Gladstone Hotel, Toronto
Encyclopedia
The Gladstone Hotel was built in 1889 and named after Gladstone Avenue, next to the hotel. The Parkdale
Parkdale, Toronto
Parkdale is a neighbourhood and former village in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, west of downtown. The neighbourhood is bounded on the west by Roncesvalles Avenue, on the north by Queen Street. It is bounded on the east by Dufferin Street from Queen Street south, and on the south by Lake Ontario...
area hotel is a west Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
landmark designed by local architect G.M. Miller in the Romanesque Revival style.
History
The Gladstone Hotel is the oldest continuously operating hotelHotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
in Toronto. It was originally built in 1889 as a stylish hostelry across from the then existing Parkdale railroad station which serviced the Grand Trunk
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historical Canadian railway.A wholly owned subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railway , the GTPR was constructed by GTR using loans provided by the Government of Canada. The company was formed in 1903 with a mandate to build west from Winnipeg, Manitoba to the...
, the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
(CPR), and the Canadian National Railway
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
(CNR) companies. In addition to serving the three major railway companies at the time it provided visitors attending the Canadian National Exhibit (CNE) to have a place to stay.
The location of the Gladstone Hotel, just east of Dufferin on Queen Street West, was once considered the western edge of Toronto and it provided accommodations to travelers from the Parkdale train station as well as visitors and exhibitors at the Canadian National Exhibition.
The original owner Susanna Robinson was a widow who operated and lived at the hotel with her 13 children. Throughout the years the hotel was tossed from owner to owner and gradually deteriorated in both status and physical appearance. In 2000 a group of developers decided to attempt to rescue this once luxerious hotel. The Tippins and the Zeidler family combined forced in the attempt. Arguments regarding how to approach the restoration project began between the two families resulting in the Zeidlers ownership of the hotel in 2002.
The Gladstone was named for Gladstone Avenue, which was named after British prime minister William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS was a British Liberal statesman. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times , more than any other person. Gladstone was also Britain's oldest Prime Minister, 84 years old when he resigned for the last time...
. The hotel's monthly newsletter, the Gladstone Bag, is named for the suitcase style
Gladstone bag
A Gladstone bag is a small portmanteau suitcase built over a rigid frame which could separate into two equal sections. Unlike a suitcase, a Gladstone bag is "deeper in proportion to its length." They are typically made of stiff leather and often belted with lanyards...
, also named for William Gladstone.
The Gladstone was one of the first ten hotels in Ontario to receive permission to allow patrons to drink and play shuffleboard in a licensed alcoholic area. At one time the Gladstone Hotel was the last place to obtain hard liquor before reaching Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
.
Architecture
The hotel was designed by George Miller, the architect of the Lillian Massey building of the University of Toronto, many other public buildings in the city, as well as a large number of formerly grand residential buildings in the Parkdale neighbourhood. The building permit was issued in September 1889 for a value of $30,000.The Hotel was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style - in the period a popular style for public buildings such as train depots, churches, and libraries. The architectural style of the Gladstone is characterized by the rough cut stone and brick and by the dramatic arches over the windows and porch entrances. The Hotel tower is also characteristic of the style. The cupola was removed in 1930 due to disrepair.
The Gladstone is a fine example of a Victorian Hotel with intact plaster moldings in the grand hallways. The two restored pillars in the hotel's Melody Bar are unique in Toronto in that their faux marble finish was rendered in true European fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
technique. No other architectural pillars such as these exist in Toronto. The meticulously restored Victorian elevator is one of the last hand-operated elevators in Toronto
Zeidler Partnership and Eb Zeidler were the architects for the historic restoration of the hotel.
Recent social history
The Gladstone Hotel is currently owned by the Zeidler family. Their historic restoration of the property reflects the hotel's architectural and community history. Eberhard Zeidler was the architect involved while resigning for his two of his three daughters, Margie and CHristina. Margie Zeidler originally bought the hotel and made arrangements to have her sister manage the hotel. Christina's personal philosophy of how a hotel should fit naturally with the existing community has definitely manifested itself in the case of the Gladstone Hotel. The owners invited local artists to compete in a competition. The main objective was to create a functional hotel room that brought in a main concept or idea. The result was 37 one fo a kind hotel rooms from the winning proposals.The Zeidler family was concerned about the well-being of the existing residents of the hotel and took an interest in supporting them and helping them find new homes in the community prior to beginning the restoration project. The family provided financial support and the employees at the hotel worked to find homes for the most elderly and at risk. Some of the former residents now live at the Parkview Arms Hotel, down Queen Street beside Trinity Bellwoods Park.
The Gladstone kept its bar and event venue spaces open and operating throughout the restoration process in order to maintain
community and neighbourhood connections.
Media
An independent documentary film was shot over the course of several years during the hotel's renovation process.From Last Call Productions:
In 2000, developers purchase the crumbling, century-old Gladstone hotel to turn it from skid row flophouse to arts and music hotspot. They think it's empty... until they meet Marilyn, the chambermaid with a heart of gold; Shirley Ann, the cynical front desk clerk; and a motley crew of residents, including Maryanne, a sweet ex-bag lady who has turned her room into a toxic zone. Staff and residents—some who have been there for over 30 years—worry they'll be squeezed out during the hotel's imminent revitalization.
The developers' plan— a gradual restoration with staff and residents remaining upstairs, while downstairs the bar serves designer drinks to new, affluent clientele—doesn't work. When experimental film-maker, Christina Zeidler inherits the mess and forms a "business model that includes social change," the hotel has the last word. City inspectors demand complete rewiring, the boiler blows up leaving the hotel without heat, ceilings leak, walls are crumbling and Zeidler now has to decide what to do.
Shot over five years in a cinema direct style, Last Call at the Gladstone Hotel is an intimate portrait of the effects of urban renewal on the poor—a compelling tale of urban conflict put under the lens of class, money and social consciousness, chronicling a heart breaking clash of cultures between down at the heels hotel residents, artists and developers. More than a story about haves versus have-nots, this film exposes a pattern of displacement repeated in cities worldwide, and reveals the unintentional roles we often play in the process of gentrification.