First Municipal Building
This elegant frontspiece once served as the front entrance to North York's first municipal hall which officially opened on December 19, 1923 at the southeast corner of Yonge Street and Empress Avenue.
Designed by Murray Brown, a local architect, the building was constructed in response to the formation of North York Township in 1922, and the loss of the temporary offices which once stood at the corner of Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue. In 1946, the municipal hall was enlarged with an addition, incorporating a stylized round-arched entrance with limestone detailing at its east side.
Stylistically, Murray Brown based the first municipal hall on North American colonial architecture, incorporating the imagery of civic authority and a design that was considered appropriate to a small municipal government. Brown was also responsible for the design of the municipality's official crest bearing the inscription "Progress with Economy". In 1942, he was commissioned by the municipality to design North York's first fire hall, whose fire hose tower has also been reconstructed in the adjacent public park.
In 1953, the first municipal hall housed the Magistrate's Court. During the late 1960's, the building was operated by the Emergency Measures Organization and the council chamber served as a courtroom where construction safety law offences were tried. The municipal hall was later used by North York's Parks and Recreation Department until May 1, 1978. Subsequently, the Victorian Order of Nurses took possession of the premises.
The municipal hall was carefully dismantled in 1989. Its principal and east entrances were conserved and reintroduced into this development as architectural artifacts that interpret North York's early municipal heritage.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Toronto Plaques. Full page here.