Osgoode Hall: An Illustrated History

OSGOODE HALL

OSGOODE HALL

AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY

JOHN HONSBERGER

WITH SPECIAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY KENNETH JARVIS, RCA

Copyright © The Osgoode Society for Legal History, 2004

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Copy Editor: Lloyd Davis

Design: Jennifer Scott

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National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Honsberger, John D. (John David)

Osgoode Hall : an illustrated history / John Honsberger.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-55002-513-9

1. Osgoode Hall Law School — Buildings — History. 2. Architecture — Ontario — Toronto. 3. Toronto (Ont.) — Buildings, structures, etc. 4. Osgoode Hall Law School — Buildings — History — Pictorial works. 5. Architecture —Ontario — Toronto — Pictorial works. 6. Toronto (Ont.) —Buildings, structures, etc. — Pictorial works. I. Title.

1  2  3  4  5       08  07  06  05  04

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credit in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

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For David, Janet and Joan

We long for the day when some competent brother will appear to do for Osgoode Hall what Dr. Scadding has done for Toronto of Old — some one who has battled through the storms of his professional career and found safe anchorage in an honest competence and snug library, whose memory is good and whose pencil has been active in keeping notes. What a field there is certainly to recall.

14 Canada Law Journal 317 (1878),

reviewing Scadding’s Toronto of Old

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PROLOGUE: AN OVERVIEW

1. Genesis

2. The First Hall

3. The Victorian Period

4. The Twentieth Century

EPILOGUE

APPENDICES

A. List of Major Additions and Alterations to Osgoode Hall

B. Plan of Osgoode Hall Showing Each Section and Addition with the Date of Construction

C. Glossary of Architectural Terms

D. Glossary of Legal Terms

E. The Value of Money and What It Bought — Comparative Costs

F. 1846 Covenant of the Law Society of Upper Canada with Her Majesty to Provide Accommodation to Superior Courts

G. 1874 Deed of Surrender from the Law Society to Her Majesty

H. 1885 Deed between the Queen and the Law Society of Upper Canada

I. 1894 Order-in-Council Respecting Extension to Library

NOTES

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

PICTURE CREDITS

INDEX

FOREWORD

On the occasion of our twenty-fifth anniversary, The Osgoode Society is delighted to offer its members John Honsberger’s illustrated history of Osgoode Hall.

Our selection of Mr. Honsberger’s book as our membership volume for 2004 seems to be particularly appropriate as the Society enters its twenty-sixth year. Osgoode Hall has been the seat of the Law Society of Upper Canada since 1832, and of several of the superior courts of the province for almost as long. It is a national monument and one of the architectural treasures of Canada. There is no building that better incorporates the many stylistic forces that helped shape public buildings in pre-Confederation Canada. The Hall’s park-like setting amid lush lawns and gardens, its grandly Venetian rotunda with striking Victorian tessellated tile, its stained glass, and its numerous portraits, give Osgoode Hall a venerable eminence and stateliness that few other buildings in Canada enjoy. The Hall has shaped generations of those who have known it and continues to do so. For the legal profession in Ontario it is the fons et origo and has become a symbol of the legal tradition not only in Ontario but throughout Canada and beyond.

Equally significant, however, is the longstanding personal involvement of John Honsberger with the Hall. Mr. Honsberger, the longtime senior partner of the Toronto law firm Raymond & Honsberger, has been in and out of the Hall almost every day during his long and distinguished legal career. In addition to a busy Toronto practice, John Honsberger has been a law teacher, lecturing at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University and elsewhere. He also served for many years as the editor of the Law Society of Upper Canada Gazette, and has written numerous books and articles on Canadian law and legal history. In 1998 he was awarded the Mundel Medal by the attorney general of Ontario in recognition of his contribution to legal literature over the past fifty years. In 1999 the Law Society of Upper Canada honoured him by naming its archives reading room the John Honsberger Reading Room.

Mr. Honsberger’s knowledge of and affection for Osgoode Hall resonates on every page of this attractively illustrated volume. The Society thanks Mr. Honsberger for sharing his memories and providing us with this beautiful and informative book.

