This document summarizes a walking tour about the history of elevators in Toronto. The tour explores notable historical elevators dating back to 1894 and examines the indispensable role elevators have played in building modern cities and enabling vertical transportation. Key stops on the tour include the Flat Iron Building, containing Toronto's oldest electric elevator; the Fairmont Royal York hotel, known as a "city within a city block" due to its 10 elevators; and the Atrium on Bay, featuring panoramic glass elevators overlooking the city. The document discusses technological advances that have allowed buildings to grow taller and more people to live and work in cities.

1. A SHORT
HISTORY OF
THE ELEVATOR
Jane’s Walk 2019:
Architecture, Elevators & History
Exploring Toronto’s Vertical Landscape
Joshua Nelson, May 4th, 2019
As our group set out on a stroll through Old Toronto, this Jane’s Walk will
explore notable historical elevators dating as far back as 1894, from the
manually operated lift at the historic Flat Iron Building all the way up to the
panoramic glass elevators overlooking the Eaton Centre Galleria. Along
the way, walkers will discover the indispensable role elevators play in
building modern cities, the concept of vertical commuting and the
technological advances that have allowed people to live and work higher
than ever before.

2. Elevators became a part of architectural history more than 100 years ago
with the invention of the Otis elevator safety brake. This groundbreaking
invention allowed buildings to become entire “cities in a single block,” as
exemplified in the Royal York Hotel, or to showcase greatness, as
demonstrated by the Canadian National Rail Co. when it erected the
iconic CN Tower in 1976.
Elevators have became an indispensable feature of modern cities. Can
you even imagine a multistory building without them? As people shifted
toward living in cities, elevators became a dominant mode of
transportation. Leading elevator manufacturers often tout the numbers of
people they move vertically through cities comparing numbers those
moved horizontally by the leading carmakers.
Elevators are an indispensable
feature of modern cities. Can
you even imagine a multistory
building without them?
INTRODUCTION
Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

3. Fairmont Royal York
Flat Iron Building
Birkbeck Building
Dineen Building
Elgin and Winter Gardens
Eatons Centre
Atrium on Bay
Odd Fellows Building
Masonic Temple
11:00am
11:15am
11:30pm
11:45am
12:00pm
12:30pm
12:45pm
Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

4. ROYAL
YORK HOTEL
“A City in a City Block”
1927-1929 | 28 Storeys | 10 Otis Elevators
Designed by Ross and MacDonald, the Fairmont Royal York was built by
the Canadian Pacific Railway as part of a network of chateau-style hotels
connecting Canada from coast to coast. A state-of-the-art hotel for its
time, it featured 10 electric Otis elevators that reached all 28 floors. It’s
said that people would travel to Toronto just for the opportunity to ride in
them.
Hotel visitors walk in the footsteps of the rich and famous; elevator
number nine still carries illustrious guests such as Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth. Royal York bellman Michael Calnan has operated the queen’s
elevator for each of her visits. He’s worked there for 32 years.
Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

5. Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

6. GOODERHAM
BUILDING
The Infamous Flat Iron Building
189-1892 | 5 Storeys | 1 Otis-Fensom
The Gooderham Building, more popularly known as the “Flat Iron Build-
ing” is an office building wedged on the eastern edge of the city’s finan-
cial district. Completed in 1892, the rounded red-brick edifice has
become one of Toronto’s most iconic structures.
Designed by David Roberts, the Gooderhams’ private family architect. Its
manually operated Otis Fensom elevator is Toronto’s oldest electric-motor
lift, and has the notoriety of welcoming infamous bootlegger and gang-
ster Al Capone during the Prohibition era. The Flat Iron was limited to five
storeys, as firefighters’ ladders dictated the height of buildings.
The elevator, with its wooden guide rails, shuttle tenants up and down in
an exposed elevator shaft that runs through the grand staircase. Such
manually operated elevators began to fade away in the 1950s. One of the
first steps toward full automatic control came in the 1920s, when Otis
introduced automatic leveling. The operator could still control the speed,
but when the controller was released, the car would level smoothly to the
nearest floor. The control-operating box wouldn’t come for another 50
years.
Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

7. Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

8. BIRKBECK
BUILDING
Perfect Example of Transitional Architecture
1908 | Four Storeys | 1 Otis Fensom Elevator
Built in 1908 for The Canadian Birkbeck Investment and Savings Compa-
ny, this four-story office building is typical of the small financial institutions
prevalent in the central business districts of Canadian cities before World
War I. Designed by George W. Gouinlock, the Birkbeck was restored by
the Ontario Heritage Trust in 1987 for use as its head quarters. It is desig-
nated a national historic site of Canada as an example of a transitional
building combining historical style with modern technology. Its steel
frame and fireproof finishing materials placed it at the vanguard of build-
ing technology in its time.
The historic elevator in the building was renovated in 2018 to restore its
historical accuracy, after suffering years of neglect and quick fixes. The
process of conservation and preservation of such a historically significant
object or structure becomes even more challenging if it will be used on a
regular basis. If it must also be brought into compliance with contempo-
rary regulations and social norms, those challenges multiply. What does
this mean for our stock of heritage buildings? Perhaps the best chance we
have to preserve elevators from the past is to grow a general public
appreciation for, and knowledge of, the subject.
Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

9. Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

10. DINEEN
BUILDING
SPRAGUE | Father of Electric Traction
1897 | Four Storeys | 1 Sprague Elevator
In May of 1897, approval was granted to the Dineen Co. to build a
four-story structure on the site at 2 Temperance-142 Yonge Street, at a cost
of $30,000. The company produced fine hats and furs, and the owners
desired a building comparable to those that housed their New York coun-
terparts.
In November 1973, the Dineen building was designated a heritage prop-
erty. In 2014, Commercial Realty Group employed an expensive adaptive
reuse method to restore the building. While the Sprague automatic eleva-
tor was not reused in the renovation, the owners did restore the cab, and
keep it on display in the lobby. It is a significant historical artifact not found
anywhere else in Canada, and represents the first Sprague automatic
elevator installed in a building outside New York state. Sprague Electric
Elevator Co. was formed in 1892, and later, with Charles R. Pratt, devel-
oped the Sprague-Pratt Electric Elevator.
Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

11. Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

12. Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson
The Daily Mail and Empire - Oct 25, 1897
Frank Julian Sprague (July 25, 1857 – October 25, 1934) was an Ameri-
can naval officer and inventor who contributed to the development of
the electric motor, electric railways, and electric elevators. His contribu-
tions were especially important in promoting urban development by
increasing the size cities could reasonably attain (through better trans-
portation) and by allowing greater concentration of business in com-
mercial sections (through use of electric elevators in skyscrapers). He
became known as the "Father of Electric Traction".
While electrifying the streetcars of Richmond, the increased passenger
capacity and speed gave Sprague the notion that similar results could
be achieved in vertical transportation — electric elevators. He saw that
increasing the capacity of elevator shafts would not only save passen-
gers' time, but would also increase the earnings of tall buildings, with
height limited by the total floor space taken up in the shaftways by slow
hydraulic-powered elevators.
In 1892, Sprague founded the Sprague Electric Elevator Company.
Working with Charles R. Pratt he developed the Sprague-Pratt Electric
Elevator. The company developed floor control, automatic elevators,
acceleration control of car safeties and a number of freight elevators.
The Spague-Pratt elevator ran faster and with larger loads than hydraulic
or steam elevators, and 584 elevators had been installed worldwide.
Sprague then sold his company to the Otis Elevator Company in 1895.
SPRAGUE | Father of Electric Traction

13. ELGIN &
WINTER GARDEN
Last Edwardian Stacked Theatres in the World
1913 | Four Stroeys | 2+1 Otis Fensom Elevators
The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres are a pair of stacked theaters; the
seven- story Winter Garden sits above the Elgin below. The building was
designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb, who also designed the Ed Mirvish
theater (Canon Theatre) nearby. The building was completed in 1913 and
originally featured two elevators, with a third added a few years later. It is
touted as being the last surviving Edwardian stacked theater complex in
the world.
In 1981, the Ontario Heritage Trust bought the structure from Famous
Players. The building closed in 1987 for a full restoration, reopening in
1989. Part of the restoration included refurbishing the original Otis
Fensom elevator cabs, and adding additional safety features, like the
automatic floor leveler, which still requires an operator. One of the eleva-
tors is reputed to be haunted and is often seen traveling by itself, spook-
ing staff and guests alike.
Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

14. Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

15. TORONTOʼS
EATON CENTRE
Mall
Ipsum Ipsum Ipsum
Department store Eaton’s partnered with the Cadillac Fairview develop-
ment company and the Toronto-Dominion Bank to construct the Eaton
Centre. The complex was designed by Eberhard Zeidler and Bregman +
Hamann Architects as a multilevel, vaulted glass-ceiling galleria, modeled
after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.
The huge shopping and office complex opened in 1977, and includes a
four-story mall-arcade, eight- and 10-story retail buildings, and a 36-story
office tower. The complex is served by many elevators and escalators. Your
author has often imagined the building as a cross between the Lloyds
Building and the Crystal Palace in London, the Centre de Pompidou in
Paris, and, of course, the Galleria Vittorio.
Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

16. Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

17. ATRIUM
ON BAY
Ipsum Ipsum
1979 | 14 Storeys | 8 Panoramic Elevators (20 Total)
Originally opened in 1979, the Atrium on Bay takes up most of the block
bounded by Yonge, Dundas, Bay and Edward streets in Toronto’s com-
mercial heart, just north of the Eaton Centre. H&R plans to add five stories
to each of the office towers, while carrying out several changes to the
ground-floor configuration and rebuilding the complex’s connection to
Bay Street. Other plans include the addition of three new elevators to the
banks currently serving the existing floors in each tower.
Atrium on Bay consists of 14 floors in the east tower and 13 in the west,
plus three basement levels. Panoramic elevators were originally only
installed externally, as solutions to connect different streets in urban areas
with complicated topographies. There are many examples of this in the
world, but perhaps the most famous is the well-known Lisbon Santa Justa
Lift, which has been operating in the Chiado neighborhood since the
beginning of the 20th century.
Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

18. Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

19. Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson

20. Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson
Joshua Nelson is the creative director
and vertical-transportation expert at
JNKM Design. He holds a degree in
interior/architectural design from
OCAD University in Toronto. His work
has received a number of awards.

21. When taken out of the mundane daily context and put on display,
elevators are once again able to generate excitement in people who
have learned to take for granted these pieces of kinetic machinery.
These feelings are not unlike the wonder felt by those travelers of
yesteryear, who came from far and wide to ride the elevators of the
Royal York, or their modern-day counterparts who line up to take in
the panoramic views offered at the Eaton Centre.
Jane’s Walk | May 4th, 2019 | A Short History of the Elevator | Joshua Nelson