Toronto’s Central Technical School (CTS), located near the intersection of Harbord and Lippincott streets in Toronto, is celebrating an important anniversary this fall. Officially opened on August 31, 1915, the school has been a significant local and national landmark since day one. The building was lauded in the October 1915 Construction Magazine as being a “beautiful and lasting monument to the determination and energy of the little minority who realized the importance and the great future of technical education.” The estimated cost of 1.5 million dollars was borne by the City of Toronto.
Front of the Central Technical School in Toronto, photo taken by John Boyd on October 23, 1915 (MIKAN 3327188)
Once considered to be the largest school of its kind in the British Empire, it is designed in a Collegiate Gothic architectural style. Many early 20th-century Canadian schools were built in this style.
While construction was funded entirely by the local municipal government, in 1913, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden saw it was in his best interest to lay the first cornerstone. The important Montreal architectural firm Ross and Macfarlane (later Ross and MacDonald) won the design competition for the school (the firm is noteworthy for designing Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens among many other buildings).
Top-ranked artists lined up to teach here including Group of Seven artists Lawren Harris and Arthur Lismer. Others, some of whom were part of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, were:
Artists who later became nationally renowned also studied and taught here, such as
- Second World War war artists Bruno Bobak and Aba Bayefsky
- producer Sydney Newman
- political cartoonist Terry Mosher (Aislin)
- abstract landscape painter Doris McCarthy
- muralist York Wilson
As Rebecca Sisler stated in her book, Art for Enlightenment: a History of Art in Toronto Schools, the artists who came here were among the “legion of department graduates who became ranking artists in Toronto, and who were to make national names for themselves in all artistic disciplines….” Library and Archives Canada has many of these artists’ private archival collections. The school also boasts as its alumni, the colourful businessman Edwin “Honest Ed” Mirvish and the renowned physicist Leon Katz.
Central Technical School, March 23, 1921 (MIKAN 3655954)
Anthony Hryniewiecki being taught by W. Bardsley at the Central Technical School in preparation for future work in jet propulsion, April 1945 (MIKAN 4295799)
The school (which was considered for a heritage designation by the City of Toronto in 2014) has many medieval-inspired features, and is an extended rectangular-shaped three-storey plan with stone walls that are faced with a combination of pink and grey limestone, and trimmed with stone and terra cotta. The west facade features a square tower that has buttresses, balustrades, decorative stonework, and narrow lancet windows. The main entrance is also spectacular—a stone archway supported on buttresses with grotesque sculptures symbolizing “industry” and “science,” a set of three oak-panelled doors, and a stone crest that includes the coat of arms of the City of Toronto. The Toronto School District documented the construction of the school.
The building is a striking expression of Canadian society’s belief in learning in the early 20th century. Dr. Alexander Charles Mckay, Director of the Toronto Board of Education from 1911 to 1926, was partly responsible for this. While he wanted a Canadian school that would support the instruction of skilled workers in various technical industries, McKay also believed that a beautiful building was conducive to the soul of learning. So before the school was constructed, Mackay conducted a tour of European polytechnical schools to look at good designs. And certainly a century later, the imposing Central Technical School still works; it is a grand and uplifting place which has aged gracefully, and now harbours an aura of old-world tradition and excellence.
Happy birthday Central Technical School!
Library and Archives Canada Blog 
Regarding Doris McCarthy, your post links erroneously to a completely different person with a similar name. For the archives of Doris McCarthy the artist, see https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~dmg/html/collection/research.html.
Pingback: Vol. 9, no. 12 | I-Heritage.info
My mother, Irene Maddin Martin Kelso (Bratton) was a student at Central Tech in the 1920’s. She studied art and design and became a lifelong painter in oils.
Thank you for sharing this information with us. We love hearing that your mother studied at Central Technical School of Toronto and continued to create art throughout her life.
Mom had a studio in the same building as A Y Jackson on Rosedale Valley Road. She was friends with Charlie Goldhammer and a number of the Group of Seven as well Yvonne Mc Cafue Housser. She collected many of the cards produced in the Christmas card project of 1931
This is so interesting. Your mother seems to have had a fascinating life. Those Christmas cards must be beautiful.
Yes, the cards are lovely. Mom collected 15-20 of them. The Christmas card project lasted only one year (1931). Charles Goldhammer was trying to help out Canadian artists by commissioning the cards. However, the four colour lithograph process was in its infancy and the cards could not be produced for less than a dollar so sales were not great. The McMichael Gallery had a display of the cards a few years ago and some of the cards I have were in that show. Thanks for your interest and yes, Mom had an interesting time trying to make her way in a male-dominated art world.
David
It’s so nice that you still have some of those cards. What a beautiful treasure. Thank you for so generously sharing a part of your mother’s story with us.