1 Comment September 25, 2014 at 11:40 am

culture

125 Years of the Gladstone Hotel

From fine lodging to flophouse to cultural hub—a look at the history of Toronto's oldest continually operating hotel.

By Jamie Bradburn

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332015 Advertisement, the Globe, December 31, 1880. The current Gladstone Hotel is the second building at the northeast corner of Queen and Gladstone bearing that name. The first, constructed in 1879, aroused the wrath of councillors in neighbouring Parkdale (then an independent municipality), who tried to block its liquor license. Originally known as Brady’s Hotel, it became the Gladstone in 1880 after the Robinson family purchased it. Proprietor Susanna Robinson was a widow with 13 children, whose late husband had run hotels in Kleinburg and Yorkville. An 1887 advertisement offered guests the “finest brands of wines, liquors, and cigars,” plus Guinness stout. James Britton might have required several pints after he lost to William McMurrich in the 1881 municipal election. 20140925gladstonead1880 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstonead1880-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstonead1880.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstonead1880.jpg 600 830 [] https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925gladstonead1880/ 20140925gladstonead1880 0 0

332016 Advertisement, the Empire, June 23, 1894. Designed by architect George M. Miller, whose other works included the chapel at Wycliffe College, the second Gladstone Hotel opened in 1889. As Toronto Life observed over a century later, “the hotel aped the style of the time, a graceful, if unremarkable, Richardsonian Romanesque of red brick, arched passageways and gargoyles in stone relief.” A cupola located on its southwest corner was removed in the 1940s. 20140925gladstonead1894 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstonead1894-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstonead1894.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstonead1894.jpg 620 421 [] https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925gladstonead1894/ 20140925gladstonead1894 0 0

332017 Queen Street subway looking east, November 17, 1897. The Gladstone Hotel is in the background on the left. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 376, File 2, Item 8. The hotel’s location across Queen Street West from the Parkdale railway station helped business in the early days, as did its proximity to the <a href="http://torontoist.com/2013/08/lets-go-to-the-ex-for-the-134th-time/">Toronto Industrial Exhibition</a> (the forerunner of the CNE). It provided a comfortable base for fair exhibitors and military performers. “The most striking feature about the hotel,” the Globe observed in 1904, “is the absolute cleanliness and neatness which is to be observed in each and all of its departments, whether in the collars, parlors, or dining rooms.” During the 1905 fair a full floor was occupied by 40 members of the Irish Guards, whose presence was honoured with a commemorative light display on the front of the hotel. 20140925gladstonerailway https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstonerailway-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstonerailway.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstonerailway.jpg 1000 740 [] https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925gladstonerailway/ 20140925gladstonerailway 0 0

332018 Interior of the Gladstone Hotel elevator, October 2, 2012. Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/94thintellect/8064964857/">©94thIntellect</a> from the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/">Torontoist Flickr Pool</a>. During extensive renovations made by owner Turnbull Smith, an electric Otis elevator was installed in August 1905. Covered up for years, it was rediscovered during 21st-century renovations, when a hole was knocked in the wall. Refurbishing took nine months. 20140925gladstoneelevator https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstoneelevator-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstoneelevator.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstoneelevator.jpg 1000 667 [] https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925gladstoneelevator/ 20140925gladstoneelevator 0 0

332019 Hank Young, the “Gladstone Cowboy,” February 24, 2008. Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/williamself/2289432157/">William Self</a> from the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/">Torontoist Flickr Pool</a>. Longtime regular Hank Young (1941-2009) was hired to operate the elevator upon its return to service. Known as the “Gladstone Cowboy,” Young first sang in the hotel as part of a country band in 1961, and eventually became a karaoke fixture known for his rendition of “Hey Good Lookin’.” Christina Zeidler felt his hiring was “a match made in heaven ... He was a great storyteller.” Young was contractually obligated to wear outfits drawn from his collection of cowboy boots, hats, and bolo ties. 20140925hankyoung https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925hankyoung-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925hankyoung.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925hankyoung.jpg 800 522 {"aperture":2.8,"credit":"unknown","camera":"Canon EOS 20D","created_timestamp":1203870550,"focal_length":"24","iso":"1600","shutter_speed":"0.016666666666667"} https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925hankyoung/ 20140925hankyoung 0 0

