Old Masonic Temple 888 Yonge Street Toronto Ontario

Shot through a dirty passenger side window.

Its current owner is: www.infotech.com/about

 

May 2017 A new Toronto Concert Hall.

 

History:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masonic_Temple_(Toronto).

 

Construction began November 2, 1916 when the contract was signed and approved by the Board of The Masonic Temple Company for the tearing down of an existing church and excavation. The Masonic ceremony of laying the cornerstone occurring November 17, 1917 and the first Lodge meeting taking place on New Year's Day, 1918.[2] At its peak, the Masonic Temple was home to 38 different Masonic bodies: 27 Craft Lodges, six Chapters (York Rite), two Preceptories (Knights Templar), two Scottish Rite Bodies and Adoniram Council.[2]

 

The hall functioned as a ballroom in the 1930s and began to host rock acts in the late 1960s.[3]

 

In the years before its sale to CTV, the building housed live music clubs known as The Concert Hall, and earlier, in the late 1960s, The Rock Pile, a sitting-on-the-floor style concert venue that featured not only showcases for top local talent but also appearances by major international recording stars, including Toronto's first Led Zeppelin concert on February 2, 1969, during the band's inaugural North American Tour.

 

Although the location remained historically significant and was added to the City of Toronto Heritage Property Inventory in 1974, the building has changed hands a number of times. In 1997, it was threatened with demolition: a developer had planned a new highrise residential building marketed to Asians, solely to exploit its "lucky" address of 888 Yonge Street, [4] It was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in the same year.[4]

 

Also in the 1990s, the studio was the home of Open Mike with Mike Bullard, and was one of CTV Toronto's news bureaus. Also, notably, it has been rented as a rehearsal space by the Rolling Stones. From March 2006, the building became the broadcast home of the new MTV Canada and has hosted the Polaris Music Prize since 2009.

 

The building's fate was once again placed under a cloud on November 2, 2012, when Bell Media announced the moving of MTV Canada studio production to 299 Queen Street West and that the building would be sold, possibly for condominiums.[4] Bell Media officially listed the property for sale on March 4, 2013.[5] On June 17, 2013, the building was purchased by the Info-Tech Research Group for $12.5 million.[6][1] Info-Tech announced that its plans for the building include staging an annual charity rock concert in the auditorium.[7]

 

In 2017, it was announced that the concert hall was to permanently reopen as a public year-round music venue beginning in June for the Toronto Jazz Festival.[3][6]

 

List of live shows:

 

Date Operating Name Act Notes

1968-09-20 The Rock Pile Blood, Sweat & Tears

1968-09-21 The Rock Pile Blood, Sweat & Tears Transfusion opened.

1968-10-05 The Rock Pile Procol Harum [8]

1968-10-27 The Rock Pile The Jeff Beck Group. Rod Stewart sang. I was there. The crowd was rude!

1968-11-09 The Rock Pile Iron Butterfly

1969-02-02 The Rock Pile Led Zeppelin [9]

1969-02-23 The Rock Pile Frank Zappa [10]

1969-03-02 The Rock Pile John Mayall

1969-03-08 The Rock Pile Savoy Brown Blues Band

1969-03-16 The Rock Pile Chuck Berry

1969-03-23 The Rock Pile Spirit

1969-03-29 The Rock Pile Jethro Tull

1969-04-05 The Rock Pile John Lee Hooker

1969-04-12 The Rock Pile The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

1969-04-19 The Rock Pile Family

1969-04-26 The Rock Pile Paul Butterfield

1969-05-04 The Rock Pile Sweetwater

1969-05-11 The Rock Pile Deep Purple

1969-05-17 The Rock Pile Kensington Market

1969-05-19 The Rock Pile The Who [11] Concert Poster

1969-05-24 The Rock Pile Frank Zappa

1969-07-08 The Rock Pile Grateful Dead [12]

1969-07-12 The Rock Pile McKenna Mendelson Mainline

1969-08-18 The Rock Pile Led Zeppelin [13]

1969-09-24 The Rock Pile The Mothers of Invention [14]

1969-12-31 Masonic Temple Auditorium Alice Cooper Teegarden & Van Winkle Keith McVie, Moonshine and more...

