Heaslip House is an office building of

Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, or Toronto Met), formerly Ryerson University, is a Public university, public research university located in Toronto, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District, Toronto, Gar ...

, serving as the home of the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education and University Relations. The current building was constructed in 1939 as the administrative headquarters of

Canadian Breweries Limited Canadian Breweries Limited (CBL), originally the Brewing Corporation of Ontario, was an Ontario-based holding company in the brewing industry. The company was founded in 1930 by a merger of two breweries, Brading of Ottawa and Kuntz of Kitchener- ...

, having previously been the site of a public school.

History

The site now occupied by Heaslip House was home to a public school dating back to at least 1880, however by the 1930s, the school had been demolished. Canadian Breweries, owned by business tycoon

E. P. Taylor Edward Plunket Taylor, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, CMG (January 29, 1901 – May 14, 1989), was a Canadians, Canadian business tycoon, investor, and philanthropist. He was a famous breeder of Thoroughbred horse racing, r ...

, hired the architecture firm

Chapman and Oxley Chapman and Oxley was a Toronto-based architectural firm that was responsible for designing a number of prominent buildings in the city during the 1920s and 1930s. Even with the departure of Chapman, the firm's last projects appeared to be in the ...

to construct a head office for its O'Keefe Brewery on the site of the old school, which was completed in 1939. At the time, this building was referred to as O'Keefe House, although that name is now used to describe the

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

Eugene O'Keefe Eugene O'Keefe (10 December 1827 – 1 October 1913), baptized as Owen Keeffe, was an Irish-born Canadians, Canadian businessman and philanthropist, well-known in the brewing industry for his signature brews. He incorporated the O'Keefe Brewe ...

, the founder of O'Keefe Brewery, down the street at Bond Street. Right next to this building, also built partially on the site of the old public school, was a new bottling plant for O'Keefe Breweries. In the 1950s, the neighbouring Catholic church on Victoria Street and Gould Street was demolished and turned into a parking lot, later becoming Devonian Pond. In the 1960s, Toronto Metropolitan University, then known as the Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, expressed an interest in buying the site of the O'Keefe Brewery. The sale was finalized in 1966. The institute used the former bottling plant as the home of the Faculty of Business, and turned the main site of the O'Keefe Brewery into a parking lot. Today, the main site of the brewery is part of

10 Dundas East The Tenor (formerly Metropolis, Toronto Life Square and 10 Dundas East) is a retail, office and entertainment complex development on the north-east corner of the intersection of Yonge Street and Dundas Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The pro ...

, a mixed-use development. In 2006, renovations of Heaslip House were completed, and in 2012, the university announced that it would be the new home of the G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education. Heaslip House Entrance 2024 March

References

External links

Heaslip House
– Architectural Conservancy Ontario {{Toronto Metropolitan University Toronto Metropolitan University buildings