Summerhill-North Toronto CPR Station
Encyclopedia
The North Toronto or Summerhill CPR Station is a former Canadian Pacific Railway
station in Toronto
, Canada
, located on the east side of Yonge Street
, approximately 250m south of the Summerhill TTC subway station
. It is home to a Liquor Control Board of Ontario
(LCBO) alcoholic beverage store.
and a three-storey main terminal. The tower is modelled after the Campanile di San Marco in Saint Mark’s Square
in Venice
. The main terminal gallery has a 11.6-metre (38-foot) high ceiling supported by marble walls and with elegant bronze suspended light fixtures.
The foot print of the station is 75 feet 9 inches by 114 feet 2 inches and that of the clock tower is 24 feet 9 inches according to plans published in the August 1915 edition of Canadian Railway and Marine World.
The North Toronto Station was the first building in the city to be constructed of Tyndall limestone
from Manitoba
supplied by The Wallace Sandstone Quarries. The material is noted for its weather resistance, embedded fossils, and dappled beige hues.
The four clock faces, each 2.4 metres (8 feet) in diameter, were always illuminated at night during the station's service life.
The station was designed by Darling and Pearson
and built in 1916 by P. Lyall & Sons Construction Company to service the Canadian Pacific Railway
(CPR) line running across Toronto. The cornerstone was laid on September 9, 1915, by Mayor Tommy Church
, and the station officially opened for passenger service on June 14, 1916 (though it had already been serving in the role since June 4).
When Union Station
opened in 1927 and the Great Depression
followed shortly thereafter, the North Toronto Station, which served smaller towns in Ontario and was originally meant to augment the bigger station, began to suffer. The last paying passengers filed through the station on September 27, 1930. Brewers' Retail moved into the northern portion of the terminal building in 1931.
The station was re-opened, briefly, at 10:30 a.m. on May 22, 1939, when King George VI
and his consort, Queen Elizabeth
(mother of Queen Elizabeth II) arrived for their first visit to Toronto. This was the "first visit to Canada by a reigning British monarch." The king was also officially a Canadian monarch, marking the first visit by one to the city. The couple departed Toronto through Union Station. Shortly after World War II
, returning soldiers passed through the station; they were its last rail passengers.
Though the former beauty of the station's exterior could be surmised even in its most downtrodden days, much of the station’s elegant interior was hidden behind boardings put up by Brewers' Retail and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario
(LCBO, the government-owned alcohol store which had moved into the southern part of the terminal building in 1940) until the building was restored in 2004 by Woodcliffe Corporation. The Architects were Goldsmith Borgal & Company Ltd, Architects and Eastern Construction was contracted to do the work.
The clocks had been removed from the tower between 1948 and 1950, allowing pigeons to enter the structure through holes in the clock faces. The first order of business during the restoration of the tower was the removal of approximately 4,000 kg (approximately 9,000 lb) of desiccated pigeon droppings that had accumulated in its base. The original movements of the clocks themselves were almost completely recovered and restored; now, with the help of GPS signals, they display the time with much greater precision and reliability.
Though it now serves as the Summerhill LCBO outlet, the largest liquor store in Canada, freight trains still run behind the station. During restoration, to break up train-induced vibrations that might otherwise rattle bottles and 'bruise' more expensive merchandise, the concrete floor was impregnated with rubber from discarded automobile tires.
A Timothy's
coffee shop occupies the southwest side, along Yonge Street, and a piazza
, called Scrivener Square (named in honour of Margaret Scrivener
), with a tipping water fountain, provides a wide public space on the southern aspect.
first proposed reintroducing passenger service for commuters through North Toronto station in the form of a ‘Midtown’ line allowing commuter traffic to run between the existing Kipling and Agincourt stations without travelling through the city centre. A new transit plan
announced by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty
in 2007 includes a proposal to institute the Midtown line. In addition, it has been suggested that the station could be used for some Via Rail
and Ontario Northland trains in order to relieve congestion at Union Station, or as a branch of a future city-airport rail link.