The purpose of The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History is to encourage research and writing in the history of Canadian law. The Society, which was incorporated in 1979 and is registered as a charity, was founded at the initiative of the Honourable R. Roy McMurtry — a former attorney general for Ontario, now chief justice of Ontario — and officials of the Law Society of Upper Canada. Its efforts to stimulate the study of legal history in Canada include a research-support program, a graduate student research-assistance program and work in the fields of oral history and legal archives. The Society publishes volumes of interest to the Society’s members that contribute to legal-historical scholarship in Canada, including studies of the courts, the judiciary and the legal profession; biographies; collections of documents; studies in criminology and penology; accounts of significant trials; and work in the social and economic history of the law.

Current directors of The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History are Robert Armstrong, Kenneth Binks, Patrick Brode, Michael Bryant, Brian Bucknall, Archie Campbell, David Chernos, Kirby Chown, J. Douglas Ewart, Martin Friedland, Elizabeth Goldberg, John Honsberger, Horace Krever, Virginia MacLean, Frank Marrocco, Roy McMurtry, Brendan O’Brien, Peter Oliver, Paul Reinhardt, Joel Richler, William Ross, James Spence and Richard Tinsley.

The annual report and information about membership may be obtained by writing: The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, Osgoode Hall, 130 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5H 2N6. Telephone: 416-947-3321. E-mail: mmacfarl@lsuc.on.ca. Web site: http://www.osgoodesociety.ca

R. Roy McMurtry

President

Peter N. Oliver

Editor-in-chief

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have known Osgoode Hall for most of my life. I was introduced to it as a boy by my father, who practised law for sixty years and whose office was never more than a few blocks away. I attended law school in the Hall and was called to the bar and admitted as a solicitor in it. Since then, though I have not reached my father’s record, I have practised for fifty years and more, and for much of that time I have been able to look down at the Hall from my office window. I have been in and out of the building constantly. I have always been pleased and proud to be connected with it, and I have always been interested in its long connection with the legal profession and the history of the country. It was my wife who encouraged me to write this book and record all that I have come to know. Thus, my first acknowledgment of my indebtedness is, and must be, to her.

Up to the present, there has been very little written at any length about Osgoode Hall. W.R. Riddell, in his Legal Profession in Upper Canada in Its Early Periods, wrote a little about the building; Eric Arthur, in Toronto: No Mean City and a few subsequent articles, provided much useful information and insight, as did William Dendy and William Kilbourn in Toronto Observed: Its Architecture, Patrons and History, Marian MacRae and Anthony Adamson in their Cornerstones of Order: Courthouses and Town Halls of Ontario, 1784–1914, and Geoffrey Simmons in his Fred Cumberland: Building the Victorian Dream; and Angela K. Carr, in a paper on The Architecture of Osgoode Hall from 1829–1981 submitted in 1984 to the Department of Art History of the University of Toronto, provided a valuable architectural history. I have relied on all of these sources and I acknowledge my indebtedness to them.

A great many people have at one time or another told me many anecdotes and much information about the Hall. Many of them I have difficulty now in remembering — in particular, who told me what — as I have been collecting information both consciously and unconsciously for most of my life. I am indebted to all these people.

Since I began writing this book a few years ago, I have become particularly and greatly indebted to John D. Arnup, Elise Brunet, Christopher Moore, Brendan O’Brien and John deP. Wright, who read an early draft and made many helpful comments. Kenneth Jarvis, Carol Wilton and Jill Taylor each read a later and much expanded draft, and they, too, were very helpful with their comments and suggestions. Peter Oliver encouraged me to bring the book to term. I offer my warm thanks to each of them.

The knowledge shared with me has been invaluable, as has the generous assistance of many others. I thank in particular Horace Krever, Alan Lawrence, Paul Leatherdale, Susan Lewthwaite, Anne Law, Theresa Roth and John Saso.

I also gratefully acknowledge the continuous friendly and tolerant help given to me by the Department of Archives and the staff of the Great Library of the Law Society of Upper Canada, who always found time to help me with my research.

Marker placed by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, Ministry of Citizenship and Culture to commemorate Osgoode Hall as one of the finest examples of Victorian classical architecture in Canada.

