Loading Please Wait
Loading Please Wait
Loading Please Wait
209 Church Street, Toronto is presently a holdout property and should be considered under increased risk of demolition due to the presence of 3 high intensity redevelopments occurring at immediately adjacent sites. Community members have mentioned that developers have been attempting to acquire (purchase) 209 Church Street, Toronto in recent years. Of note is that 211-213 Church Street (built circa. mid-1860s) – which abutted 209 Church Street to the immediate north – was demolished in 2020 to create a parking and staging zone for construction vehicles associated with the Social Condominiums by Pemberton Group redevelopment project occurring at the southeast corner of Church Street and Dundas Street East.
209 Church Street would benefit from a Heritage Evaluation.
The earliest known occupants of 209 Church Street circa. the 1850s directories are either Walter George Kollmyer or William J. McKay. Walter George Kollmyer was a hardware merchant and ironmonger. William J. McKay was an Assistant Emigrant Agent and Clerk at the Toronto (Canada West / Upper Canada) Emigrant Office.
Between circa 1861 and 1867, Gertrude McPhie and Mary McPhie lived at and operated a private Boarding School, Day School, and/or Ladies’ School from 209 Church Street.
209 Church Street was the residence of the well known German-Canadian inventor and piano manufacturer Theodore August Heintzman (1817-1899) between circa 1869/1870 and 1872. Heintzman's business was known as Heintzman & Co. Heintzman’s residence at 209 Church Street, Toronto immediately preceded a pivotal expansion and move of Heintzman & Co. to a larger manufacturing and sales premises; as well as his patenting of an innovative adaptation of the revolutionary Agraffe Bridge. In the 1970s, a Person of National Historic Significance Plaque about Theodore August Heintzman was installed in front of the nearby First Evangelical Lutheran Church (116 Bond Street, Toronto) – where Heintzman attended Church and financed the construction of the extant Church building – although the plaque was removed and put in storge in the early 2010s during changes to the front of the church property.
209 Church Street, Toronto was the location of George Heinl & Company Limited between 1948 and ~1969. George Heinl & Company Limited are “Canada’s foremost violin [family] experts, antiquarians, purveyors, and conservators.”. George Heinl & Company Limited was established in Toronto in 1926 by Austrian-Canadian violin maker George Heinl Sr. (1891-1980). George Heinl & Company Limited is still in business in 2020, although is now based at 227 Carlton Street, Toronto.
(Research by Adam Wynne)
