If Walls Could Talk
At U of T’s downtown campus, the stones have witnessed more than 150 years of history
Comprising more than 180 buildings, the University of Toronto campus in the heart of downtown Toronto is almost a museum of local architectural styles and building techniques. Its structures include far more than classrooms and offices. There are repurposed domestic and commercial buildings (including a dairy), a dozen residences and numerous libraries, as well as athletic facilities, theatres, concert halls, exhibit galleries, an astronomical observatory and even a noteworthy church.
With many buildings dating to the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, the campus is especially notable for its impressive stone structures. Architects and building patrons of the period felt that an institution of such importance and dignity should resemble the great medieval buildings of Europe. They favoured Gothic and Romanesque Revival styles, which offer great scope for inventive stonework. One of the University’s most striking buildings is even said to be haunted by the ghost of a stoneworker who perished there over 150 years ago.
While some building materials used on the U of T campus were sourced from the U.S., many of the most significant buildings used the durable grey Whirlpool and red Medina quartz sandstone quarried along the Niagara Escarpment between Hamilton and Orangeville. Rail service, beginning in 1879, allowed for efficient shipping of the stone to Toronto. Here we provide an overview of some of the University’s more memorable structures.
TRINITY COLLEGE
Simply driving past the campus, one can’t miss Trinity College on Hoskin Avenue, which was built in stages between 1925 and 1963 by several different architectural firms working in a Tudor Revival style. The entrance to the front wing (the earliest section) features ornamental stone faces. The outstanding section is the 1955 Gothic-style chapel, designed by the British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (designer of Britain’s iconic red telephone boxes). The exterior is sandstone, and the interior combines Indiana limestone support with stuccowork, while the floor is Roman travertine.
VICTORIA COLLEGE
Also notable is the grouping of buildings around Victoria College on the east side of Queen’s Park Crescent. The vibrant, multispired “Old Vic” building, dating from 1889, was designed by W.G. Storm in the Richardsonian Romanesque style using red Credit Valley sandstone and contrasting pale limestone. It is surrounded by Gothic neighbours like the 1913 Burwash Hall and the 1930 Emmanuel College, built of grey Credit Valley rubble limestone with Indiana limestone trim, and both designed by Henry Sproatt and Ernest Rolph.
HART HOUSE
Hart House, located to the northeast of King’s College Circle, was designed as a student centre in the Beaux Arts Gothic Revival style by Sproatt and Rolph. It is made up of four wings around a central quadrangle, and built of structural steel and precast concrete with grey sandstone cladding that counterfeits the look of structural masonry. The exterior is embellished with unique and amusing medieval style carved human heads and animals. Many of the floors are Italian travertine.
Its construction took place in the shadow of World War I, which had a dampening effect on the construction industry generally. A Toronto correspondent for The Stone Cutters’ Journal of May 1915 wrote: “I am pleased to state that sixteen men have started on the Hart House job. This job has been closed down since last fall, owing to the European crisis. Trade throughout this city is very quiet, but it is to be hoped that all the boys will be back at the banker pretty soon.”
The building has stood the test of time, apart from relatively minor maintenance work. In recent years, Inman & Oxland repaired 160 square feet of stone wall mortar joints and replaced 35 damaged stones with hand-cut Credit Valley sandstone. J.D. Strachan Construction duplicated existing curved stone door surrounds and arches. However, care has been taken to preserve Hart House as it has looked for the past 100 years.
SOLDIERS’ TOWER
The day Hart House formally opened in 1919, the cornerstone was laid for a noble addition, Soldier’s Tower, which was meant to commemorate the members of the university community who had lost their lives in the Great War. At 143 feet, it is taller than any other Canadian war memorial except the Peace Tower in Ottawa. The names of 627 war dead were engraved on the stone “Memorial Screen” next to the archway that forms the base of the tower. Sadly, they would be joined by another 557 names representing those lost in the Second World War.
Designed by Sproatt and Rolph in the Late Gothic Revival style, Soldiers' Tower was completed in 1924. It is built of grey ashlar stone and trimmed with limestone. A Memorial Room dominated by a remarkable stained-glass window sits directly above the archway. It houses a book of remembrance and artifacts associated with the university’s servicemen and women. A tiny door at the western base of the tower gives access to a narrow winding staircase that leads to an upper gallery housing the machinery for playing the tower’s carillon of 51 bells.
Some replacement of sandstone masonry was carried out around 1970 and 2000. Then, beginning in 2010, Soldiers’ Tower underwent a signification restoration initially estimated to cost $1.8 million. It included stabilization of weather-damaged pinnacles and upper masonry. Also, since weather, graffiti and some possibly overenthusiastic cleaning efforts over the years had eroded the names on the Memorial Screen, ERA Architects undertook a painstaking job of precisely documenting the 1,184 names.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
Most people consider University College to be the jewel in the University’s crown. After much dissent, its stakeholders settled on a Romanesque Revival-style building, built between 1856 and 1858 to a design by Frederic Cumberland and William Storm.
About two-thirds of the building material is pale-yellow brick produced at the Yorkville Brick Yards, which once occupied what is now Ramsden Park, along Yonge Street near Davenport Road. The front façade is largely constructed of weather-resistant Ohio sandstone from the U.S. with pale Whirlpool sandstone from the Niagara Escarpment. It is ornamented throughout with whimsical stone carvings, but its most remarkable feature is the extremely ornate and intricately carved doorway.
“It’s one of the most developed Gothic entrance arches [in the area],” says Charles Hazell, co-founder of Taylor Hazell Architects Ltd., who carried out a visioning and planning report on the building. “I would even put it in a North American class for its depth, its detailing, and as a demonstration of carving and the capacity of workshops to deliver highly detailed design work.”
The names of some of these artisans are known, such as Swiss-born Charles Emil Zollikofer, the master sculptor. And every U of T student is familiar with the names of Ivan Reznikoff and Paul Diabolos, the two stoneworkers who, legend has it, fought to the death for the love of a woman. Reznikoff was killed and is believed to haunt the college. Both men are commemorated in the names of campus cafes.
On Valentine’s Day in 1890, a kerosene lamp started a fire that destroyed the eastern interior, but most of the stone structure survived, and University College was soon rebuilt. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1968, partly in recognition of its high-quality stone construction. The building has recently been undergoing a revitalization and modernization headed by John Shnier of Kohn Shnier architects and Graeme Stewart of heritage-specialist ERA Architects.
PHOTO CREDITS
Trinity College (black and white): Trinity College 1928: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231; James Salmon collection.
Trinity College (colour) and Victoria College: Maksim Sokolov (Maxergon), copyright holder, has published these images online under conditions imposed by a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Hart House: Ivan Hernández from Toronto, copyright holder, has published this image online under conditions imposed by a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.
Soldiers' Tower: SchwerinG, copyright holder, has published this image online under conditions imposed by a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
University College: Jphillips23, copyright holder, has published this image online under conditions imposed by a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.