Toronto’s ‘Skating Mania’: Ice Rinks in the 1860s

“The skating mania has reached Toronto, and the entire population have taken the disease in the most virulent forms.” This was The Globe’s declaration in the February 12, 1862 edition of the newspaper. It launched a flurry of activity and new ventures that thrilled Torontonians.

Torontonians were already engaging in the frozen activity in the decades prior to the newspaper’s affirmation. In 1835, John Howard produced watercolour paintings of people skating on Toronto Bay near the wharves. There were also ponds at the foot of Windsor Street, near the Northern Railway Station at Bay Street, and at the feet of Peter and John Streets. The Globe in early 1862 spoke of an “accidental” rink on The Esplanade. The pond had “a great advantage over many others for skating, as in the event of the ice breaking, the water is only a few inches deep.” It attracted many people, including a large number of young ladies, who went unfazed with laughter as they fell on the ice.

But the actual purpose of The Globe’s February 1862 article was to declare that a permanent and purpose-built skating rink was “A Public Necessity.” Toronto Bay was a “splendid skating ground,” but the ice was unreliable. Indeed, there were several past reports of drownings. As for The Esplanade, despite the less perilous ice, the area itself was too small. A dedicated locale was needed for the wintery pastime. The newspaper recommended a spacious place, not susceptible to the wind, and that could be supplied with water. It proposed the University Park on the banks of the creek running through it. Some days later, a reader from Lower Canada — Skates — chimed in in agreement of the University Creek scheme. Montreal already had a skating rink since 1859 with a $5 subscription model.

The issue resumed again in the autumn — with much progress. The Toronto Curling Club, its president John O. Howard, applied to Toronto City Council to build a structure that would be used for curling and skating in the winter months. In a City Council Meeting on October 21, 1862, the City Corporation approved this intention “to construct a large skating rink for the recreation of the citizens.”

On October 29, the newspaper reported that a 300 by 150 feet rink was under construction. Somewhat confusedly, this was not the rink referenced by the Toronto Curling Club. This was the Victoria Skating Rink according to an advertisement on the same day. The ice was to be eight inches thick — which The Globe oddly noted was sure enough to accommodate a “large man” — of which there were a few in Toronto. The rink was going to be located on the south side of Gerrard Street at Pembroke Street, opposite the entrance to the Horticultural Gardens. The Honourable George William Allan, M.L.C. — who also donated the land for the Gardens — provided the land. It was to be surrounded by a six foot fence and would be lit by gas and illuminated at night. A house with apartments was to be built too. The cost to build the rink was $800. Advertisements for the Victoria Skating Rink would soon go out, enticing would-be members to come to the office of Treasurer R.J. Kimball at 10 Toronto Street.

As for the Toronto Curling Club, it started on its venture on The Esplanade near the Customs House. The Toronto Skating Rink would have 300 square feet for a skating pond, be lit with gas (like the Victoria Rink), and have “comfortable dressing rooms, with attendance and every comfort for skaters.” Tickets would go on sale at the office of James Fraser at 5 King Street West. Single season tickets were $2 and Family tickets were $5. As it held its annual general meeting in early November, workers prepared the premises — leveling the ground and constructing fences.

To add to the mix, in the advertisements of The Globe on November 11, 1862, the Riley, May & Co. announced the construction of a third rink: The West End Skating Park. It was placed under an ad for the Toronto Skating Rink. It was to be located at King and John Streets. Subscribers could sign up at the Revere House.

The Victoria Skating Rink and The Toronto Skating Rink opened around the same time — possibly even a day apart. The Victoria Skating Rink, which served residents in the northeast part of the city, was operational by at least December 9. Ads noted in the last days of November that it would “be ready to use as soon as there was ice.” The entrance was off Sherbourne Street and there were heated rooms for men and women. There was no alcohol to be sold. The Toronto Skating Rink opened at a central locale in the city at the south side of Front between Yonge and Bay by at least December 10. The event was marked by a Grand Skating Carnival. It was a brilliant and picturesque scene with hundreds in attendance. There were many falls but none were hurt.

Meanwhile, Riley & May were working at readying the West End Skating Rink. It was being flooded with water by the Water Works Company and the owners “had fitted up everything comfortably for their subscribers.” They expected to put up a flag at the Revere House — a hotel also under their management — to signify that the ice was good. By December 23, the rink was operational and lit up for the first time “with fine effect.”

