The R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada, is both a crucial piece of infrastructure and an architecturally acclaimed historic building named after the longtime commissioner of Toronto's public works Roland Caldwell Harris. The plant's architect was Thomas C. Pomphrey with engineers H.G. Acres and William Gore. It is located in the east of the city at the eastern end of Queen Street and at the foot of

Victoria Park Avenue Victoria Park Avenue is a major north-south route in eastern Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the western border of Scarborough, separating it from Old Toronto, East York, and North York. The common nickname for it is VP or Vic Park. History ...

along the shore of

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The Canada–United Sta ...

in the

Beaches A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

neighbourhood in the former city of

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

. It has been the location for a number of film productions, the best known being '' Strange Brew'' (1983) with

Rick Moranis Frederick Allan Moranis (; born April 18, 1953) is a Canadian actor, comedian, musician, producer, songwriter and writer. Moranis appeared in the sketch comedy series '' Second City Television'' (''SCTV'') in the 1980s and starred afterward in s ...

and Dave Thomas.

Roland Caldwell Harris

Harris was born in Lansing on May 26, 1875 in what is now

North York, Ontario North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...

, but grew up in Toronto. As Public Works Commissioner from 1912 to 1945, Harris was involved in such projects as: * Crawford Street Bridge, 1914-1915, with design heavy influenced by Harris *

Prince Edward Viaduct The Prince Edward Viaduct System, commonly referred to as the Bloor Viaduct, is the name of a truss arch bridge system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, connecting Bloor Street East, on the west side of the system, with Danforth Avenue on the east. The ...

, opened in 1918, which included his idea to add a deck under the bridge allowing for the Bloor Danforth line to be built decades later. * Mount Pleasant bridge as part of the extension of

Mount Pleasant Road Mount Pleasant Road is a major arterial thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street extends from Jarvis Street south of Bloor Street north to Glen Echo Drive. The road is unique as one of the few arterial roads in Toronto to be created ...

north to

Lawrence Avenue Lawrence Avenue is a major east–west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is divided into east and west portions (Lawrence Avenue East and Lawrence Avenue West) by Yonge Street, the dividing line of east–west streets in Toronto. Rout ...

East in 1934. * expansion of the streetcar network of the

Toronto Civic Railways Toronto Civic Railways (TCR) was a streetcar operator created and owned by the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to serve newly annexed areas of the city that the private operator Toronto Railway Company refused to serve. When the Toronto Railway ...

from 1912 to 1915. * Waterfront Railway Viaduct built from 1925 to 1934 to bring rail lines into

Union Station A union station, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...

. * extension of University Avenue south of

Queen Street West Queen Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original eas ...

to Front Street in 1931. Harris died on September 3, 1945. His son Lieutenant Colonel Roland Allen Harris was a member of the Queen's Own Rifles. Harris is buried in family plot at St. John's Norway Cemetery.

Site history

Victoria Park

The land was once owned by Peter Patterson and was a popular spot for picnickers who nicknamed it "Yellowbanks" for the colour of the bluffs In 1878, Patterson leased the property to businessmen John Irwin, Bob Davies, and P.G. Close who hired John Boyle to develop and operate it as an

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

. Buildings were erected and landscaping was done in time for it to open on June 8, 1878 as Victoria Park. Initially, the park was only accessible by water and a

wharf A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...

was built to allow for

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

s to bring picnickers from the

Toronto Harbour Toronto Harbour or Toronto Bay is a natural bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Today, the harbour is used primarily for recreational boating, including personal vessels and pleasure boats providing scenic or p ...

at the foot of

Yonge Street Yonge Street ( ') is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Great Lakes#Geography, Upper Great Lakes. Ontario's first colonial administrator, ...

