late eighties. We used to refer to it as the concrete country club. As ugly as the siding is what's underneath is not any better.

Maybe it was built with limestone? I can't imagine there are slabs of concrete under the siding. I doubt the original facade would look worse than what's currently there. There's got to be more pictures of this building somewhere, prior to it's recladding.