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The Don Gaol was designed by the Suffolk-born architect Willliam Thomas in 1857 and constructed from Toronto brick and stone quarried in Niagara and Ohio between 1859 and 1864. It was later called the Don "Jail" as Canadian English spelling conventions shifted in the early to mid-20th century. Toronto's City Council gave Thomas the commission on the condition that he model the building after Pentonville Prison in London, England. The City built the jail on land they purchased from the former Scadding Estate, the original location of Exhibition Place's Scadding Cabin.
Although it would later become known for the brutalization of inmates, the newly constructed Don Gaol embodied great progress in terms of the way local society viewed the humanity of prisoners. The living environments of Toronto's pre-existing jails, including the 1798 and 1824 King Street Gaols near King and Yonge Streets and the Toronto Central Prison in present-day Liberty Village, were customarily barbaric by comparison. In December 1962, the Don Gaol was the site of Canada's final executions, which were administered by hanging. The site is Toronto's only completely surviving jail building.
After ceasing operations as a jail in 1977, and following a tenure as a storage facility and intermittent film location, in 2012 the Don Gaol building was restored by Bridgepoint Health and converted into an administration centre.
(Research and text by Alessandro Tersigni.)
