Q2. Where was the first Juicy Fruit gum factory in Canada? (P20)

A Walk Through the Past

There are many buildings in Leslieville, along Eastern Avenue and northsouth roads such as Logan and Carlaw that take us back to a different time and place. Transport yourself back to Toronto’s past by taking a look at just a few of the interesting buildings in Leslieville and Toronto’s east end.

Consumers’ Gas Company

At 415 Eastern Avenue there’s an attractive red brick Edwardian, the original head office (Meter House) for Consumers Gas. It was built in 1908 and like the Wrigley building, displays many “industrial revolution” characteristics: black steel ceiling trusses holding up a massive roof that stretches three stories, cast stone detailing and pressed metal cornices. For several years, the building was also used to house the printing facilities for the World Journal, a Chinese newspaper.

A few years ago, Avenue Road furniture purchased the building and undertook over a year of renovations and repair to carefully restore the exterior and repurpose the inside, keeping the building’s soaring ceiling, concrete floors and painted bricks.

Canada Starch Company, 1135 Dundas Street E

1135 Dundas Street East, a non-descript brick building built in 1939. It’s at the corner of Logan and Dundas. The structure still has its factory elements – high ceilings, wooden beams and floors, massive supporting posts and large windows with metal mullions.

Weston Bakery, Logan and Eastern

For years, neighbours enjoyed (or got tired of) the smell of fresh baking from the Weston Bakery at 463 Eastern Avenue. George Weston started his baking business in 1892, then built and/or acquired bakeries in various locations in the city. Apparently, bakeries have operated on the Eastern Avenue site since 1880. The building is now being redeveloped for condominiums.

Wrigley Gum Factory

First came “Juicy Fruit”, then Spearmint – Wrigley gum became so successful that Mr. Wrigley decided to expand outside of the United States. His first choice was Toronto, where he built his factory in 1907 at Boston and Carlaw.

The building demonstrates the style of the industrial revolution with it’s straight lines, steel and glass, with very little decoration or embellishment. The front of the building however, does show case a repeated geometric motif between the windows. Today 245 Carlaw is the site of The Wrigley Lofts.

Rolph Stone Printing

This landmark building located at 201 Carlaw Avenue was erected in 1913 to be the home of Rolph Clark Stone's printing factory.

Rolph Smith and Co. set up one of Upper Canada’s earliest printing shop for letterhead and invoices in downtown Toronto. The terrible Toronto fire of 1905, however, left the plant a pile of rubble. The original company merged with Clark Lithography and the new Rolph Clark business decided to build its new plant in Toronto’s east end, on Carlaw Avenue. Today, Rolph-Clark-Stone represents the International Packaging Group in Canada. The building was recently redeveloped to become the Printing Factory Lofts.

Russell (Connaught) Carhouse

Joseph Russell was a brick manufacturer at 1308 Queen Street East at Alton Avenue (northeast corner) and he provided much of the supplies used in the original construction of the TRC's paint shop in 1913, a direct and obvious connection between the person and the naming of the site. Joseph was born on April 1, 1868, ran for the provincial legislature in 1908 and won a seat in the federal legislature that same year. He died on December 14, 1925.

Coxwell Stables

When the “young” city of Toronto delivered its first services, staff used horse drawn “Public Works” vehicles. The horses were kept at the Coxwell Stables, just south of the train tracks (426, 428-444 Coxwell Avenue). Built in 1919, it wasn’t long before cars and trucks replaced the horses. For many years, the “stables” were used as storage until the buildings were converted to not-for-profit housing in the 1980s