On February 28, 1863, the Victoria Skating Rink hosted a “Grand Skating Match”. The prize was a silver flower stand to the best lady skater. At least one thousand ladies and gentlemen attended. A band played at the entrance. Ice conditions were not good due to the sun. The first prize went to Miss Allie Worts. These skating carnivals would become a fixture of the rinks for the years that followed. The Toronto Skating Rink held at least five gatherings in early 1863, including one on March 19th. The band of the 10th Battalion provided music and the building was “magnificently decorated and brilliantly lighted with gas.”

Women had a noted presence and active participation on the rinks. Even before the advent of purpose-built rinks, they skated on ponds in great numbers. In one scene at The Esplanade pond in January 1862, there were 50 women of a total 200 participants. One letter to The Globe from “The School Girls” however noted that they may not have been always welcomed. Even though they had “pretty well mastered the art of skating,” women had been banned from the Peter Street pond. When the dedicated rinks were built, the pastime was a family affair. Moreover, in addition to competing in carnivals and competition, there were ladies rooms and, in the case of the Victoria Rink, a female attendant to wait on female skaters. And they were vocal in part in the operation of the rinks. In 1864, “A Lady Skater” wrote against smoking at the Toronto Skating Rink. (Another reader — “A Ticket Holder and A Foreigner” — wrote it was disgraceful that a female had to appeal to a newspaper to stop the disgusting act.)

In May 1863, Orrin Wardell, the proprietor of the Victoria Skating Rink, was honoured at the City Baths. It was perhaps the first time the venue’s owner was named. (In January, a subscriber to the rink complained of the smoking at the rink and noted he did not know who owned or operated the establishment.) Wardell was presented with a silver plate and tea set. Wardell’s story is an interesting one. Not only was he not listed in the initial communications about the Victoria Skating Rink, he was listed as a house mover in the 1862-1863 Hutchinson’s Toronto directory. He was living at 55 Centre Street. By the 1864 Directory, Wardell was listed as a house mover and proprietor of the Victoria Skating Rink and the City Baths at Maria Street (now Soho Street) and Phoebe Street. Wardell had relatives named Isaac and William that were also house movers. By the 1866 Directory, Wardell was listed as both a proprietor of the rink and a new career: auctioneer.

For the 1863-64 winter, there were exciting developments across the skating rink world. Hardware stores, which had regular ads in the newspaper promoting their goods, were “decked out with skates.” And there were improvements to the gear too: “…[Now], instead of some 15 or 20 minutes being wasted at the border of the ice in applying the skates, they can be put on in an instant, and removed in the same space of time.”

For the spaces themselves, Mr. Wardell had enlarged the Victoria Skating Rink to a size of “300 by 250 feet, thus giving ample room to the lovers of skating to glide around with comfort and easy.” Mr. Riley of the West End Skating Pond had improved on his rink, taking notes from visiting rinks in Montreal and in the Eastern United States. The ladies’ retiring room amongst other buildings had been enlarged. As for the Toronto Skating Rink, it too had undergone repairs and The Globe had never seen its ice in better condition. It was as “smooth as glass.” And finally, there was another rink: the Yorkville Skating Rink! The venture had begun the previous spring and was now by leased by Thomas Berney and George White, who had “enclosed a space of three hundred feet by two hundred and fifty feet, with a closed boarded-fence seven feet high. It was located off Yonge Street, opposite Isabella Street, to serve the people of Yorkville. With its addition, “citizens will have abundant opportunities to practice this exhilarating amusement during the present winter.”

In November 1864, a new rink — the fifth in the city — would come. The Royal Skating Rink would be located west of the 10th battalion drill-shed at 84 King Street between Bay and York Streets. Reid & Harris were the proprietors. It would contain two rinks — one covered and one opened.

At the start of the following year, it seems like at least some were growing weary with how the rinks were being operated. In fairness, there had been complaints about the conduct of patrons since 1862, including the mentioned complaints about smoking, but there were two noted unsatisfied guests in early 1865. In January, a reader wrote to The Globe to note the dangerous practice of little boys furiously chasing each other on the rink. The writer, his lady, and some friends had heavy falls because of such behaviour. He implored the managers to act and suggested quartering a portion of the rink for figure skating. In March, a Pater Familias wrote about the fun festivities of the rinks. Curiously, he declared that the “glory of the skating rinks had departed” because of festivals and competitions. The purity of the rinks had been corrupted. Earlier in the month, the Globe wrote about the Victoria Rink Masquerade. “Those who appeared in character played their parts well. Everybody, indeed, was delighted and came home satisfied.” Pater Familias implored the return of the rinks “to their healthy simplicity”.