1979-11-15 The Concert Hall City Boy [15]

1980-08-21 The Concert Hall Magazine

1980-10-17 The Concert Hall Split Enz

1980-10-18 The Concert Hall Split Enz

1980-11-18 The Concert Hall Siouxsie & The Banshees [16]

1981-03-?? The Concert Hall Blue Peteras part of the "March Hop Jump"

1981-03-12 The Concert Hall Iggy Pop

1981-05-10 The Concert Hall Plasmatics [17]

1981-06-10 The Concert Hall Goddo [18]

1981-06-19 The Concert Hall Iron Maiden [19] Reckless opened, first Canadian Iron Maiden show

1981-06-21 The Concert Hall Iron Maiden

1981-07-24 The Concert Hall Kraftwerk [20]

1981-08-30 The Concert Hall The Cure [21] First show in Toronto

1981-10-23 The Concert Hall King Crimson 2 shows

1982-??-?? The Concert Hall Public Image Ltd.

1982-07-06 The Concert Hall Duran Duran

1982-10-28 The Concert Hall Iggy Pop with The Untouchables

1982-10-29 The Concert Hall Spoons Show simulcast on CITY-TV and CHUM-FM; later released on DVD

1982-12-17 The Concert Hall SpoonsSanta Geets Xmas Party presented by CFNY-FM

1983-01-?? The Concert Hall Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five

1983-??-?? The Concert Hall Nina Hagen

1984-06-13 The Concert Hall MarillionThe Box opened

1984-07-13 The Concert Hall R.E.M.

1984-11-12 The Concert Hall The Cure

1984-12-21 The Concert Hall The Parachute Club

1985-01-19 The Concert Hall Metallica [22]

1985-03-10 The Concert Hall Run–D.M.C.

1985-03-31 The Concert Hall Venom/Slayer/Razor

1985-05-05 The Concert Hall Cabaret Voltaire

1987-??-?? The Concert Hall Boogie Down Productions with special guest Biz Markie

1987-05-31 The Concert Hall Skinny Puppy

1988-04-21 The Concert Hall Love and Rockets The Mighty Lemon Drops & The Bubblemen opened

1988-05-08 The Concert Hall Midnight Oil

1988-11-06 The Concert Hall Skinny Puppy

1990-01-12 The Concert Hall Voivod [23] Faith No More and Soundgarden opened

1990-03-30 The Concert Hall The Tragically Hip

1990-11-25 The Concert Hall Jane's Addiction The Buck Pets opened

1990-11-27 The Concert Hall The Pixies[24] Pere Ubu opened

1991-02-24 The Concert Hall The Charlatans venue moved from the Opera House

1991-04-14 The Concert Hall Happy Mondays Stereo MCs opened

1991-07-05 The Concert Hall The Tragically Hip

1991-07-09 The Concert Hall EMF

1991-09-29 The Concert Hall Jesus Jones

1991-10-29 The Concert Hall The Smashing Pumpkins [25]

1991-10-30 The Concert Hall The Smashing Pumpkins [26]

1991-11-23 The Concert Hall Billy Bragg Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy opened

1991-11-30 The Concert Hall The Pixies

1991-12-03 The Concert Hall Tin Machine [26] (David Bowie) It's My Life Tour

1992-03-30 The Concert Hall The Beautiful South The Waltons opened

1992-04-28 The Concert Hall The Charlatans Catherine Wheel opened

1992-05-04 The Concert Hall Soundgarden

1992-05-15 The Concert Hall Sugarcubes [27]

1992-05-15 The Concert Hall Beastie Boys [28]

1992-11-29 The Concert Hall Alice In Chains

1992-12-21 The Concert Hall Body Count

1993-01-25 The Concert Hall Ned's Atomic Dustbin

1993-01-29 The Concert Hall Slik Toxik

1993-02-19 The Concert Hall Inspiral Carpets

1993-03-06 The Concert Hall PanteraSacred Reich opened.

1993-03-31 The Concert Hall Rage Against the Machine

1993-04-13 The Concert Hall Midnight Oil

1993-04-27 The Concert Hall Phish

1993-05-17 The Concert Hall Danzig Nudeswirl and Proper Grounds opened.

1993-06-15 The Concert Hall The Flaming Lips Porno for Pyros opened.

1993-10-06 The Concert Hall Bad Religion Green Day and Doughboys opened.

1993-10-18The Concert Hall Stone Temple Pilots The Mighty Mighty Bosstones opened.

1993-10-24 The Concert Hall Primus Melvins opened.

1993-10-28 The Concert Hall Rage Against the Machine Quicksand opened.

1993-11-21 The Concert Hall The Lemonheads Redd Kross opened.

1993-12-06 The Concert Hall Green Day

1994-02-23 The Concert Hall Tool Failure opened.

1994-04-06 The Concert Hall Phish[29]

1994-05-16 The Concert Hall Rollins Band

1994-11-18 The Concert Hall Anvil

1996-04-03 The Concert Hall Foo Fighters

1996-04-18 The Concert Hall Rusty

1996-04-27 The Concert Hall Bob Dylan[30]

1996-04-28 The Concert Hall Bob Dylan[31] Aimee Mann opened.

