Bank Of Montreal - Yonge + Front - Now The Hockey Hall Of Fame.
Lower Yonge Street at Front was once the site of the Freeland Soap and Candle Factory considered to be Toronto’s first industry.
In his day the name Peter Freeland was known to all for it was his candles that lit the homes of York’s first citizens in the days before electricity and light bulbs.
Peter emigrated to New York from Glasgow Scotland in 1818 then after a time he and his brother William traveled up to Montreal where they set up a soap and candle factory. In 1830 they sold it and moved to Toronto then known as York.
He bought land including the land covered by water at the foot of Yonge Street from Judge Sherwood in 1832 and in 1836 he expanded eastward.
Ice was used in warm weather for hardening the candles in the moulds, so that they might be more easily extracted.
The ice was cut in the winter and was stored in the basement of the American Hotel which at one time stood across the street.
Back then there used to be a row of enormous oak trees on the bank just west of Yonge.
Just down from the oak trees a old schooner sat high and dry on a lot just next to Freeland’s and was used as a playground for young kids to swing from its ropes.
By the beginning of the 1850’s the railroad moved in and with it the sandy beach that was once the Esplanade and the oak trees were replaced with the belching smoke of the steam engines.
From the 1830’s up until the late 1920’s a massive wharf and pier complex known as the Yonge Street Wharf overtook lower Yonge street and while the Yonge Street Wharf (still owned by the Freeland family) thrived well into the next century the Freeland’s Candle and Soap factory went the way of the dinosaur after the death in 1861 of Peter Freeland.
In 1866 the construction of the Great Western Railroad Station replaced the factory.
Architect William G. Storm constructed this massive train station out of wood and overlaid its enormous arched roof with a covering of lead.
At the beginning of the 20th century the station, having outlived its usefulness, was converted into a wholesale vegetable market.
On May 17 1952 it was destroyed by fire and for the next few years the site became a parking lot until 1957 when the remaining buildings mostly warehouses fronting Front Street were demolished to make way for the newly planned O’Keefe Center now renamed The Hummingbird.
Toronto in the 1880’s was on a commercial upswing. From a windswept colonial outpost a mere half century earlier we were now poised to be the most brilliant city the British Empire.
To boost our claim we embarked on a building boom that for the next 20 or so years would see some of our most stunning construction projects take place.
Most of what was to be built was due in part to the spectacular rise of the great Banks and through them we were entering our golden age of architecture.
Banking in the mid 19th century was not a personal savings and checking matter, it was almost completely commercial and governmental with profits being generated by loans made out to government projects and venture capital for manufactures and importers.
No bank was more powerful in early 19th Canada than the Bank of Montreal founded in 1818. It wasn’t until 1841 when the Act of Union was past that the bank was allowed to entre Ontario setting up its first branch in a converted townhouse on NW corner of Bay and King Sts.
In 1845 the Bank of Montreal moved into its new headquarters on what was then one the foremost sites in Toronto the NW corner of Yonge and Front, at the entrance to this great new city. ( The Original Bank Of Montreal Building erected in 1845 and torn down around 1886 is posted at the bottom of the story )
Besides the aforementioned Great Western Train Station (1869-1952) and the American Hotel (c1844-1889) there was also the elaborately detailed Customs House (1873-1920) a white marble eccentric masterpiece on the SW corner where the monumental Dominion office block stands with its row of Corinthian columns sweeping down Front street. All of this centering around the Yonge Street Wharf (c1840-1926) the main terminus for people traveling by steamship entering our city, the Pearson Airport of the day.
The first Bank of Montreal building to stand on the NW corner of Yonge and Front when first built in 1845 was discrete and formal fashioned after the great gentlemen’s clubs in London England.
In 1886 that first branch was torn down and construction began on what was going to be the most luxurious and stunning building in the city.
When completed in 1888 not only was it one of the most elaborate structures in a city now full of elaborate structures but its interior was considered the finest banking hall on the continent.
The Bank of Montreal ( Todays Hockey Hall of Fame ) miraculously survived the chaos of Urban renewal when everything else around it was being un-ceremoniously bulldozed and dumped into Lake Ontario.
Across the street where Shopsy’s now stands once stood one of the greatest monuments to architecture this city ever knew, the Board of Trade Building later the TTC Headquarters.
It was the first building in Toronto to have a steel frame when built in 1888 on the site that once held the aforementioned American Hotel.
The imposing Board of Trade Building with its huge cone shape roof stood flanking the corner of Front and Yonge mirroring its exquisite banking neighbour across the way.
These two gems greeted all who came off the boats at the foot of Yonge Street as if to say Welcome to the Great and Prosperous City of Toronto.
As stunning as the former Bank of Montreal was and still is, in its day it was one of hundreds similar.
The beauty and splendor that was lower downtown is now a mere memory. Our bank had survived and was patiently waiting for a new use.
In 1943 fifty years after hockey was invented Capt JT Sutherland, the man who helped popularized the game, gathered a group of men together and called for a building to be constructed in Kingston that would honour the achievements of hockey’s early players.
Two years later the first 12 members were inducted into the newly formed Hockey Hall of Fame that still had no permanent building.
Finally on August 26, 1961 on the grounds of the CNE then Prime Minister John Diefenbaker officially opened the new Hockey Hall of Fame to be operated by the NHL, OHL and the city of Toronto and spearheaded by the legendary Conn Symthe founder of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Hockey has an idealistic almost romanticized sense of destiny surrounding it.
With its sagas, rituals, superstitions, colours, banners, myths and legends it seems as if long ago it was preordained that the move into the former bank was commanded by the Gods on high long ago.
The former bank building itself is worthy of a temple with its own trophies carved in stone on its exterior announcing the virtues that will make our country great.
Carved onto the south side exterior are emblems to Commerce, Music, and Architecture and on the east side crests to Industry, Science, and Literature.
And to top this Olympus styled experience off a statue of Atlas representing strength and sport is poised outside as if holding the building up.
But it’s the stained-glass dome that I feel is the true architectural treasure of the former bank.
In the Hall right beside the portraits of the honoured members and the display cases holding all that precious silverware is a historical plaque placed by the Canadian Government commemorating the dome.
Designed and set in position in 1885 by the Toronto firm of Robert McCausland Ltd the dome is adorned with finely detailed mythological figures and provincial emblems.
On June 18, 1993 after a phenomenal remodeling job costing $35 million the rich wood paneling, the detailed murals and exquisite gold leafing once again shone through as the new Hockey Hall of Fame opened its doors.
The merging of hockey and history all comes together in one truly magnificent setting. With sunlight streaming in and dispersing over the deified Stanley Cup the former banking hall now attracts 500,000 visitors a year.
Story by Bruce Bell - Historian City Of Toronto
The Original Bank Of Montreal Building erected in 1845 and torn down around 1886 is now pictured.
This shot is around 1870