. The six-hectare park included a beach, with boating and canoe rentals, picnic shelters, a dance pavilion, restaurant, and an observation tower. Thomas Davies bought the park in 1886 and by 1894 the

Toronto Railway Company The Toronto Railway Company (TRC) was the operator of the streetcar system in Toronto between 1891 and 1921. It electrified the horsecar system it inherited from the Toronto Street Railway, the previous operator of streetcar service in Toronto. ...

extended

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

lines to the park, allowing for ferry service to be discontinued. In 1899, the Toronto Railway Company took over the lease allowing it to continue as a

trolley park In the United States, trolley parks, which started in the 19th century, were picnic and recreation areas along or at the ends of streetcar lines in most of the larger cities. These were precursors to amusement parks. Trolley parks were often cre ...

along with nearby

Munro Park George Monro (1801 – January 5, 1878) was a businessman and political figure in Upper Canada/Canada West. He was also a member of the Orange Order in Canada. He was born in Scotland in 1801 and came to Niagara in Upper Canada with his par ...

which the TRC also operated. In 1906, the park was purchased by Henry Eckardt in a foreclosure sale after Davies had been unable to keep up the mortgage payments. Eckardt closed the park in 1906, the same year that nearby

closed. The traditions of both continued at

Scarboro Beach Amusement Park Scarboro Beach Park was a lakeside amusement park in the Beaches, Toronto, from 1907 until 1925. The park was originally in East Toronto until its annexation by the City of Toronto in 1908. Location The park operated on a 40 acre-site south of ...

which opened in 1907 and operated until 1925.

is named after the amusement park. From 1912 to 1932 part of the property was used for Victoria Park Forest School during the summer. The T. Eaton Company also used the property for a

summer camp A summer camp, also known as a sleepaway camp or residential camp, is a supervised overnight program for children conducted during the summer vacation from school in many countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer residential camps ...

for boys from 1917 until 1927. In 1927, the City of Toronto purchased the property for $370,000 in order to build the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant.

Water treatment plant

With an early 20th-century Toronto plagued with water shortages and unclean drinking water, public health advocates such as George Nasmith and Toronto's Medical Officer of Health, Charles Hastings, campaigned for a modern water purification system. Construction for a water treatment plant began on the site in 1932 and the building became operational on November 1, 1941. The building, unlike most modern engineering structures, was also created to make an architectural statement. Fashioned in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style, the cathedral-like structure remains one of Toronto's most admired buildings. It is, however, little known to outsiders. The interiors are just as opulent with marble entryways and vast halls filled with pools of water and filtration equipment. The plant has thus earned the nickname ''The Palace of Purification''. In 1992, the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant was named a national historic civil engineering site by the

Canadian Society for Civil Engineering The Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) () was founded in 1887 as the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, renamed in 1918 as the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC), and re-established in June 1972 as a member society of the EIC under ...

. It was designated under the ''

Ontario Heritage Act The ''Ontario Heritage Act'', (the ''Act'') first enacted on March 5, 1975, allows municipalities and the provincial government to designate individual properties and districts in the Canadian Province of Ontario, as being of cultural heritage ...

'' in 1998. The plant appeared on a stamp issued by

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (, trading as Canada Post (), is a Canadian Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the operating name of the Post Office Department of the Can ...

in 2011, in a series showcasing five notable Art Deco buildings in Canada.

Use

Despite its age, the plant is still fully functional, providing approximately 30% of Toronto's water supply. The intakes are located over from shore in of water, running through two pipes under the bed of the lake. Water is also

chlorinated In chemistry, halogenation is a chemical reaction which introduces one or more halogens into a chemical compound. Halide-containing compounds are pervasive, making this type of transformation important, e.g. in the production of polymers, drugs. ...

in the plant and then pumped to various reservoirs throughout the City of Toronto and York Region.

Access

The facility grounds have been made available to the public. Despite some concerns of vulnerability to an attack on the water supply since the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, the grounds have remained open to the public, but security has been increased. In the summer of 2007, construction began on the installation of an underground Residual Management Facility allowing processed waste to be removed before discharging into the lake. This construction has since been completed.