I thank the Law Society of Upper Canada for its generous assistance in so many ways that have helped to make possible the publication of what can be considered, and is intended to be, a companion book to Christopher Moore’s The Law Society of Upper Canada and Ontario’s Lawyers, 1797–1997, which was commissioned by the Law Society to mark its bicentennial in 1997.

I am particularly indebted and grateful to Kenneth Jarvis, artist, sculptor and photographer and longtime friend — and for many years the secretary of the Law Society of Upper Canada. We share a common affection for Osgoode Hall. He, in addition to reading and commenting upon an early draft, generously gave permission to use many of his photographs and drawings of the Hall that he made over the years, many of which were on the front covers of the former Law Society of Upper Canada Gazette. He also volunteered to take many new photographs, particularly colour photos, to be reproduced here, and is responsible for almost all of the modern photographs that have done much to make this a truly illustrated history of Osgoode Hall. For all of this, I thank him.

This has been very much a collective work. I have tried within reason to create an illustrated reference book that would include all of the facts and details surrounding the Hall. The only exception is that space does not permit me to include many of the architectural specifications, but in any case these would have been of only limited interest. Most of these plans and specifications are available in the archives of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the National Archives of Canada, the Province of Ontario Archives and the reference branch of the Toronto Public Library. Above all, I have tried to create an interesting, readable account of one of Canada’s pre-eminent architectural treasures and a symbol of its legal tradition since 1829.

It is an honour for this book to be published by The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History in this year, which marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of its incorporation. During its short history, the Society has become one of the pre-eminent legal historical societies. I am grateful to its president and directors; Peter Oliver, its editor-in-chief; and Marilyn MacFarlane, its secretary and administrative assistant, for their friendship, encouragement and ever cheerful and generous assistance and support. I am grateful also to Dundurn Press, and thank it for its care in editing, its imagination and inspiration in design, and its enthusiasm in seeing this book through all of its technical stages.

PROLOGUE

An Overview

Osgoode Hall is both a national monument and one of Canada’s architectural treasures. Of the many public buildings erected in pre-Confederation Canada, it best encapsulates the diverse stylistic forces that shaped public design during the first half of the nineteenth century.¹ The portrait-lined walls and gated lawns evoke a venerable dignity to which few Canadian institutions even aspire.² The setting is one about which many historians have, with reason, become lyrical.³ It has been the seat of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the governing body of the legal profession in Ontario, since 1832. Several of the superior courts of the province, beginning with the Court of King’s Bench and a few years later the newly created Court of Chancery, have sat there for almost as long. The building was intended to be the focal point of the legal profession in Upper Canada, but has become a symbol of the legal tradition, not only in Ontario, but throughout Canada and beyond.

Benchers’ quarters in winter-time. The front of the east wing with the new City Hall in the background.

Osgoode Hall in winter.

The story of Osgoode Hall, however, is more than its architecture, the stone, bricks and mortar and the park around it. All of those who had the vision to plan, build, add to, maintain and preserve it, as well as those who studied, worked and experienced a great deal of their lives within it, have left their mark on it — as it has on them. A member of the Society can have few prouder privileges than that of being entitled to be described as of Osgoode Hall, Barrister-at-Law.⁴

In 1829, the Law Society purchased the six-acre site at what is now the northeast corner of Queen Street and University Avenue. At the time, it was pasture land outside the limits of the little town of York, which was soon to be renamed Toronto. When construction of the original wing of Osgoode Hall was completed in 1832, the town of York had a population of 5,505. Osgoode is now in the centre of the downtown area of a vast metropolis, surrounded by tall office towers and hotels, and is adjacent to the city hall square on which the main Law Society entrance now fronts.

In 1846, the Society entered into an agreement with the Province of Ontario to provide, in perpetuity, accommodation for the superior courts of justice in Osgoode Hall. Twenty-eight years later, to free itself of this obligation, the Society granted the west portion of the Hall — including the main entrance — to the province to serve the needs of the courts and judges. Osgoode Hall continues to be owned in part by the Law Society and in part by the province. The grounds in front are owned and maintained by the Society, while the west lawn is owned by the province — but maintained, by agreement, by the Society.

