Accommodation and refreshment
Details of Site Location: the south side of King Street, west of Ontario Street.
PDM: TBA
Boundary History: The property consisted of a Town Lot of half an acre.
Current Use of Property: Commercial buildings.
Historical Description: This hotel was one of the very earliest of all and was considered the best hotel in the province for many years. John Jordan built his hotel in either 1801 or 1805 and was one of the first to take up a Town Lot in the newly laid-out Town of York. It was a frame and clapboard building, a storey and a half, with six dormers on the roof across the front. At each end were chimneys at the roof ridge. In some ways, the architecture resembled buildings in Quebec, partly because of the dormers and partly because of the steep double pitch of the roof. Scadding wrote that members of the legislature and the upper social classes had public dinners and “fashionable assemblies” there, although its ballroom and dining room were not very large. He also remarked that the windows and doors were smaller than those of his own time. At the rear was a circular brick structure of considerable size, with a domed roof, which was the oven of Paul Macian, a Frenchman who had had a bakery in the area before the hotel and supplied the hotel with baked goods. This oven survived longer than the hotel and was still in use in the late 1830s, baking bread for the militia. In front of the hotel the first paving of King Street was done with flat stones from the lakefront. In 1813, after the Americans had destroyed the legislative buildings, members of the legislature met at Jordan’s hotel for one session while a new brick building was being erected for them. During the 1820s, Scadding wrote, the foundations of the hotel seemed to sink and the hotel threatened to topple into the street. Although it continued to serve as a hotel, its glory days had passed. By the late 1830s it was no longer in use at all, and was demolished. Within its walls, a Sunday School class was conducted by a Methodist minister. Thus is illustrated the way in which the hotel served local people as well as travellers and politicians.
Relative Importance: The site of this once prestigious hotel has seen many changes, and much of Toronto’s history flowed through it. Its early date makes it of even greater interest.
Planning Implications: The site should be plaqued, giving the name of the hotel and its dates, preferably on an exterior wall where passers by can see it.
Reference Sources: Edwin C. Guillet, Pioneer Inns and Taverns (1954); John Ross Robertson, Landmarks of Toronto; Toronto Reference Library.
Acknowledgements: Maps Project