Toronto Harbour Commission Building

The Toronto Harbour Commission Building is a six-storey building erected in 1917 in Toronto by Alfred Chapman for the locally run Toronto Harbour Commission. It was also used by its successor agency PortsToronto, a federal agency formerly known as the Toronto Port Authority. The lower floor is home to Harbour Sixty Steakhouse.

The Toronto Harbour Commission Building
The Toronto Harbour Commission Building can be seen at the end of the wharf in this 1919 photograph. It is now well inland, illustrating infill of the harbour over the years.

Workers from the Port Authority nicknamed the six-storey structure "The T" due to the familiar T patterning on the outside of the building – meant to be evocative of "Toronto". Formerly sitting on the waterfront, infill over the years has left the building on dry land, and civic expansion has left it dwarfed by nearby buildings.

Since 1953, the building has been rumored to be haunted by the ghost of Thomas Cates, its former janitor, who died of natural causes while working his night shift. He is most often seen in glimpses in the north-western stairwell, where he will be sweeping or mopping the floor.

The building was sold by PortsToronto in 2017 for CA$96 million to developer Oxford Properties.[1] It is to be part of a commercial office development.[2] It was originally built at a cost of $247,000.[3]

References
  1. "Historic building on Toronto's waterfront to be redeveloped and restored". blogTO. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  2. "Oxford Properties Proposes 60-Storey Tower at Bay and Harbour". urbantoronto.ca. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
  3. Filey, Mike (18 July 2020). "THE WAY WE WERE: Toronto Harbor Commission a historical gem". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 27 July 2020.

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