Residence.
Details of Site Location: At 42 St. George Street.
Boundary History: The house occupied a quarter of an acre on the west side of St. George Street north of College Street, within the University of Toronto area.
Current Use of Property: New development by the University of Toronto.
Historical Description: Designed by Brown and McConnell, the house was built in 1919. It was the home of a Polish Jew who had arrived in Toronto in 1900, nearly penniless, and who built a rag picking business into a substantial array of businesses. His buildings for commercial purposes were located downtown and in them he gave employment to dozens of other Polish Jews, helping them to become independent while working to make his own business grow to great success. This was no small achievement in the period leading up to the riots in Christie Pits, persecution of Jews, and World War II. The University of Toronto acquired many of the mansions that once lined St. George Street, and has been gradually demolishing them. While holding discussions with Heritage Toronto in 1999, the University, having promised partial preservation and restoration of this house, demolished it.
Relative Importance: As a symbol of St. George Street’s former prosperity and fine buildings, as a symbol of a minority group’s rise above the forces of bigotry, and in response to city wide protests against the loss of this building, it should have been preserved. A plaque at the site should note all of these things. The University of Toronto is becoming notorious for its destruction of heritage buildings within its precincts. The Jewish community in Toronto has made huge contributions to the city, in the arts, medicine, and law, in the media, and in charitable works, and all of this was done against great odds and resistance. Mandel Granatstein is a symbol of triumph over negative forces and should be remembered for his good works as well.
Planning Implications: Planners need to find ways of placing some controls on the University of Toronto and force that body to recognize that it has responsibilities to the community at large. It is not enough to rise to world class importance if, functioning in isolation from the community that gave it birth, it destroys what is valuable to that community in the pursuit of its own academic goals.
Reference Sources and Acknowledgements: Stephen Speisman files; Sheldon Godfrey files; ACT, Newsletter of Toronto Region Architectural Conservancy (Fall 1999); Community History Project collections.