Health care facility.
Details of Site Location: The northwest corner of King and John Streets.
Boundary History: The hospital was within a 6-acre block
Current Use of Property: Parking lot. [Since developed into the TIFF Lightbox]
Historical Description: The first physicians in York were surgeons attached to military units, and the first civilian doctor, James Macaulay, was not interested in practising medicine. Men like Dr. William Warren Baldwin found that he could not make a living at medicine, given the low population and poverty of many residents. Baldwin read law, but opened a free clinic for the impoverished Irish who were carriers and sufferers of epidem-ics. Dr. John Rolph agitated for the establishing of a medical school and set up his own in Yorkville. But medical problems were rife, and with each epidemic the need for doctors and a hospital grew. In the 1797 Plan of the Town of York, a six-acre block had been designated as the site for a hospital, but it was never used. The Loyal and Patriotic Soci-ety of Upper Canada had collected money to strike medals for the surviving heroes of the War of 1812, but it was decided to build a brick hospital instead. The medals were melted down and $4,000 made available for the building of a hospital, the first facility for civilians in York. Once the building was finished, it was preempted by the government, which had just lost the legislative buildings to fire. The hospital, under the York General Hospital Trust, had called for tenders in 1819, and the hospital was finished by contractor John Ewart in 1820. But the government’s occupation kept the hospital from opening until 1829, when it began its activities amid an epidemic of measles. By the 1850s it was clear that the hospital was not large enough and a campaign was launched to build a replacement. Govern¬ments dithered and passed the buck, a city plebiscite in 1867 decided that Council should allocate $10,000; but nothing was forthcoming. Catholic Bishop Lynch offered to run the hospital, but the Orange Order protested, and so the Anglican Bishop Darling stepped in with an offer: to no avail. In 1854, the hospital was closed, its site laid out in lots, and 52-year leases offered at public auction. The replacement on Gerrard Street opened two years later as Toronto General Hospital.
Relative Importance: York General Hospital was the first formal facility in the region for treating civilians, and came about as the result of efforts made by the public and by doctors. In a Cane map of 1842, the block in which the hospital existed also contained a special cholera hospital and an Emigrant Building; thus the entire block was one of importance.
Planning Implications: The site most definitely should have a plaque, citing the existence of the city’s first general hospital and the related facilities on the block.
Reference Sources: Richard Bonnycastle, No. 1 Plan of the Town Harbour of York, Upper Canada, 1833; C.K. Clarke, M.D., A History of the Toronto General Hospital (1913); Charles M. Godfrey, M.D., Medicine for Ontario (1979).
Acknowledgements: Maps Project; Charles M. Godfrey, M.D.