Description: 

561 Jarvis Street is a 3-storey apartment building — known as the Fort Garry Apartments — located on the east side of Jarvis Street approximately 40 meters north of Earl Place in Toronto. 561 Jarvis Street was designed by James Gladwin Hedges for J. Steven in late 1928 at the cost of $50 000. Construction of the building was completed by 1930. 561 Jarvis Street is in the Tudor Revival style of architecture and is the only extant example of Tudor Revival architecture on Jarvis Street.  

The Fort Garry Apartments (561 Jarvis Street) replaced an earlier house which existed on the site. This house dated to c. 1873/1874 and was historically home to: Frederick Stow (a clerk) and family during the 1870s through early-to-mid 1880s; William Grindlay (the manager of the Bank of British North America at 4 Wellington Street East) and family during the late 1880s through 1890s; and Dr. Albert Ham (a prominent music teacher and vocalist) and family during the early 1900s through late 1920s.  




Fort Garry Apartments — Origin of Name: 


Many of Toronto's pre-World War 2 apartment buildings have names that "evoke British Royalty, a certain level of class, and American symbols of modernity" (ERA Architects, 2018). 


Upper Fort Garry was a Hudson Bay Company trading post located at the convergence of the Red River and Assiniboine Rivers in what is now downtown Winnipeg. The trading post was active from 1822 until its surrender by the Hudson Bay Company to Louis Riel during the Red River Rebellion of 1869-1870. Fort Garry also served as an early name for the City of Winnipeg — with Winnipeg being formally incorporated as a city in 1873. In 1881-1884, the majority of the Fort Garry trading post was demolished during the realignment of Winnipeg's Main Street. The former site of the trading post was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1924. 

In December 1913, the Fort Garry Hotel opened in Winnipeg. The Fort Garry Hotel was originally one of Canada's grand and luxurious Châteauesque railway hotels. It was constructed near the original site of Upper Fort Garry. A national heritage park connecting the hotel to the remains of Upper Fort Garry was completed in 2017-2018. Fort Garry Hotel remains in business as of 2022.  

Lower Fort Garry was also a Hudson Bay Company post. Established in 1830, Lower Fort Garry was located 32 kilometers north of Upper Fort Garry. While Upper Fort Garry was primarily a trading post, Lower Fort Garry served primarily as a supply depot for the surrounding Cree, Anishinaabe, Métis, and European populations. Lower Fort Garry remained in the ownership of the Hudson Bay Company in 1951 at which point it was given to the federal government and subsequently designated a National Historic Site. In 2011, Lower Fort Garry was named one of the top 10 National Historic Sites in Canada. 



Architect - James Gladwin Hedges: 

The architect of the Fort Garry Apartments (561 Jarvis Street) was James Gladwin Hedges. The Fort Garry Apartments (561 Jarvis Street) is the only known building designed by James Gladwin Hedges within the Upper Jarvis and adjacent Church-Wellesley Village neighbourhoods of Toronto. 


The Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada: 1800-1950 provides the following the biography of James Gladwin Hedges: 


 "James Gladwin Hedges (1889-1941) holds a unique position in 20th Canadian architectural history as having designed both of the major airport terminal buildings in Toronto, one at Malton (1939-40), and the other at the Toronto Island Airport (1939-40; and still standing in 2017). Born in Toronto on 24 December 1889, he attended night courses in architecture and building construction at the Toronto Technical School on College Street while training in the office of Joseph Hunt Stanford from 1903 to 1909. He then worked briefly for McNichol & Tom (in 1909-11) and opened an office as an architect under his own name in late 1911.

The outbreak of WWI prompted him to close his office and he moved to Ottawa where he took a post in the federal Dept. of Public Works, carrying out designing and estimating jobs there from 1915 to 1924. In February 1925 he returned to Toronto and joined Edward L. Cousins, the resident engineer at the Toronto Harbour Commission where he worked first as a draftsman, then as designer, and by 1930 as staff architect in the Commission office. During this period, he continued to practise under his own name, designing several small apartment buildings and private residences in Toronto between 1928 and 1931.

When Cousins became general manager of the T.H.C. in 1935, Hedges was officially hired as Architect with their Airports Division, and he prepared designs for both the Toronto Island Airport Terminal, and the Malton Airport Terminal. When WWII broke out in late 1939, Hedges used his expertise in airport design to provide the Royal Canadian Air Force with plans for five new training airports in small towns in southern Ontario. Hedges died at Clinton, Ontario on 18 August 1941 while supervising the construction of the RCAF Airport in that town." 


Hedges' original architectural drawings of the Fort Garry Apartments (561 Jarvis Street) are held in the City of Toronto Archives: https://gencat.eloquent-systems.com/city-of-toronto-archives-m-permalink.html?key=716620



First Owner / Developer - J. Steven: 

The developer of the Fort Garry Apartments (561 Jarvis Street) was J. Steven. Research is ongoing into further information about J. Steven. 


Fires: 

The Fort Garry Apartments (561 Jarvis Street) has experienced at least two notable fires in its history. The first occurred in April 1931 and was isolated to a ground floor apartment. The second fire occurred in August 1972 and was a two-alarm fire caused by suspected arson. 


Upcoming Redevelopment Proposal (August 2022): 

In August 2022, Originate Developments Inc. announced plans for a 58-storey, 690-unit mixed use (primarily condominium) tower at 102-120 Earl Place and 561 Jarvis Street. The pre-application plans indicate that 561 Jarvis Street will be proposed for demolition as part of this project. 




(Research by Adam Wynne)

• Architect - James Gladwin Hedges  <-- More buildings by this architect.