Despite this, it seemed like the allure of the wintery activity was still strong. For the new campaign in December 1865, The Globe wrote: “skating, the most popular of out-door recreations, is now anticipated eagerly; preparations are making on all sides for a brilliant campaign.” It went on to outline the activities of main rinks — the Victoria, Toronto, and Royal Rinks — including their carnivals. Some bad news was offered, however: The West End Rink would not to be opening. (It would be “shut up” the following year too and there were no more references to it in The Globe.) In the following December, St. George’s Rink opened at Maria (Soho) and Phoebe Streets, near Wardell’s City Baths. It was later reported to be the “largest covered rink in the Dominion.”

Of course, makeshift ponds continued to be enjoyed. People glided between the wharfs and other areas of Toronto Bay as well the Don River. “The Don has already been bridged by a strong table of ice and skaters yesterday piled industriously over its frozen surface,” the newspaper declared on December 12, 1866.

For the start of the campaign in 1868, The Globe reported the opening of the St. George’s Rink and Toronto Skating Club was met with less enthusiasm as years prior. The Skating Club was hosting curling matches and one subscriber noted how rinks were made over the skating portion. The managers of the St. George’s Rink transformed the venue to accommodate a new pleasure: the bicycle. It opened the Velocipede Rink — a “MAMMOTH RINK” — in April 1869. The St. George’s Rink was planked and furnished with seats to host “the best and largest place for Velocipede exercise in the country.”

The last reference to the Victoria Skating Rink was in March 1868 advertising a Grand Masquerade at the Victoria Rink. The rink was not listed in the directory for that year. As for its proprietor, in the Robertson & Cook’s Toronto city directory for 1870, the following listing is given: “ORRIN WARDELL, Auction and Jobbing Mart, wholesale & retail dealer in general merchandize, watches, jewellery, corner of King Street East and East Market Square, house 32 Frederick Street.” In the listing for St. Lawrence Hall, one finds: “O. Wardell, wholesale jobber in glassware, fancy goods.” In an entry for his son, Fred Wardell, the Detroit Historical Society noted Orrin moved from Toronto to Detroit in 1874 to establish Wardell & Sons, auctioneers.

In the years that followed, Toronto would continue to skate — on new rinks, using new technologies, and even new pastimes like hockey that repurposed these winter spaces — but the frenzy of the early 1860s marked the true beginning of the city’s skating culture. What had once been a scattered activity on frozen ponds and along the Bay was, in a few short seasons, transformed into an organized, social, and commercial phenomenon that reshaped winter life in the city. The rinks of 1862 and beyond did more than provide recreation; they created a shared civic experience, one that blended leisure, innovation, and community. And while the glide of skates would carry Toronto forward into the decades ahead, it is here—in this moment of “skating mania”—that the city first found its footing on the ice.

A Toronto intersection named for the same British royal

What’s the most colonial representation of colonial Toronto in Toronto? It might be a street marker built into the corner of a George Brown College buiding at Frederick Street and Adelaide Street East.

But the marker itself doesn’t read Frederick and Adelaide; rather, it reads Frederick and Duke. Frederick is still Frederick, but Duke doesn’t exist anyore.

The laughable part of this intersection is it was at one point named entirely for the same guy: Prince Frederick, The Duke of York of Great Britain.

At the time Duke and Frederick were named, the settlement containing them was also named for Duke Frederick: The Town of York. The Duke never visited the town named for him or likely had any direct role in its formation or growth. The British locales contained in his title also got a street name further west of the town – York Street. The Duke was also the son of King George, the reigning monarch at the time of the town’s founding, who had at least two other street names – King and George – named directly and indirectly for him.

And even more, nearly every street in early York was named by another Brit in charge of this colony: John Graves Simcoe, who didn’t like the indigenous name for the region — Tkaronto. Instead, when setting up his new town and the first few streets in it, he felt it more worthy honouring a man from his home country who scored a victory in his own continent as well as after other members of the British nobility and royalty.

