u/jamescoolcrafter15

This skyscraper would have stood at around 36-storeys (hard to fully tell with this photo) at the northwest corner of King and Yonge, making it a complete intersection of early high-rises. It was designed by architect Eustace G. Bird, who also helped design the Royal Bank Building, directly across the street on Yonge, 10 years earlier. It would have been the tallest tower in Toronto upon its completion, seemingly around the height of Commerce Court North. The proposal was approved and plans were already in place to demolish the buildings on the property to make way for construction. However, the skyscraper was cancelled a year later. Unfortunately, like other proposals of the era, it's likely the financing for the project was never fully fulfilled, and when the Great Depression rolled in a few years later, any hope of a pre-war tower in this spot died completely.

Shot by me on April 30, 2026, using a Canon EOS R100. This building has, dare I say, Toronto’s most beautiful banking hall; insane when you realize it was completed during the Great Depression.

While a simple bungalow on its surface, this house is one of the only remaining survivors of the historic village of Langstaff Corners, a village originally located at the intersection of Yonge Street and Highway 7, at the time simply Langstaff Road. The early settlers of this community came to the area as early as the 1700s and were some of the first in the York Region. In recent years and decades, almost every single house and structure of the original village, known as Langstaff Corners and later as Langstaff Gardens, has been tragically demolished, including countless examples of beautiful Craftsman, Edwardian, and Georgian homes, and other historical buildings in the vicinity. The most recent, significant example of this was the loss of the Langstaff Baptist Church, which had served the community since 1935. This isn't just about the demolition of a single house; it is the final blow in the erasing of an entire historical community. Also, to preface, while this did happen in 2025, the documents relating to it only became publicly available recently. I wholeheartedly believe that if not for Highway 407 slicing through the original landscape of the village in the late 20th century, it would have easily became a heritage district in the same vein as Unionville or Markham Village. Oddly more, proposals to demolish this building came right after a fire that affected it. This happens quite often with heritage buildings. Developers don't want the hassle of the time and money spent preserving a heritage asset, and either leave it to rot and ruin, or it somehow catches on fire, and either way needs to be removed in the name of safety.

According to Manager of Heritage Planning, Regan Hutcheson: "This concept is especially relevant here. Within the United Nations the loss of entire cultures were first addressed by Raphael Lemkin. The underlying process of cultural destruction includes the phased and systematic destruction of traditions, values, language, and cultural markers that make a community distinct(Cadmus). This is what we are witnessing in Langstaff, as its identity slowly disintegrates in front of our eyes, with each heritage asset loss. The Munshaw House would be the final loss with a Part IV designation. Degradation over time leads to people moving away by overt or subtle methods. In Langstaff, we have seen the slow erosion of the cultural landscape, and the proposed demolition is a tragic symbol of this larger phenomenon. This destruction continues today and this final proposed loss of the oldest, designated and revered dwelling is emblematic of how communities are progressively stripped of their cultural and human elements, making the area increasingly inhospitable to families and thereby extinguishing its future prospects that are rooted in past culture. Last year we witnessed the loss of the last place of community worship due to the cities failure to enforce simple maintenance upon the building that the city could have indeed paid for with relative ease and now this. "

As he outlined in a failed attempt to save the house, the owners of the property have potentially violated the following obligations:

1. Ontario Heritage Act (Part IV): The Act mandates preservation, and demolition without exhausting all preservation options, violates this mandate.
2. 2014 Heritage Agreement: The agreement explicitly prohibits demolition and requires relocation and restoration of the house within the Langstaff Secondary Plan.
3. Neglect of Maintenance Obligations: The owner is failing to maintain and secure the house as required under the Keep Markham Beautiful By-law.
4. Conservation Plan: No comprehensive restoration and relocation plan has been implemented, breaching the obligation to preserve the structure.