The choice of materials is quite monochromatic from the beige Tyndall limestone from Manitoba, the beige, brown and green marble throughout the interior and light brown terrazzo for the flooring. There are only a few variations from this palate and are made to be very meaningful. They are the ornate white plaster ceilings of the waiting room, and green copper spire of the clock tower. Even the steel used for the overpass and the covered area outside are of a similar palette. The building is very approachable because of the materials chosen. They work well on the large scale to give the building weight and solidity but as one more closely inspects the materiality, the scale will change with the slight rustication of the limestone showing fossil evidence, and the veining of the marble unique in every square foot.
The station can be broken down into three main areas: the main building, encompassing the waiting room, ticket office and concourse; the clock tower; and the area underneath the tracks that include the midway and baggage area, leading up to the platforms.
The breaking down of components into 'threes' figures heavily in the building, from three separate programmatic elements to the main building being broken down into three sections. Having the elevation drop on either side to give it an ABA rhythm breaks the main building into three and the groupings go further. There are three very large arched windows with the main entrance set at ground level in the center. At ground level there is also a grouping of three smaller windows set to either side of the entrance under the large arched windows as well as a grouping the same size to either side. Vertically, the elevation is also broken into three main components: the ground level, which is given a human scale with the overhang, and included smaller windows and entrance; the second level is the tallest, and includes three large arched windows; and the third grouping, a relatively simple frieze, cornice and parapet. The plaster ceiling in the waiting room is also broken into three sections by two large beams and unity is drawn from outside to inside by the dentil detail in the plaster and on the cornice. The interior also follows the same hierarchy as the exterior by having changes in the wall treatments. The marble makes a break at what seems to be traditional ceiling height to give the retail space a human scale, while the rest of walls are pure marble all the way the ceiling which makes the third part. The concourse, which is still in the main building but acts as a transition to the area underneath the tracks, has a vaulted ceiling broken in the three separate elements.
The clock tower also follows this rule of threes. In elevation it has a heavy robust base that is taller than the rest of the building. This is topped with another section that is more ornate, yet lighter, detailed with two columns to make three bays, and finally the actual clock and roof. The clock tower is modeled after the Campanile of St. Mark’s in Venice, which had collapsed and was being rebuilt shortly before the construction of the station began. It is an interesting effect of the tower getting lighter with higher elevation. The bottom tier is mostly stone with only a vertical line of very narrow fenestration. The second tier becomes much lighter with the intercolumnation and having the stone wall set a distance behind the columns to give it the depth needed to create a sense of openness. The third tier completes the lightness by becoming narrower and employing a steep and slender roofline.
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
station in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, located on the east side of Yonge Street
Yonge Street
Yonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...
, approximately 250m south of the Summerhill TTC subway station
Summerhill (TTC)
Summerhill is a station on the Yonge–University–Spadina line of the subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its address is 1189 Yonge Street, with the entrance actually being on Shaftesbury Avenue, which is at the north end of the station platforms...
. It is home to a Liquor Control Board of Ontario
Liquor Control Board of Ontario
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario is a provincial Crown corporation in Ontario, Canada established in 1927 by Lieutenant Governor William Donald Ross, on the advice of his Premier, Howard Ferguson, to sell liquor, wine, and beer through a chain of retail stores...
(LCBO) alcoholic beverage store.
Structure
The station, constructed in the Beaux Arts tradition, consists of a 43-metre (140-foot) clock towerClock tower
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...
and a three-storey main terminal. The tower is modelled after the Campanile di San Marco in Saint Mark’s Square
Piazza San Marco
Piazza San Marco , is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as "the Piazza". All other urban spaces in the city are called "campi"...
in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
. The main terminal gallery has a 11.6-metre (38-foot) high ceiling supported by marble walls and with elegant bronze suspended light fixtures.
The foot print of the station is 75 feet 9 inches by 114 feet 2 inches and that of the clock tower is 24 feet 9 inches according to plans published in the August 1915 edition of Canadian Railway and Marine World.
The North Toronto Station was the first building in the city to be constructed of Tyndall limestone
Tyndall Stone
Tyndall stone is a dolomitic limestone quarried from the Selkirk member of the Ordovician Red River Formation, in the vicinity of Tyndall, Manitoba, Canada. It was first used in 1832 for building Lower Fort Garry, and has since become popular for building purposes throughout Canada and the United...
from Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
supplied by The Wallace Sandstone Quarries. The material is noted for its weather resistance, embedded fossils, and dappled beige hues.
