Toronto Old City Hall - Sandstone Work - 2 © Pillow

Toronto's Old City Hall took almost a decade and $2.5 million to build before it was officially opened by then-Mayor John Shaw in September 1899. It was not only the biggest structure in the city at the time, it was also the largest municipal building in North America. When Toronto’s fourth and most recent City Hall opened in 1965, Old City Hall became a courthouse for the Ontario government In 1989, and Old City Hall was declared a national historic site by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. At one time, it was Toronto’s largest structure and the continent’s largest municipal building. Now it is a great gothic sandstone courthouse in the midst of modernist wonders like the current City Hall and the Toronto Eaton Cent...