The Hall was originally intended by the Society to be an ambitious showcase that would be ornamental to the town as well as convenient to themselves.⁵ However, by the time of construction it was decided that the cost would be such that it could only be built in the plainest manner still consistent with the permanent stability of the building.⁶ The members of the Society at the time were few in number, mostly Anglican and comprised both Tories and Reformers. Their education and membership in their profession placed them among the elite. They were deeply committed to the legal profession and wanted to engender the same commitment in those who followed them. In this, Osgoode Hall was intended to play a crucial part.

The overall impression of the Hall as we see it today is that of a classical, Victorian Palladian building of great presence — albeit an architectural hybrid, which in a way adds to its attraction. The Reverend Dr. Henry Scadding, one of the earliest historians of Toronto, wrote in 1873 that "great expense has been lavished by the benchers on this Canadian Palais de Justice; but the effect of such a pile, kept in its every nook and corner and in all its surroundings in scrupulous order, is invaluable, tending to refine and elevate each successive generation of our young candidates for the legal profession and helping to inspire amongst them a salutary esprit de corps. He found in particular that the pediment of each wing, sustained aloft on fluted Ionic columns, [and] seen on a fine day against the pure azure of a northern sky, [is] something enjoyable."⁷ It is a striking sight to enter the grounds from the eastern gate early on a winter’s evening when there is snow on the ground. The Hall stands out as a black silhouette marked by glowing windows over the white snow against the red western sky. It could be a scene from London, Paris, Vienna or St. Petersberg a century or two ago.

The principal facade of the Hall is the front, with its main entrance in the centre, facing Queen Street to the south. It consists of two projecting temple-fronted wings adorned with fluted Ionic columns and porticos, the lowest portions of which are built in rusticated masonry. The upper parts, consisting of four fluted Ionic columns, support a triangular pediment. The front of the porticos is constructed out of buff Ohio Amherst sandstone. The remainder is red brick which used to be known as liver rock; although it was considered to be of inferior quality, it is still in good condition almost 175 years later.⁸ The two wings flank a central pavilion of Ohio sandstone with a portico in the Palladian classical style typical of public institutions in Britain and later in America. The lower level of the central portico is rusticated and vermiculated around the three arches of the entrance, while the upper storey contains six fluted Ionic columns, two of which are paired at each of the outer corners.

The front facade and main entrance.

The three substantial porticos give a sense of balance and symmetry.

The massive volumes of the lower porticos evoke an air of permanence and stability which finds its origin in the rusticated palazzi of Renaissance Florence. The columnar porches above recall the venerable pedimented temples of Greece in its antiquity. Their lofty sanctity succeeds in articulating the aspirations of the institution they house with admirable clarity.⁹

Decorative urn by the main entrance to Osgoode Hall.

The lower level of the facade is decorated by a series of horizontal ridges. This provides a base upon which the upper part of the facade rests. The pilasters between the tall, round-topped Italianate windows rise from it like an elevated colonnade. Above this is an upper level of square windows which forms a ponderous cornice terminated at the top by a balustrade. The narrow, pointed stone urns, which ornament the high parapet in front of the rooftop of the central facade, owe much to the garden front of the palace at Versailles.¹⁰ The front that one sees today is essentially the same as it has looked since 1860, when it was redesigned and the octagonal dome in the centre was removed. When restorative work was done to this facade in 1998, the architect found the quarry that supplied the stone when it was constructed in 1857 and obtained new stone for the restoration.

A wide driveway of granite setts, flanked at regular intervals by tall iron lamp standards, extends across the grounds adjacent to the front of the building. At either end are iron gates. The lawns, with their trees, ornamental bushes and gardens, extend from the Hall to the street.

The western, or University Avenue, facade does not compare with the architectural quality of the front. Like many other parts of the building, it was built at different times and lacks coherence except for a continuous cornice line and base.¹¹ The front section of the University Avenue facade and portico were built in 1840 to match the original Hall, which is the front of the east wing. The middle section of the University Avenue facade, built in 1883, is of a sympathetic classical style, but is not so sympathetic to that of the back section built in 1910.¹²

Springtime: tulips and flowering crab trees, 1995.