The Town of York would revert to its indigenous name, albeit with an English spelling – Toronto. Duke Street would merge with and take on the name of the nearby rerouted Adelaide Street, named for another royal who likely didn’t have any contributions to the city either.

As a layered bonus, this wasn’t even the first time Duke Street was involved in a name change. The original Duke Street was today’s King Street. The original King Street was Palace Street, today’s Front Street. The Duke Street before this northern re-shifting was Duchess Street, named for the Duke’s royal counterpart. Duchess would move up a street too. It also merged with and took on the name of nearby Richmond Street. The streets of the original blocks of Toronto clearly had a colonial theme.

But today, the marker at Frederick and Adelaide Street still reads Frederick and Duke, still honouring the same guy.

“The Suppression of Intemperance”: 19th Century Coffee Houses in Toronto

Coffee houses are ubiquitous places in Toronto. Tim Horton’s, McCafes, Starbucks, Aroma Espresso Bars, and independent coffee shops seemingly mark every block in its diverse neighbourhoods. While Toronto is in an exciting era of artisanal coffee shops, the locales of the 19th century paint a much different picture in the drink’s social consumption.

Toronto’s First “Coffee Houses”

The first establishment in Toronto to call itself a coffee house was the “Toronto Coffee House”. It was opened in 1801 by William Cooper on the east side of Jarvis Street between King Street and Yonge Street near today’s St. Lawrence Market. Despite the name, historian Chris Bateman writes Cooper’s two-storey establishment was more a tavern than a café, which served liquor, ale, and some food. The name was meant to inspire respectability, drawing on the influence of similarly-named establishments in Great Britain. It also hosted an inn and general store. The coffee house was sold five years after it opened.

In the 1830s, “The (New) British Coffee House” opened in the Chewitt Building at the southeast corner of King Street and York Street. Completed in 1835, the structure was considered Toronto’s first office block. Its ground floor had the Coffee House, which was rented by a Mr. Keating and followed the British tradition in offering a meeting place for influential people. Again, this “Coffee House” likely resembled an establishment serving ale in the British way more than the modern conceptualization of an espresso bar type establishment.

Chewitt Building, 1835. Source: Toronto Public Library.

In the 1837 directory, the British Coffee House was listed as a “Principal Hotel” as owned by John Cotter. John Grantham’s “Old British Coffee-House” on Front Street was also listed in the category. According to John Ross Robertson, The British Coffee House was closed in 1837 following its role in the meeting of individuals of the rebellion of that year and then seized by the government and used as barracks. By 1843, the Coffee House was listed as a boarding house. By 1850, it had the added moniker of “Club House”, which Robertson stated later developed into today’s “Toronto Club”. The building was torn down for the luxurious Rossin House Hotel in 1862; an office block stands in both their places today.

The City of Toronto and the Home District commercial directory and register with almanack and calendar for 1837. Source: Toronto Public Library.

“Substitutes to Drinking Saloons”

By the mid-19th century, coffee was a known and consumed commodity, albeit there was more to be learned. There seemed to have been some inconsistencies on how the drink was prepared, and apparently a farmer in Scarboro was trying to grow its own specimen of coffee which was conducive to the Canadian climate.

“Pekin Tea Market”, *The Globe,* November 8, 1858. Source: Globe and Mail Archives.

“Reasons Why Coffee Is So Seldom Well Made”, *The Globe,* March 20, 1851. Source: Globe and Mail Archives.

But finding coffee in a social setting seemed to have been a rare occurrence. In 1860, a reader of The Globe — an Alexander Somerville — lamented the lack of places for a stranger to find a cup of coffee for a fair price. He found “but one place where a passing stranger can obtain small refreshments, such as one or two cups of coffee at a fair price, at any hour in the day.” This was in Montreal for six-pence. Somerville called on the ‘Sons of Temperance’ to make this happen.

In the late 1870s, the temperance movement used the caffeinated beverage to steer people – mostly men – away from the evils of alcohol. It employed eateries to do so. One of the first coffee houses to open with this purpose in January 1878 was the Albert Street Coffee Room. It was based on the ‘coffee taverns’ and ‘coffee palaces’ established in London and other large global cities.

