Walnut Hall

Walnut Hall
Walnut Hall in 1934
Former names	O'Donohoe Row
General information
Type	Residential
Architectural style	Georgian
Location	Shuter Street, Toronto, Canada
Completed	1856
Demolished	May 19, 2007
Owner	Trisan Realty Corp (at demolition)
Technical details
Floor count	3.5
Design and construction
Architect	John Tully
Former Ontario Heritage Act
Designated	1997
Delisted	2007

John Tully

Walnut Hall was a row of four Georgian-style terraced homes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Constructed in 1856, it was recognized by both the Government of Canada and the City of Toronto as being of historic significance, but portions of it collapsed and it had to be demolished in 2007 due to neglect. At the time of its demolition, it was Toronto's last remaining complete row of 19th century Georgian townhomes.

John O'Donohoe, a local politician, auctioneer and land speculator, purchased a lot on Shuter Street in Toronto in 1853. A four-unit terrace, known as O'Donohoe Row, was designed by architect John Tully and completed on the lot in 1856. At three and half storeys, the building featured buff brick with decorative brickwork and stone detailing, a symmetrical façade, a gabled roof and dormer windows.

At the time, Shuter Street was located in a prestigious residential neighbourhood. Given its location and the quality of its construction, O'Donohoe Row was intended to cater to the affluent middle class, and was representative of the Georgian-style brick row houses which flourished in Toronto in the 1850s.

The character of the neighbourhood changed, and the building was renamed Walnut Hall Apartment House in 1903. In 1949, the interior was converted to a rooming house, and a number of changes were made to the exterior, including the conversion of the southeast corner to a storefront.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police purchased the building in the 1970s, as part of a land assembly for a new Ontario Division headquarters building. In 1983, the federal government designated it as a Recognized Federal Heritage Building. It was also during the 1980s that Walnut Hall was vacated, left unheated and boarded up. The building was sold to a private developer in 1996. Once it was privately owned, the City designated Walnut Hall under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1997.

Walnut Hall was the subject of a number of demolition proposals and redevelopment schemes from the 1970s onwards, ranging from a proposed parking lot to residential developments that would have incorporated the heritage building. None of the proposals were achieved, however, and Walnut Hall remained vacant and unheated. In 1999, the City of Toronto issued an order to the landowner to correct a number of growing structural deficiencies in the building.