Stewart Building, 149 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, 1987

The Stewart Building, AKA the Toronto Athletic Club, was designed by architect E. J. Lennox and built in 1894. It served the activities of the club until 1931, then as Toronto Police Headquarters from 1931 to 1957. When I made this photograph, it housed part of Ontario College of Art and Design. Since 2008, it has been used by the University of Toronto for some of its programs.

When it comes to what gets built and where, people in high places usually have a say. In this case, the influence came from John Beverley Robinson, the mayor of Toronto and Lieutenant Governor of Ontario (1880-87). Robinson was an amateur boxer and the Stewart Building was built on the site of one of his homes.

In my photo, you can see the sign for Taddle Creek Road. The creek itself, buried under streets and buildings, had been a traditional gathering place for Indigenous peoples, including the Seneca, Huron-Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

I made the featured photograph with my Mamiyaflex medium format camera during my first walkabout upon arrival in Toronto in the spring of 1987. Days later, the treasured 1959 vintage beauty I used to make many of the Eighties Vancouver photos would be stolen from the flop house I was living in, on Clinton Street.