332020 Source: the Toronto Star, April 28, 1911. Hans Waldheim had very sticky fingers. Reputedly related to Prussian nobility, he was sent to Kingston Penitentiary in 1904 for a string of break-and-enters in Toronto. Incarceration failed to curb his criminal tendencies, as outbreaks of minor burglaries accompanied his travels. Around 1910 he was employed by the Gladstone as a porter and night clerk. After leaving the hotel, he used his knowledge of nightly routines to plan the perfect time to empty the till—the moment the clerk went to attend the main floor fireplace. He almost got away with it in April 1911, but was noticed and fled. Waldheim was on the run for a week, until police caught him trying to break into a home on Indian Road during the early morning of April 28. During his hearing on May 29 he claimed he broke into the Gladstone to pay a fine, fully intending to refund the stolen cash. Magistrate Rupert Kingsford didn’t buy the sob story or his lawyer’s request to deport Waldheim to his native Germany. Kingsford sent Waldheim back to Kingston Pen. 20140925hanswaldheim https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925hanswaldheim-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925hanswaldheim.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925hanswaldheim.jpg 640 830 [] https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925hanswaldheim/ 20140925hanswaldheim 0 0

332021 Queen Street subway east from Dufferin Street, April 22, 1915. The Gladstone Hotel is on the left, the Parkdale train station on the right. City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 1409. Disaster nearly struck when a fire forced 75 guests and boarders to evacuate the hotel on January 17, 1918. The blaze began in a rubbish heap in the basement underneath the kitchen. A nightwatchman called the fire in just before 5 a.m. When firefighters under the guidance of fire chief Duncan McLean arrived, the hotel was filled with smoke. That fatalities were avoided was thanks to swift-thinking 20-year-old Union Station employee Stanley Condy. He was preparing to go to sleep when he heard someone yell “Fire!” He ran to each floor, opening fire windows and guiding groggy guests to escape routes. “With a handkerchief over his mouth to prevent him from swallowing the smoke,” the Star reported, “he worked like a little hero running the elevator up and down till he was overcome by smoke and had to give up his task and seek fresh air.” McLean praised the calm evacuation. “There was absolutely no panic and everyone did the right thing at the right time,” he told the Telegram. 20140925gladstone1915 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstone1915-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstone1915.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstone1915.jpg 1000 686 [] https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925gladstone1915/ 20140925gladstone1915 0 0

332022 Gladstone Hotel, fall 1952. Photo by James Salmon. Toronto Public Library. The Gladstone’s decline was long and slow. By the mid-1980s, most of its permanent residents were cabbies, pensioners, or truckers. “They are not necessarily down-and-out,” a Globe and Mail feature on the city’s hotel residents observed in 1985, “but they clearly march to a different drummer.” Regular patrons drank in the Melody Bar or caught country acts at Bronco’s (the current ballroom space). By the '90s, the Art Bar offered space for performers and weekly drawing classes. Observers wondered how long before the creep of gentrification westward along Queen Street would hit the Gladstone. 20140925gladstone1952 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstone1952-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstone1952.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstone1952.jpg 1000 592 [] https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925gladstone1952/ 20140925gladstone1952 0 0

332023 View from room 415 of the Gladstone Hotel, April 17, 2010. Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobbie-sue/4536647828/">bobbie-sue</a> from the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/">Torontoist Flickr Pool</a>. Room description, 2000, courtesy of Now: “The nightly rooms are on the lowest floor. I put my shoulder to the door that’s stuck on a lump of filthy shag carpet. Big ridges under the rug make walking on it precarious. This $49.25 room has a double bed, bath, TV and a phone to the front desk. It overlooks a roof covered in glass shards and the Price Chopper parking lot. It’s not a bad room, but the dispute between the hotel owners has prevented investment in upgrading. I have to pull the door hard to close it. This brings an all-swearing condemnation of door-slamming from an unseen neighbour.” 20140925windowview https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925windowview-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925windowview.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925windowview.jpg 640 816 [] https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925windowview/ 20140925windowview 0 0

332024 Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/doodlin/2044251751/">John van Bruggen</a>, November 18, 2007, from the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/">Torontoist Flickr Pool</a>. In late 2000, due to a bitter sibling rivalry resulting in death threats, longtime owners Allan and Herb Appleby sold the Gladstone. The new owners were <a href="http://www.tippin.net/front_node">Michael Tippin</a> (who specialized in heritage renovation projects) and the Zeidler family. Plans called for the number of rooms to be downsized during renovations, and new programming catering to an artsier crowd a la New York’s Hotel Chelsea. Relations between the partners quickly soured. The low point may have been Tippin’s decision in February 2002 to send in security to lay off staff and evict the remaining long-term residents. Police mediation resulted after Margie Zeidler arrived to support those getting the boot. After legal battles and a bout with receivership, the Zeidlers were awarded full ownership in late 2002. The residents stayed on for two more years, then were offered assistance (including several days of free rent) in finding new homes elsewhere when the pace of renovations increased. The documentary <a href="http://www.hotdocslibrary.ca/en/detail.cfm?filmId=11105">Last Call at the Gladstone Hotel</a> captured the changes during this period, as management juggled the needs of longtime regulars with a newer, younger, artier clientele. 20140925hotelsign https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925hotelsign-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925hotelsign.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925hotelsign.jpg 1024 768 [] https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925hotelsign/ 20140925hotelsign 0 0