1996-05-11 The Concert Hall Dave Matthews Band [32]

1996-05-31 The Concert Hall The Band High on the Hog tour. The Mahones opened.

1996-06-14 The Concert Hall Cocteau Twins

1996-07-06 The Concert Hall Finn Brothers

1996-08-18 The Concert Hall Steve Earle[33]

1996-09-20 The Concert Hall Sloan

1996-10-27 The Concert Hall Billy Bragg Robyn Hitchcock and Deni Bonet opened

1996-11-22 The Concert Hall James Brown

1997-04-18 The Concert Hall Rusty

1997-06-09 The Concert Hall The Tragically Hip [34]

1997-10-01 The Concert Hall Paul Weller

1998-06-27 The Concert Hall Cibo Matto

2016-05-06 Info-Tech Research Group Luke & The Apostles

2016-06-02 Info-Tech Research Group Platinum Blonde

2016-09-09 888 Yonge Karl Wolf GLB V after party.

 

Toronto’s architectural gems—the Masonic Temple at Davenport and Yonge from Now Magazine

 

24

FE

The Masonic Temple, at 888 Yonge Street, was constructed in 1917, during the chaotic days of the First World War. Today, the building is appreciated by those interested in the city’s architectural heritage, but judging by comments posted on the internet, it is viewed by some as an ugly structure of brick and limestone that is not worth preserving. Despite one’s view of the building, it has a rich heritage, and I believe that it is worthy of being saved from demolition. To aid in its preservation, in 1974 the Masonic Temple was designated a Heritage Property.

 

Designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival Style by architect W. J. Sparling, the six-storey structure contains an auditorium that has hardwood flooring and a decorated ceiling. It seats 1200 persons, including the wrap-around gallery. The Masonic Society (Freemasons) included the ballroom/concert hall in their new building as a means to raise revenue from rentals to support the costs of maintaining the premises.

 

John Ross Robertson (1841-1918) was a prominent Mason, and founder of the now defunct Toronto Telegram newspaper. He was one of the prime motivators behind the construction of the building, located on the northwest corner of Yonge Street and Davenport Road. When the Masons chose this site, a church was located on the property. It was estimated that the cost of the Temple would be $175,000, but by the time it was completed, the cost was $220,864. After the church on the site was demolished, construction began. The final stone for the new Temple was put in place on 17 November 1917 and the structure was consecrated with corn, oil, and wine. The first lodge meeting was held on 1 January 1918. On the upper floors, which were reserved solely for the use of the Masons, there were patterned tiled flooring and many Masonic carvings.

 

During the 1930s, the Masonic Temple was one of the most popular ballrooms in Toronto. Every New Year’s Eve, tickets disappeared long in advance of the date. Bing Crosby once crooned within its walls, and Frank Sinatra hosted an event there. Throughout the years, many famous entertainers have performed in the hall—Tina Turner, The Ramones, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin, who held their first Toronto concert there in 1969. In 1970, it was leased by a company known as the “Rockpile.” During the 1980s, it was rented by various groups, but the income never exceeded the costs of maintaining the building. In 1998, the property was sold to CTV, for use as a TV studio. The show, “Open Mike with Mike Bullard” was broadcast from the premises. In 2006, it became home to Bell Media (MTV), but they departed in 2012.

 

During the 1950s, I was in the Masonic Temple on several occasions to attend events. The view from the gallery, looking down onto the stage area was quite impressive. I remember the ornate plaster trim around the auditorium and the ornate carvings that decorated the space. As a teenager, I considered any event held within the walls of the Temple to be a special occasion, especially since the restaurants on Yonge Street were within walking distance. In that decade, the “Pickin’ Chicken,” south of College Street, Fran’s at Yonge and College, and Basil’s Restaurant at Yonge and Gerrard, were the gastronomic highlights of the “the strip.” Walking south from Davenport and Yonge to below College Street was less of a problem for me in those years, especially when my teenage hunger could be satiated by “chicken in a wicker basket with fries” at the PIckin’ Chicken, a toasted club sandwich at Basil’s, or rice pudding at Fran’s. Julia Child, eat your heart out!

 

Yonge Street has greatly changed today, although I am not certain that the culinary level of the avenue has improved much. However, the Masonic Temple remains, proudly resisting the onslaught of the modern era. I sincerely hope that a modern role will be found for the building, and that it will not be demolished. It would be a pity to have its ornate facade become a mere shell to add dignity to another faceless high rise condominium of glass and steel, lacking any value beyond the price of the suites per square foot.

 

 

 

Done