A 1920 postcard of the Eaton’s Main Store, the Eaton’s Annex, and the Eaton’s mail order, factory and warehouse buildings at the northwest corner of Yonge and Queen Streets in Toronto. Source: WikiMedia Commons

February 10th marks the 34th anniversary of the opening of the Toronto Eaton Centre, and the closure of the Eaton’s store at Yonge and Queen three days prior. This Sunday, Toronto’s best-known historian and author, Mike Filey will tell us about this significant moment in Toronto’s history.

Click here to read about the other Toronto stories he’ll be remembering on ‘Mike Filey’s Toronto‘ at noon on AM740.

February 10, 1977 – Opening of the Toronto Eaton Centre

It’s funny how our values change with the passage of time. Attitudes towards the preservation of historic structures are  a case in point.

I can recall that during the initial discussions back in 1965 about something called the Eaton Centre many people believed that this futuristic $260-million project was just too important to Toronto, and to the future of its downtown, to allow anything, anything, to jeopardize its completion.

Eaton’s interstore coach service – it transported shoppers from Eaton’s Main Store at Queen and Yonge Streets to Eaton’s College Street store at Yonge and College Streets. Since the construction of the Toronto Eaton Centre, Albert Street no longer extends to Yonge Street. Source: WikiMedia Commons

Since the original version of the Centre was to occupy the entire Queen, Bay, Dundas, Yonge parcel of land, the demoltion of virtually every building standing on that property was pretty much a foregone conclusion regardless of any historic significance any of those structures might have had.

Yonge & Queen Streets, 1930s. On the left side of image (west side of street), Simpsons is in foreground, Woolworths is in middleground and Eaton’s is in background. Source: Wikimedia Commons

For sure, all the shops on the west side of Yonge from Dundas to Queen would go except for the old Woolworth store at the Yonge and Queen corner.

That wasn’t because of any historical significance. No, it was because the site was owned by McMaster University as a result of an ancient will drawn up by a member of the Bilton family who didn’t like Timothy Eaton very much.

The entrance to T. Eaton Co., Yonge St., Toronto, decorated for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Source: Archives of Ontario

There was one structure on the site that many Torontonians regarded as untouchable. That was Toronto’s “Old” City Hall, a building that had stood at the northeast corner of Queen and Bay since 1899 (although back then the stretch of Bay north of Queen was still called Terauley).

1917 – (Old) City Hall in foreground, Eaton’s Furniture Building (later the Eaton’s Annex) in background. Source: WikiMedia Commons

“Old” City Hall was once regarded as one of the finest municipal buildings on the continent, and the decision by City Council not to turn it over to the developers was one of the main reasons for the failure of that first Eaton Centre proposal. It was the preservation of the entire building or the deal was off. Sentiment and fiscal conflicts  won the day, and on May 18, 1967, Eaton Centre Number 1 was officially declared dead.

Eaton Centre, 1977. Source: Archives of Ontario

In early 1971, plans for a revised version of the Eaton Centre were presented to city officials.

Finally, after more than 12 years of discussions, Phase 1A, consisting of 150 shops and a new main store for Eaton’s, Toronto’s new (and revised) Eaton Centre opened on February 10, 1977. The rest of the project, referred to as Phase 1B, opened on August 8, 1979. Since then the Centre has had several “facelifts” as it continues to be one of Toronto’s top attractions.

Yonge Street at Queen Street, looking north towards the Eaton Centre, 1980. Source: CanadaGood

An excerpt from Toronto Sketches 9: “The Way We Were” by Mike Filey

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