332025 Christina Zeidler (left) and Adam Vaughan at the Yes in My Backyard Festival at the Gladstone Hotel, October 27, 2007. Photo by the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gladstonehotel/1894669584/">Gladstone Hotel</a> from the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/">Torontoist Flickr Pool</a>. Management of the hotel passed on to filmmaker <a href="http://www.visiblecity.ca/index.php/spaces/77-the-gladstone-hotel">Christina Zeidler</a>. The slow pace of renovations picked up, but the hotel’s infrastructure had suffered years of neglect. “We wanted to keep as much of the original building as possible,” Zeidler told the Toronto Star in 2005. “But the place was on its last legs. We had to redo everything—mechanical, electrical, floors and walls. Every time we started one job, we’d find more work that needed to be done.” Thirty-seven artists were hired to make over the guest rooms into individual works of creativity. A December 2005 gala served as the official relaunch. 20140925zeidler https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925zeidler-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925zeidler.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925zeidler.jpg 748 561 [] https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925zeidler/ 20140925zeidler 0 0

332026 Photo by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tom_frog/3536974244/">Will Macaulay</a>, February 2, 2009, from the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/">Torontoist Flickr Pool</a>. A longtime Gladstone tradition that came to an end earlier this year was weekend karaoke at the Melody Bar. Hosted for nearly 15 years by Peter Styles, the weekly event was a chance for patrons of different generations to mingle. “Character types (Parkdale elders, skinny Queen West aesthetes and tables of birthday partiers) who normally wouldn't be within the same three-block radius all manage to cohabit an irony-free zone where everyone fights for the mike and four minutes of fame,” Toronto Life observed in 2003. Among the props Styles used was an applause sign, which he felt helped those onstage. “The best thing to do is encourage energy in the audience for the singer,” he told the Toronto Star in 2012, “and of course they give it back.” A pipe burst during the intense cold of January 2014 and wrecked the room’s audio equipment and soundproofing, which management saw as a sign it might be time to bid karaoke adieu. 20140925gladstone2009 https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstone2009-100x100.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstone2009.jpg https://torontoist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20140925gladstone2009.jpg 1024 680 [] https://torontoist.com/2014/09/125-years-of-the-gladstone-hotel/slide/20140925gladstone2009/ 20140925gladstone2009 0 0

As Toronto’s oldest continually operating hotel, the Gladstone Hotel has seen much in its 125 years. When the doors first opened in 1889, it was a place for travelling businessmen to rest and for local athletic and social clubs to gather. Its proximity to Exhibition Place made it ideal for visitors and exhibitors. Through the late 20th century its reputation diminished, reflecting the economic and social decline of Parkdale to the west. But although it came to be perceived as a flophouse, it offered a sense of community to patrons and residents, giving them a place to relax with a drink and a bit of country music.

Over the last two decades the Gladstone has reawakened, becoming one of the city’s major cultural hubs as the neighbourhood around it has transformed. “Gladstone Hotel now stands as an epicentre of cultural incubation in Toronto’s west end, fostering creativity and community in everything it does,” its website notes. “Renowned for twisting perceptions and giving canvas to underrepresented and marginalized groups, Gladstone Hotel aims to raise the profile of subcultures and subvert the mainstream, creating a unique and open-armed narrative around its historic stature.” Art installations, burlesque, dancing, dining events, music, theatre, trivia nights, and many other forms of entertainment have found a place within its walls.

To celebrate the hotel’s anniversary, Heritage Toronto is unveiling a commemorative plaque at 7 p.m. Thursday. Visitors can also take in THEN|NOW|NEXT, a look at the Gladstone’s past, present, and future.

Step into its past now in our gallery of stories.

Additional material from Parkdale in Pictures by Margaret Laycock and Barbara Myrvold (Toronto: Toronto Public Library, 1991); the August 22, 1904, August 21, 1905, and May 30, 1911 editions of the Globe; the April 11, 1985 and February 20, 2008 editions of the Globe and Mail; the April 28, 1911 edition of the News; the August 24-31, 2000 edition of Now; the April 28, 1911, January 17, 1918, September 30, 2000, February 21, 2002, October 14, 2002, June 23, 2004, November 15, 2005, October 31, 2009, August 31, 2012, and March 20, 2014 editions of the Toronto Star; the January 17, 1918 edition of the Telegram; and the October 2001 and September 2003 editions of Toronto Life.

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125 Years of the Gladstone Hotel

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