Albert Coffee Rooms in the City Directory 1879. Source: Toronto Public Library

The Albert Coffee Room at 11-13 Albert Street opened in January 1878, and was funded by social reformer and future Toronto mayor W.H. Howland. It was described as “plainly though nicely fitted up” and containing “the bar, or public room, the billiard room, and the reading room”. All were welcome in the public room where coffee, tea, cocoa, or milk were served “with sandwiches, buns, etc, at certain low yet remunerative prices”. Irish stew was a noted dish too. The other two rooms operated with a small fee and subscription. Profane language and intoxicating liquors were forbidden, although smoking was allowed. Its existence was short-lived, however; by 1881, the Albert Coffee Room closed for unknown reasons.

“Our Coffee Room” at 115-117 York Street at Boulton Street (now Pearl Street) opened in 1879. Its owner was S G Noblett. The establishment was described by a visitor as having a billiard table on the ground floor, all the daily city newspapers downstairs, and a large reading room with a valuable collection of books upstairs. All services are free for visitors, except for the billiard table which is available for “the usual price”. The visitor also boasted the “convenience of being able at any moment to supply one with a cup of hot tea or coffee alone for three cents, or with a buttered roll for five cents”.

Toronto directory for 1879. This was the first year coffee houses were listed in directories. Source: Toronto Public Library.

Toronto directory for 1881. A number of other coffee houses sprang up in Toronto after the success of Our Coffee Room, although possibly not affiliated with the temperance movement. Source: Toronto Public Library.

In the following years, a number of changes came to Our Coffee Room. In 1883, it took on the name of its proprietor and seemingly upgraded from a coffee room to a coffee house. Before it closed in 1886, it was listed as a eating house, abandoning the caffeinated drink altogether in its name.

Toronto directory for 1883. Source: Toronto Public Library.

The impact of these two coffee houses were reported by 1879. In a Globe article highlighting the “Sights of Toronto”, Temperance Coffee-Houses were presented as flourishing establishments with the goals of providing “places of entertainment and substitutes for drinking saloons, where the evil associations of the saloons are absent, and where….coffee and other mild drinks, with lunches ma be obtained with moderate prices”. Both “Albert Street Coffee Room” and “Our Coffee Rooms” were named.

Around this time, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union also operated a coffee house beginning in 1877 on Queen Street West near the Occident Hall at Bathurst Street. The Globe noted that the venture depleted the treasury, and by 1880 it was sold. Later in the decade, the Temperance Union had talks of resurrecting the idea, but it is unclear if it came to fruition.

The Toronto Coffee House Association

The impetus behind the Toronto Coffee House Association may have started in December 1878 meeting of the “Coffee House Committee”. It was held at Shaftesbury Hall on Queen Street at James Street, which was the headquarters of the Young Men’s Christian Association from 1873 to 1887. The committee resolved to make open two coffee houses: one in St. John’s Ward arranged by Howland and others, and another near St. Lawrence Market to accommodate farmers and others in the neighbourhood.

In 1881, the temperance movement formally organized a scheme of coffee houses. In May, there was a “well-attended meeting of parties interested in the prevention and suppression of intemperance” at Shaftesbury Hall. The Committee on Coffee-Houses recommended the formation of a joint stock company and 5,000 shares be issued at once at one dollar per share. The object of the company was “to provide public houses of refreshment and entertainment without intoxicating drink.” The committee highlighted that there were 196 licensed taverns and unknown number of unlicensed places that provided the only places of rest and refreshment. It also targeted working populations, particular men employed in the railways, port, and streetcars, and a separate entrance and room for women. The following passage from The Globe summarizes this philanthropic yet investable endeavour:

“We cannot close our report without stating that, while we wish to launch this Company entirely upoin its merits as a business enterprise, our aim is to benefit the city and promote the cause of temperance, and that we desire he help of all who have at heart the true welfare of our citizens in this good work.”
“Suppression of Intemperance – Meeting in Shaftesbury Hall Yesterday Afternoon – Report on Coffee Houses,” The Globe, May 17, 1881

The organization was inspired by coffee houses in Liverpool run by the British Workman Public House Company, which in the year prior were said to have “a decrease of 1500 in cases of drunkenness.” The goals were to have a collection of strategically located coffee houses targeted towards working men. The capital of the Company was 40 thousand pounds divided in one pound shares. It was reportedly paying out at 14 per cent.

