Toronto's Historic Waterfront - Harbourfront Centre

There are six plaques about this location.
All were written and researched by Kerri MacDonald and Talia Wooldridge.
All can be seen on this page.

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted March, 2011

In the middle of Amsterdam Bridge over the Simcoe Street Slip can be found the "10 acre Harbourfront Centre Site" plaque. This is what it tells us:

Plaque coordinates: 43.638293 -79.384283

This view shows the current 4 ha Harbourfront Centre site as it appeared in April, 1929. At the top of the photo is what was then the largest single unit warehouse in North America, the Toronto Terminal Warehouse, with its attached Power Plant and Ice House units at the west end of the 8-floor L-shaped building. Seven years later the Direct Winters Transport building would be added (the original use of the current York Quay Centre). Note the large Canada Steamship freighters docked along some of the 610 m of dock wall which the Warehouse provided. The Pier 4 building, originally known as Transit Shed #4 would be constructed along the east side of John Quay the following year in 1930. The two prominent structures in the view today, the Metro Police Marine Unit Station and the Radisson Admiral Hotel both opened in 1985, the same year the Direct Winters Transport building was renovated to become York Quay Centre.

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted February, 2011

At the southwest corner of Ann Tindal Park at York Quay, is the "Direct Winters Transport Building" plaque. This is what it says:

Plaque coordinates: 43.638501 -79.383717

This view of the Direct Winters Transport building looking north east across York Quay is circa the end of the 1960s. Note the TD Centre, constructed in 1967 in the background and the distinctive facade of the Royal York Hotel which was the largest hotel in the British Commonwealth when it was built in 1929. The two trucking bays shown at the back of the Transport terminal are still evident today underneath the awning now extending out from the present day Brigantine Room in York Quay Centre. The office space built on top, which opened in the year 2000, is a self-supporting suspension over the original trucking centre and joined only at the two stairway/elevator shafts at the north and south ends of the building. The open expanse in the foreground has been developed into Ann Tindal Park, named after the visionary first Director of Programming at Harbourfront Centre.

Related Toronto plaques
Toronto-Dominion Centre
The Royal York Hotel

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted March, 2011

At the east side of Queens Quay Terminal is located the "Queens Quay Terminal & York St. Slip" plaque. Here's what it says:

Plaque coordinates: 43.638475 -79.379918

This late 1960s view looking north along the east side of what is now Queens Quay Terminal shows the Royal York Hotel, built in 1929, and the TD Centre, built in 1967. The smokestacks are part of the Toronto Terminals Railway central heating plant servicing all the buildings on the south side of Front Street between Yonge and Simcoe streets, including Union Station and the Royal York Hotel. The docking slip at the right of the photo was known as the York Street slip from the 1930s onward, and was the embarkation point for CN passenger steamers Dalhousie and Northumberland. At the extreme right of the photo is part of the Pier 6 storehouse, built in 1907; this portion was moved to this location in 1922 and today it is a Second Cup outlet. On the left side of the photo is the west side of the former Toronto Terminal Warehouse, completed in 1928, which was the largest single unit warehouse in North America.

Related website
Harbourfront Centre

Related Toronto plaques
The Royal York Hotel
Toronto-Dominion Centre
Union Station

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted March, 2011

At the southeast corner of Police Basin, south of Robertson Crescent on John Quay, can be found the "South End of John Quay" plaque. This is what it tells us:

Plaque coordinates: 43.637649 -79.385041

Looking westward across the southern end of John Quay, this mid 1970s view shows part of the port facilities with rail access, pier buildings and nearby truck transport facilities (currently York Quay Centre). In 1978 the Whaler's Group renovated the Pier 4 building into a restaurant complex. In 1985 the Metro Police Marine Unit Station opened on the water's edge of John Quay and today continues the proud 80+ year port history of thousands of rescues. The 2005/6 water's edge renovations widened the east and west sides of the quay and included the installation of granite benches as well as an 2.5 m wide fixed boardwalk along the southern edge. The planting of Red Maple trees in irrigated tree pits and installation of lighting fixtures completed the treatment, mirroring the renovations on York Quay completed in Spring 2005.

Toronto Terminal Warehouse and Water's Edge

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted March, 2011

At the south side of the Natrel Pond/Rink is the "Toronto Terminal Warehouse and Water's Edge" plaque. Here's what it says:

Plaque coordinates: 43.637905 -79.382630

This pre-1978 view looking eastward along the southern end of the Toronto Terminal Warehouse building shows some of the more than 610 m feet of dock wall which the warehouse serviced. In its heyday railway tracks went right through the terminal as the port handled up to 5.4 million tonnes of cargo every year. The original power plant was renovated and opened in 1987 as Canada's largest non-collecting contemporary art gallery, The Power Plant. Four years earlier, completed renovations to the warehouse resulted in the architectural award-winning Queens Quay Terminal with luxury condominiums, office space, Harbourfront Centre's Premiere Dance Theatre and upscale stores and restaurants. The current promenade and boardwalk with finger piers were completed in 2005, a $12.5 million face-lift of York Quay waterfront, part of a three government cooperative waterfront revitalization plan. The neighbouring John Quay received the same promenade and boardwalk treatment, completed in Spring 2006.

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted July, 2012

On the south side of Queen's Quay West, west of York Street/Harbour Square, is the "Queens Quay Terminal" plaque. Here's what it says:

Plaque coordinates: 43.639741 -79.380453

New photograph! This 1930s view looks south at what is now Queens Quay Terminal. At the time this photograph was taken, it was the Toronto Terminal Warehouse and its sister buildings, the Ice House and the Power Plant. These three buildings combined to make one colossal building which opened in 1927. As the largest single unit warehouse in North America, it boasted 93,000 square metres of dry, warm and cold storage spaces on eight levels. The building also housed offices for manufacturer's agents, printing rooms for cutting butter into one pound pieces and inspection rooms for government graders and weighers. Its vast floors were often filled with over 3,600 different types of merchandise from across Canada and around the world. In 1972 the building was purchased by the Government of Canada and renamed Harbourfront Warehouses. Showing its age by 1980, major renovations to the tune of $50 million began, and three years later in July, the landmark was transformed into a dazzling showplace and tourist draw, complete with luxury condominiums built over offices, Harbourfront Centre's Premiere Dance Theatre (now Fleck Dance Theatre) and two floors of upscale stores and restaurants.

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