In popular culture

The R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant has been used in dozens of films and television series as a prison, clinic, or headquarters. *The building of the plant is vividly recounted in

Michael Ondaatje Philip Michael Ondaatje (; born 12 September 1943) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer and essayist. Ondaatje's literary career began with his poetry in 1967, publishing ''The Dainty Monsters'', and then in 1970 the critically a ...

's ''

In the Skin of a Lion ''In the Skin of a Lion'' is a novel by Canadian–Sri Lankan writer Michael Ondaatje. It was first published in 1987 by McClelland and Stewart. The novel fictionalizes the lives of the immigrants who played a large role in the building of the ...

''. *The headquarters of "The Man" in the 2002 comedy ''

Undercover Brother ''Undercover Brother'' is a 2002 American satirical spy action comedy blaxploitation film directed by Malcolm D. Lee and starring Eddie Griffin. The screenplay by John Ridley and Michael McCullers is based on the Internet animated series ...

''. *A prison in the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

comedy ''

Half Baked ''Half Baked'' is a 1998 American stoner film starring Dave Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Harland Williams, and Guillermo Díaz. The film was directed by Tamra Davis, co-written by Chappelle and Neal Brennan and produced by Robert Simonds. ''Half ...

''. *An

asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea * ...

in the 1995

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

In the Mouth of Madness ''In the Mouth of Madness'' is a 1994 American supernatural horror film directed and scored by John Carpenter and written by Michael De Luca. It stars Sam Neill, Julie Carmen, Jürgen Prochnow, David Warner and Charlton Heston. Neill star ...

''. *"The Centre," a nefarious

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

in the television series '' The Pretender''. *Base of operations for Genomex, an

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy or rival of the protagonist and is often depicted as a villain.Mutant X''. *The Royal Canadian Institute for the Mentally Insane (next door to Elsinore Brewery) in the 1983 film '' Strange Brew''. *The

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automob ...

Centre for the Criminally Insane, as seen in '' Robocop: The Series''. *The Langstaff Maximum Security Prison, as seen in '' Flashpoint'' in the episode ''Just a Man''. *The Mellonville Maximum Security Prison, as seen in an SCTV episode (1982). *A prison in the Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal episode "Solitary Confinement." *"Lake District Federal Prison" in '' Between'' in the episode ''School's Out''. *A prison building in the ''

Conviction In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is Guilty (law), guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a ...

'' episode "A Different Kind of Death." *A prison in the closing scenes of '' The Big Heist'', when Donald Sutherland's character enters to serve a 20-year sentence. *"Ekart County Jail" in the 2015 movie ''

Regression Regression or regressions may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Regression'' (film), a 2015 horror film by Alejandro Amenábar, starring Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson * ''Regression'' (magazine), an Australian punk rock fanzine (1982–1984) * ...

''. *"U.N. Penitentiary Chesapeake Conservancy Zone" in the 2020 season of

The Expanse Expanse or The Expanse may refer to: Media and entertainment ''The Expanse'' franchise * ''The Expanse'' (novel series), a series of science fiction novels by James S. A. Corey * ''The Expanse'' (TV series), a television adaptation of the ...

. *A Children’s Hospital in Guillermo Del Toro’s 1997 film ''

Mimic In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. In the simples ...

''. *The office of Richard Jenkins' character, Ezra Grindle, a factory executive with a dark past, in Guillermo Del Toro’s '' Nightmare Alley''. *Women's Prison in

Mayor of Kingstown ''Mayor of Kingstown'' is an American crime thriller television series created by Taylor Sheridan and Hugh Dillon and starring Jeremy Renner. The series premiered on November 14, 2021, on Paramount+. In February 2022, the series was renewed for ...

*Music video for "When You Know Someone" by the band Valley

References

External links

* {{Toronto landmarks Art Deco architecture in Canada Municipal buildings in Toronto Buildings and structures in Scarborough, Ontario Water treatment facilities