In the fall of 1881, the Toronto Coffee House Association took further steps to organize. It opened a booth at the Toronto Industrial Exhibition where it sold tea, coffee, and other temperance drinks and plain refreshments. It also met to elect a permanent board and decide the location of the coffee houses. They would be located “at the Market-square, another at the corner of Bay and Front streets, and the third in the vicinity of Brock-street.” A meeting of the Society for the Prevent and Suppression of Intolerance urged the participation of society members, particularly in canvassing new members and getting subscriptions. It was also reported that the Coffee House Association had done a number of research into coffee houses in Britain and United States, and interestingly, many people who had taken stock in the organization has never engaged in the temperance cause before.

On November 15, 1881, the first annual meeting of the Toronto Coffee House Association was held at the Confederation Life Association Building. Lieutenant Governor Gzowski served as Chairman for the meeting and was also elected President of the Board of Directors (the Association was operating on a Provisional Board prior to the meeting). It was reported the success of the Liverpool coffee house scheme and that the event at the Exhibition grounds showed that the group could sell a cup of coffee and sandwich for five cents and make a profit.

“Meetings to be Held”, The Globe, November 4, 1881. Source: Globe and Mail Archives.

St. Lawrence and Shaftesbury Coffee Houses

In February 1882, the Toronto Coffee House Association’s inaugurated its first coffee house, the St. Lawrence Coffee House. It was located in the former Small’s Hotel on Jarvis Street at East Market Square. By year’s end, the St. Lawrence Coffee House moved from Jarvis Street to 118 King Street East next to St. James Cathedral, which was a better location.

“Coffee House Association – Inauguration of the St. Lawrence Coffee House – A Walk Through The Building” *The Globe,* February 17, 1882. Source: Globe and Mail Archives.

The first two locations of the St. Lawrence Coffee House in Goad’s Insurance Plan of the City of Toronto, 1889. Source: Goad’s Atlas of the City of Toronto.

The next location to open was across the street from Shaftesbury Hall itself at 23 Queen Street West at James Street. Following the initial plans for coffee house locations, it was at the southern edge of St. John’s Ward, also known as just The Ward – a dense, immigrant enclave, looked upon unfavorably during its time by Toronto’s mainstream establishment for its slum conditions and immoral happenings. Like the St. Lawrence Coffee House at 118 King Street, its capacity was 200 patrons. Interestingly, in March 1889, a man fell through Shaftesbury Coffee House’s coal shoot and successfully sued the Toronto Coffee House Association.

Shaftesbury Hall. Source: Canadian Illustrated News, November 23, 1872.

The locations of the Shaftesbury Coffee House, Shaftesbury Hall, and Albert Coffee Room (closed 1881) in Goad’s Insurance Plan of the City of Toronto, 1889. Source: Goad’s Atlas of the City of Toronto.

In the first annual meeting of the Toronto Coffee House Association, both coffee houses were reported philanthropical and financial successes in their first year. At the second annual meeting of the organization, it was reported that receipts from the year were almost three times as large as the previous year — a total net profit of $1,131.22.

Temperance journals regularly highlighted the successes of the Toronto Coffee House Association. Source: The Coffee Public-House News and Temperance Hotel Journal, October 1, 1886.

In August 1895, The Globe toured through the King Street coffee house, which by 1893 moved from 118 King Street East to a building fronted at 78-80 King Street East and the adjoined 15 Court Street behind it. No reason was given for the move, although the increase in floor space is a possibility. The kitchen, broiling room, and bakery were located on the top floor. On the ground level is the lunch counter and a large, bright and airy general dining hall, where one could get a full-course meal of “two kinds of soup, fish, or one of two meats, with potatoes and vegetables, dessert pudding or pie, coffee, tea or milk” for 20 cents (and an “extra selection” for ten cents more. The next floor was the ladies and gentlemen’s dining room and a large waiting-room. A large lavatory for women flanked the waiting-room with the lower level housing the men’s lavatory. The Globe described the entire establishment as clean and well-ventilated.

Citizens of Toronto can with every confidence their friends to either Shaftesbury Coffee House, 23 Queen Street West; or to the St. Lawrence Coffee House, 78-80 King stret east, and have no fear of having to apologize for any dish served. They are equal to any of this class to be found on the continent. Visitors to the fair should make a note of where these two places are to be found.”
“The Toronto Coffee House Association” The Globe, August 31, 1895.