In several sections, the wall is set back at slightly different distances from the street. The front, or oldest, section is red liver rock brick. For many years it was whitewashed to make it better match the rest of the facade in colour. The remainder is in weathered yellow brick, or what was called in the nineteenth century the characteristic Toronto grey brick, that starts life as a rather bright yellow and enters old age as grey as the most venerable inhabitant. The windows vary considerably from small, many-paned windows to the high, round-top arched windows of the former Court of King’s Bench, in which is now located the reference room of the Great Library. A common denominator to both the northern and southern parts of the University Avenue facade is a window measuring eight feet by four and a triple window with a wide centre arch and narrow side lights. The eaves are heavily detailed, but all of a part. The overall effect of the facade is one of considerable charm.

The northern, or rear, facade used to be described as a Mary Anne back, in contrast to the Queen Anne front. This description arose out of the fact that until recently there were three unconnected and unattractive wings in the rear of the building — as the Law Society and the province each extended their parts of the building unevenly — with courtyards in between. The most westerly used to be the judges’ parking lot. The easterly courtyard used to provide access to the Law Society side of the building for deliveries by commercial suppliers. Immediately to the east of this wing, at the back, was the former benchers’ parking lot. In all, it used to be a dreary piece of architecture.¹³ The 1970 additions extended the west wing to the same depth as the former centre wing and filled in most of the courtyards. However, a small, enclosed, landscaped courtyard was created to yield a more attractive view from the windows of the judges’ chambers facing onto it. The present appearance of the rear wall, constructed with cast stone as the building was extended from time to time, is all of a part, and it fits in well with the new modern courthouse, which is also constructed of large cast-stone sections.

Spring flowers on front lawn, 1995.

There is now a landscaped walkway between Osgoode and the adjacent courthouse, as well as an underground pedestrian tunnel between the two buildings for the use of judges, lawyers and court officials. The walkway was a part of the 1960s civic square project which included the new courthouse, the new city hall and the closing of parts of Chestnut and Osgoode streets.

Rear facade.

The east facade adjoins Nathan Phillips Square. It and its extensions are a record of architectural styles in Canada in the mid twentieth century. It consists of nondescript cast-stone extensions, constructed in 1937 and 1958 on the east lawn beyond the original Hall, as well as the added floors at the back of the building constructed in the addition of 1889–91. The 1937 extension, in the typical style of a public building of the thirties, is lightly dusted with modern detail. Classical forms were also used for the addition to the north, constructed in 1958. The entire wing, unfortunately,¹⁴ hides the Romanesque law school addition of 1882, which contains Convocation Hall and the magnificent stained-glass windows that have been more recently installed.

East entrance, facing City Hall Square, c.1960.

East facade, 2003.

Until the 1958 alterations, a pair of small, two-storey grey-brick cottages stood on the grounds. The one at the northeast corner was used by the Law Society’s head caretaker. The other, at the northwest corner, was used by the head caretaker for the province’s side of the building.

Looking down on the Hall from one of the nearby high-rise buildings, it is seen not so much as one building but as an agglomeration of parts, a series of interconnected buildings, with a surprising number of chimneys. With more than twenty levels on six floors (plus unconnected basements and attics), with a present total of some 211,000 square feet, twenty-five staircases and 646 stairs on the Law Society side alone, navigating its labyrinthine corridors presents an element of adventure for visitors and staff alike. It is a unique and impressive ancient landmark.

Bird’s-eye view of Osgoode Hall with the new court house behind.

Osgoode Hall could be compared to a woman of indeterminate age, well dressed in good clothes that are never dated but with some eccentric touches. We can think of her as having seen many generations come and go, smiling wisely over the sorrows and joys of a large family. And, having given — and continuing to give — counsel and advice to them, she keeps them in order and settles their disputes.

Eric Arthur, an architectural authority, said it best when he wrote in his classic, Toronto: No Mean City:¹⁵

With all its faults, Osgoode Hall ranks highest, in the estimation of this writer, among the historic buildings still left to us in Toronto. It cannot be entirely sentiment or a sense of history that draws one to it, because strangers have admired it. Is it because Osgoode is something of an anachronism, a relic of a distant past reposing peacefully on its equally ancient lawns? Osgoode is already dominated physically by surrounding colossi, but it will never be dominated spiritually. We are left with the conclusion that Osgoode Hall has a personality sufficiently persuasive and powerful to overcome in the spectator any