The four clock faces, each 2.4 metres (8 feet) in diameter, were always illuminated at night during the station's service life.
History
Pearson and Darling
Pearson and Darling was an architectural firm based in Toronto from 1897 through 1923, a key player in shaping the urban look of the city and the rest of Canada in the first half of the 20th century.-Formation:...
and built in 1916 by P. Lyall & Sons Construction Company to service the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
(CPR) line running across Toronto. The cornerstone was laid on September 9, 1915, by Mayor Tommy Church
Thomas Langton Church
Thomas Langton "Tommy" Church was a Canadian politician.After serving as Mayor of Toronto from 1915 to 1921, he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1921 election as a Conservative from the riding of Toronto North...
, and the station officially opened for passenger service on June 14, 1916 (though it had already been serving in the role since June 4).
When Union Station
Union Station (Toronto)
Union Station is the major inter-city rail station and a major commuter rail hub in Toronto, located on Front Street West and occupying the south side of the block bounded by Bay Street and York Street in the central business district. The station building is owned by the City of Toronto, while the...
opened in 1927 and the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
followed shortly thereafter, the North Toronto Station, which served smaller towns in Ontario and was originally meant to augment the bigger station, began to suffer. The last paying passengers filed through the station on September 27, 1930. Brewers' Retail moved into the northern portion of the terminal building in 1931.
The station was re-opened, briefly, at 10:30 a.m. on May 22, 1939, when King George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
and his consort, Queen Elizabeth
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II...
(mother of Queen Elizabeth II) arrived for their first visit to Toronto. This was the "first visit to Canada by a reigning British monarch." The king was also officially a Canadian monarch, marking the first visit by one to the city. The couple departed Toronto through Union Station. Shortly after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, returning soldiers passed through the station; they were its last rail passengers.
Restoration
Liquor Control Board of Ontario
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario is a provincial Crown corporation in Ontario, Canada established in 1927 by Lieutenant Governor William Donald Ross, on the advice of his Premier, Howard Ferguson, to sell liquor, wine, and beer through a chain of retail stores...
(LCBO, the government-owned alcohol store which had moved into the southern part of the terminal building in 1940) until the building was restored in 2004 by Woodcliffe Corporation. The Architects were Goldsmith Borgal & Company Ltd, Architects and Eastern Construction was contracted to do the work.
The clocks had been removed from the tower between 1948 and 1950, allowing pigeons to enter the structure through holes in the clock faces. The first order of business during the restoration of the tower was the removal of approximately 4,000 kg (approximately 9,000 lb) of desiccated pigeon droppings that had accumulated in its base. The original movements of the clocks themselves were almost completely recovered and restored; now, with the help of GPS signals, they display the time with much greater precision and reliability.
Though it now serves as the Summerhill LCBO outlet, the largest liquor store in Canada, freight trains still run behind the station. During restoration, to break up train-induced vibrations that might otherwise rattle bottles and 'bruise' more expensive merchandise, the concrete floor was impregnated with rubber from discarded automobile tires.
A Timothy's
Timothy's World Coffee
Timothy's World Coffee is a large Canadian chain of coffeeshops.-Origin and background:Timothy's was founded in 1975 as a retailer of premium roasted coffee beans by Timothy Snelgrove and his wife Teresa Snelgrove. The company was originated as a business-school project Snelgrove undertook while...
coffee shop occupies the southwest side, along Yonge Street, and a piazza
Piazza
A piazza is a city square in Italy, Malta, along the Dalmatian coast and in surrounding regions. The term is roughly equivalent to the Spanish plaza...
, called Scrivener Square (named in honour of Margaret Scrivener
Margaret Scrivener
Margaret Mary Scrivener was a politician in Ontario, Canada. She served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1971 to 1985, and was a cabinet minister in the government of William Davis. Scrivener was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.Scrivener was born in Toronto, and was...
), with a tipping water fountain, provides a wide public space on the southern aspect.
