Tuesday, 13 April 2010 07:29

From Correctional Capital to Creative Capital.

Sitting eerie and alone, one daunting stone building still stands among Liberty Village’s new mix of renovated towers and trendy condominiums, leaking the tale of the areas dark past.  In 1877, Central Prison, one of the harshest prisons in Ontario, was erected in King West.  Built by the prisoners it also had a library, school rooms, a bakery and a collection of industrial buildings.  Among these, at the North centre of the prison was the Prison’s Roman Catholic Chapel.  The two-story Chapel was erected as a place of worship but ended up being a place where the aim was intoxication, prison officials reporting inmates drinking the entire bottle of communion wine.

When the prison ceased operations in 1915, during the First World War, its buildings were used as training and barracks facilities for the Canadian Army and for processing immigrants. In 1990 John Inglis and Sons manufacturing company held ownership of the chapel and surrounding area beginning a milling product line, until John’s death in 1903 when his son William took over and manufactured marine steam engines and waterworks pumping engines for Canada Steamship Lines Hamonic and Huronic.  The Great Depression seriously affected the company and by 1920 nearly all the buildings were demolished, except for the chapel. Operations ceased by 1950 after William’s death in 1935.

The industrial cemetery was later cultivated into a contemporary neighborhood when artists, fashion designers, animators, filmmakers, musicians, photographers and members of the burgeoning computer arts found that the creaky industrial skeletons were cheap space to fulfill their business needs. The real estate boom in the 1980’s and surge of lofts began to bring together a new neighborhood.  Currently there is now three public parks are being built, including a linear park along the rail corridor, a gateway park and a central park which will contain the restored Chapel building. In addition to the park spaces, publicly accessible plazas will contribute to the open space in the community and will add a north-south pedestrian connection. In 2005, King Liberty won the 2005 CUI (Canadian Urban Institute) Brownie Award for the best large-scale project.

From “Correctional Capital of Canada” in the 19th century to “Creative Capital of Canada,” Liberty Village has definitely twisted its fate, from a place that once withheld the liberty and freedom of its people to a place that is now occupied by the most creative minds of the country.

Written By Caitlin McAuliffe