City Park: Mid-Century 2SLGBTQ+ Heritage

In the early 1950s, the housing in the area enclosed by Wellesley, Jarvis, Wood, and Yonge Streets was in extremely poor condition. The department store company Eaton’s had purchased much of the land in 1910 for a new store and had since allowed the Victoria-era homes to fall into disrepair.

By 1952, Toronto City Council was making plans to demolish the substandard housing and redevelop the neighbourhood. The housing situation in the area was so critical that the city even considered taking the land through expropriation and leasing it to developers so they could build modern, multi-residential housing.

In the end, Hubert Buildings Ltd., a Swiss company, bought the land from Eaton’s. In 1954, the plan for City Park Apartments was revealed — four 15-storey towers containing 1,150 units that was to become the largest multi-residential complex in Canada.

Caspari brought European training in multi-residential development and financial contacts to Canada.

His original City Park proposal was scaled down to three, 14-floor towers, containing 774 apartments. Building just three towers was to allow for better light use and larger landscaped areas between the buildings.

The April 1957 issue of Royal Architecture Institute of Canada (RAIC) Journal published an article by Peter Caspari about the project along with photographs of the newly-built development.

Caspari credited “an enlightened city administration” that allowed a dense enough development to attract private investment. “Developers of great experience in large scale rehabilitation projects in Europe brought considerable know-how to the project, buttressed by sound finance and capable project management,” he wrote.

Caspari had great concern for eliminating noise in the building. He specified poured reinforced concrete floors and walls between apartments and corridors. The fins between balconies were of reinforced concrete. To complete the soundproofing, Swiss manufactured double-glazed wooden windows were installed.

Born in 1908 in Berlin, Germany, Peter Caspari studied architecture at Städtische Baugewerkschule and graduated in 1931. His career was still young when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933.

The young architect became politically active against the Hitler Youth. After receiving a tip he was going to be arrested, Caspari fled to Switzerland with wife, Erika, and mother and later settled in London, England.

In 1934, Caspari set up his own architectural practice in London. His early London projects were in the Streamline Moderne style, recognized by its curving horizontal lines that conveys an aerodynamic, futuristic aesthetic.

Later, his Coleman Court and Moss Hall Court signalled a shift to International Style dominated by angular lines.

Caspari’s career was once again interrupted — this time by the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. As a volunteer with the Pioneer Corps., he built anti-aircraft installations during the war.

In 1951, he moved his family to Toronto. He designed the International Style Vincent Court and Buckingham Court apartments, both located on Eglinton Avenue.

His growing international reputation and connections paved the way for his two largest developments, City Park in Toronto and Rideau Towers in Calgary, which were built simultaneously.

Caspari’s City Park came fully equipped with automatic washing machines, dryers, and irons. Tenants arriving home would have passed through a glass entrance vestibule with the names of residents neatly arranged on illuminated glass sides.

A mail room and a place for parking baby carriages flanked the lobby, which had marble floors, terrazzo walls, and acoustic tile ceilings with spot lighting. A special air system kept all public spaces over-pressurized, ensuring scents like cooking odours were pushed out.

Even the parking garage was high-tech for the 1950s. The doors opened automatically when vehicles approached and access to the building was remote controlled via a two-way speaker system.

Each apartment came with a modern kitchen with General Electric appliances in a range of colours (turquoise green, canary yellow, or satin white), ample cupboard space, and brightly lit bathrooms.

Caspari believed the higher cost of quality facilities and finishes would ensure the City Park apartments remained economically stable long term.

Articles in Swiss newspaper Der Bund and in the UK Sunday Times, regions where Peter Caspari had professional ties, noted the completion of the complex.

With its central location, ample green space and luxurious living accommodations, the International Style complex brought a new design and living concept to post-war Toronto. The complex had many studio and one-bedroom units that were affordable for single young people.

City Park was vital to the development of the Church–Wellesley Village, which emerged in the 1950s as a centre of Toronto’s gay life, and later the wider 2SLGBTQ+ community. The inexpensive units provided a foothold for people seeking independence and community after moving to the city.

Housing a growing gay population, City Park earned the nickname, the Queens’ Palaces — a reference to the number of gay residents.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Toronto’s gay culture was centred around bars and nightclubs, particularly on Queen and King Streets downtown. The Letros Tavern and the Saphire Tavern hosted popular drag shows and other live entertainment.

The focus of gay life began to move to Yonge Street in the 1950s. Opened in 1955, City Park replaced houses demolished after the completion of the Yonge subway in 1954. The complex had many studio and one-bedroom units that were affordable for single young people.

Down the street from City Park, at 457 Church Street, was the location of the Melody Room, a gay club, which also housed the publication of one of Canada’s first gay magazines, TWO: The Homosexual View Point in Canada, published between 1964 and 1966

City Park and later large housing developments, such as Village Green to the north, contributed to the social, political, and cultural conditions that allowed the Church–Wellesley Village to form and eventually flourish.

In 1989, City Park became a housing co-operative. The complex’s more than 700 units made it one of the largest co-ops in Canada.

Peter Caspari’s later work included the CIBC tower at 2 Bloor Street West (completed 1972) and Sheppard Centre in North York (1974). He died in Toronto in 1999.