View source for Toronto Board of Trade Building

[[File:Board of Trade Building Front Street.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Toronto Board of Trade Building]]
The '''Board of Trade Building''' was one of the first [[skyscrapers]] in [[Toronto]], Ontario, Canada. Completed in 1892 on the corner of [[Front Street (Toronto)|Front Street East]] and [[Yonge Street]], the seven storey tower was home to the [[Toronto Board of Trade]] and the [[Toronto Transit Commission]].

The building was designed by the American architectural firm of James & James of New York City, and somewhat resembled the appearance of the [[Flour and Grain Exchange Building]] in Boston, Massachusetts, which had been designed two years earlier by the Boston firm of [[Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge]]. That Boston firm was also credited with the plans for the Montreal Board of Trade Building.<ref name="CAB">[http://cac.mcgill.ca/maxwells/edbio2.htm CAB Archt Ed 4, (June 1891): 65 and supplement no. 6];</ref>  There was considerable controversy about the award of the design contract; the Board of Trade wanted to build a skyscraper like those in New York, Chicago and Boston, and they favoured an American architect over Canadian-based ones, supposedly on the basis of experience with tall buildings.  The first design by James & James of New York partially collapsed during construction.<ref>{{cite book | last=Carr | first=Angela | year=1995 | title=Toronto Architect Edmund Burke: Redefining Canadian Architecture | url=https://archive.org/details/torontoarchitect0000carr | url-access=registration | publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press | location=Montreal | isbn=0-7735-1217-9 | page=[https://archive.org/details/torontoarchitect0000carr/page/110 110]}}</ref>  James & James were dismissed from the job and Edward A. Kent, an architect from Buffalo, N.Y., was called in to complete the building following the plans of James & James.

The Board of Trade Building was soon eclipsed in height in 1894 by the [[Beard Building]] and then in 1895 by the ten-story [[Temple Building (Toronto)|Temple Building]] on [[Bay Street]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Careless | first=J.M.S. | year=1984 | title=Toronto to 1918: An Illustrated History | publisher=James Lorimer and Company | location=Toronto | isbn=0888626657 | page=[https://archive.org/details/torontoto1918ill0000care/page/21 21] | url=https://archive.org/details/torontoto1918ill0000care/page/21 }}</ref>

It was demolished in 1958. The lot is now occupied by the [[Electronic Data Systems|EDS]] office tower.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commonscat}}
* {{skyscraperpage|23355}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927012312/http://www.cestwhat.com/history/frontandchurch3.html C'est What: The History Around Front & Church Streets]

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{{Buildings in Toronto timeline}}

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[[Category:Skyscrapers in Toronto]]
[[Category:Demolished buildings and structures in Toronto]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Toronto]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1958]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1892]]
[[Category:Chambers of commerce in Canada]]