It may seem hard to believe today, but the Commerce Court’s North Tower was once the tallest building in the Commonwealth.
Now dwarfed by many of its neighbours, the 34-storey building located at 25 King St. West, played a part in the development of Toronto’s financial district.
The North Tower helped set the foundation for what is now the Toronto Skyline. Until the 1920s, the view from the harbour mainly consisted of church steeples and squat 10-storey buildings.
This all changed with the construction of the Royal York Hotel in 1929, followed by the North Tower a year later. This also coincided with the construction of the Maple Leaf Gardens, the College Street Eaton’s store and the Canada Life building.
Despite this growth, Toronto was still seen as the second city when compared to the then financial and commercial capital, Montreal.
When it opened in 1931, the building served as the headquarters of Canadian Bank of Commerce, now known as Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (or CIBC, for short).
The structure was the last major building to be erected in Toronto before the Depression and held the title of tallest building in the Commonwealth from 1931 to 1962.
The building was built by Pearson and Darling, Canada’s leading architecture firm; U.S. design firm York & Sawyer consulted on the project.
The Canadian firm later designed another noteworthy building: the Sun Life Building in Montreal, long heralded as the largest building in the British Empire.
The building boasts cathedral-like gold-coffered vaulted ceilings and a modern architectural style called Art-Deco by some, Romanesque by others.
At the time, the building had an observation deck that allowed tourists a full, unobstructed view of the city, harbour and countryside. Unfortunately, these days, the deck is closed to the public.
The building’s 32nd floor observation deck also has four bearded Babylonian heads carved into the stone, each representing Courage, Observation, Foresight, and Enterprise.
Although it has been 55 years since the building lost its title as “tallest,” it is still a vestige of its time, and a part of Toronto’s history.