King St west from Church St, 1927. 78-80 King Street East was just out of the frame on the right side in the Wellington Buildings. Source: City of Toronto Archives.

This description of the St. Lawrence Coffee House is notable for the absence of any reference of the temperance. The purpose seems to promote the establishment as a tourist places for the visitors of The Canadian National Exhibition. Even though it refers to the Coffee House Association’s “Famous Coffee”, the menu likens it to a regular eating establishment.

“Coffee House Specials” *The Evening Star*, May 29, 1897. The Court Street location of the St. Lawrence Coffee House was the third site. Source: Toronto Star Archives.

There are other factoids that support the coffee house as in the same category as restaurants. In 1883, the city directories added “See Eating Houses” under the listings for Coffee Houses; in 1890s, coffee houses were not listed at all and enterprises were listed under “restaurants”. In 1886, The Globe ran an article which stated the main objective of coffee houses was not to provide cheap meals; rather, it was supposed to be an alternative to taverns without the temptation. It boldly asserted:

“They are eating houses, nothing more, nothing less. This is good so as as it goes, but this, we repeat, was not the great and chief idea dwelt upn, when these establishments were projected…
…If these establishments were simply private ventures, we should of course allow no criticisms of their merits or demerits in our columns.”
“Our Coffee Houses” The Globe, April 16, 1886.

By 1899, the Toronto Coffee House Association dissolved and sold the coffee houses. Although the circumstances of the dissolution and sale are scarce, the St. Lawrence Coffee House did not operate again. All three sites of the St. Lawrence location now house modern buildings. Shaftesbury Hall was demolished shortly after for shops which eventually became part of the Eaton’s store complex and later shopping mall. Interestingly, Shaftesbury Coffee House moved to 13-15 Richmond Street West in 1900, under Hayward & Co. Proprietors. It closed once more by 1908 for good.

The Canadian Temperance League

In 1890, several new coffee houses entered the scene alongside The Coffee House Association under the Canadian Temperance League banner, which organized two years before. One opened at Edward and Terauley (Bay) Streets, and was described as having a shop and four rooms. It was open 6am to 10pm Monday to Saturday and sold coffee for two cents and sandwiches for five cents.

In only a year, a new location was needed, possibly as the old one was inadequate in size. The Temperance League Coffee House Company opened another coffee house at Elm and Terauley Streets in 1891, which was aimed at ‘workingmen’. Like Shafesbury Hall, both coffee houses were The Ward – this time in the centre of the district. The scheme was similar to the Toronto Coffee House Association with stocks sold at five dollars a piece. The Temperance League Coffee House Association and Canadian Temperance League were connected in that members of the former had to be members of the latter organization. The Canadian Temperance League held events at the Elm Street coffee house, like a February 1893 concert and a June 1894 meeting supporting Mr. O.A. Howland’s candidature in South Toronto.

Temperance Coffee Houses on Teraulay (Bay) Street in the City directory 1893. Source: Toronto Public Library.

“Workingmen’s Coffee House” *The Globe*, November 28, 1891. Source: Globe and Mail Archives.

The coffee houses looked to have been short-lived ventures, however. The Canadian Temperance League Coffee House at 76 Edward Street closed by 1894. The Toronto Coffee Association Coffee House at 55 Elm Street closed by 1895. The building went on to house Dr. John G.C. Adams, the father of modern public dentistry from 1897-1899.

55 Elm Street, 2021. Source: Google Maps.

The end of temperance coffee houses

The final years of the 1890s saw some additional calls for an alternative to liquor taverns, which were backed by Bishop Sullivan, rector of St. James Cathedral. The bishop passed away in early 1899, however, and nothing ever came of the new scheme. There were even reports to open new coffee houses in first decade of the 1900s.

Although the temperance movement continued into the 20th century and of course influencing the push for prohibition in Toronto, the heyday of coffee houses of the 1880s and 1890s had passed. It is unclear whether the coffee houses of the Toronto Coffee House Assocition and Canadian Temperance League actually succeeded in their philanthropic goal of providing the alternative to saloons. Like the “Coffee Houses” of the first half of 19th century in Toronto, they were borrowed, respected ideas taken from elsewhere, with the added bourgeois goal of turning a profit for its stock-holders. All with a cup of coffee that was never entirely the focus.

For a map of Toronto’s 19th Century Coffee Houses, click here.