Plans
In the mid-1980s, GO TransitGO Transit
GO Transit is an inter-regional public transit system in Southern Ontario, Canada. It primarily serves the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area conurbation, with operations extending to several communities beyond the GTHA proper in the Greater Golden Horseshoe...
first proposed reintroducing passenger service for commuters through North Toronto station in the form of a ‘Midtown’ line allowing commuter traffic to run between the existing Kipling and Agincourt stations without travelling through the city centre. A new transit plan
MoveOntario 2020
MoveOntario 2020 is a plan proposed by the Government of Ontario that would fund 52 rapid-transit projects throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area in Ontario, Canada.-History:...
announced by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr., MPP is a Canadian lawyer, politician and, since October 23, 2003, the 24th and current Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario....
in 2007 includes a proposal to institute the Midtown line. In addition, it has been suggested that the station could be used for some Via Rail
VIA Rail
Via Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....
and Ontario Northland trains in order to relieve congestion at Union Station, or as a branch of a future city-airport rail link.
Qualities
The original building measured 75 feet, 9 inches, by 114 feet, 2 inches, with a midway and baggage room built under the tracks that measured 156 feet, 8 inches, by 81 feet, 1 inch, and clock tower was 24 feet, 9 inches, square.. The clock tower stands 140 feet tall and, estimating from the photographs, the main building is about 50 feet high. Once entered, the building only has one floor with the rails elevated by an embankment that allows passage underneath without having to change floors. Additions in 2003 added a triangular section to the north side of the building that includes more retail space and a loading dock, pushing the west façade tight to side walk bordering Yonge Street, and also extending the eastern side of the building to include another loading dock. The scale is quite grand and is apparent by the 38 foot high ceiling as one enters into what once was the main waiting area. The public areas are at a large scale that tapers once one circulates to the midway under the tracks, and would have opened up again once one were to move up to the platform, because, at the time of construction the embankment built for the tracks would have been one of the higher points in the vicinity.The choice of materials is quite monochromatic from the beige Tyndall limestone from Manitoba, the beige, brown and green marble throughout the interior and light brown terrazzo for the flooring. There are only a few variations from this palate and are made to be very meaningful. They are the ornate white plaster ceilings of the waiting room, and green copper spire of the clock tower. Even the steel used for the overpass and the covered area outside are of a similar palette. The building is very approachable because of the materials chosen. They work well on the large scale to give the building weight and solidity but as one more closely inspects the materiality, the scale will change with the slight rustication of the limestone showing fossil evidence, and the veining of the marble unique in every square foot.
The station can be broken down into three main areas: the main building, encompassing the waiting room, ticket office and concourse; the clock tower; and the area underneath the tracks that include the midway and baggage area, leading up to the platforms.
The breaking down of components into 'threes' figures heavily in the building, from three separate programmatic elements to the main building being broken down into three sections. Having the elevation drop on either side to give it an ABA rhythm breaks the main building into three and the groupings go further. There are three very large arched windows with the main entrance set at ground level in the center. At ground level there is also a grouping of three smaller windows set to either side of the entrance under the large arched windows as well as a grouping the same size to either side. Vertically, the elevation is also broken into three main components: the ground level, which is given a human scale with the overhang, and included smaller windows and entrance; the second level is the tallest, and includes three large arched windows; and the third grouping, a relatively simple frieze, cornice and parapet. The plaster ceiling in the waiting room is also broken into three sections by two large beams and unity is drawn from outside to inside by the dentil detail in the plaster and on the cornice. The interior also follows the same hierarchy as the exterior by having changes in the wall treatments. The marble makes a break at what seems to be traditional ceiling height to give the retail space a human scale, while the rest of walls are pure marble all the way the ceiling which makes the third part. The concourse, which is still in the main building but acts as a transition to the area underneath the tracks, has a vaulted ceiling broken in the three separate elements.
The clock tower also follows this rule of threes. In elevation it has a heavy robust base that is taller than the rest of the building. This is topped with another section that is more ornate, yet lighter, detailed with two columns to make three bays, and finally the actual clock and roof. The clock tower is modeled after the Campanile of St. Mark’s in Venice, which had collapsed and was being rebuilt shortly before the construction of the station began. It is an interesting effect of the tower getting lighter with higher elevation. The bottom tier is mostly stone with only a vertical line of very narrow fenestration. The second tier becomes much lighter with the intercolumnation and having the stone wall set a distance behind the columns to give it the depth needed to create a sense of openness. The third tier completes the lightness by becoming narrower and employing a steep and slender roofline.
External links
- Summerhill Station
- The Midtown Corridor (Transit Toronto)