Toronto Lithographing Co Photography Dept 1898

 

Photography Department, 1898
Toronto Lithogaphing Co.

Toronto. We sometimes forget that our city once was the engine of industrial Canada. In 1898, the massive Toronto Lithographing Company, founded two decades earlier, commissioned  photographer A A Gray to record the interior facilities at the north-west corner of King and Bathurst.

Here you see the huge camera housed in the Photography Department. The photo is held as Fonds 1137, item 0002 by the Toronto Archives. The brief history and all 14 interior shots are noted by Toronto’s OCAD University downtown (the school of the colourful stilts you see on TV’s Kim’s Convenience program).

Thanks to PHSC member George Dunbar for sourcing a photo taken in this once famous business. Like most businesses of yesteryear, the Toronto Lithographing Company is now lost in History.

The web site Archeion (Archives Association of Ontario) provides this brief history of the company, “The Toronto Lithographing Co. opened under the proprietorship of Gorrell, Craig & Co. at 33 Wellington Street East, Toronto in 1878 offering lithographing, engraving, and electrotyping services.

“A.H. Gorrel & Co. became the proprietors 1879-1880, and Daniel T. Corrie and Charles F. Bennett were the proprietors 1881-1883. From 1883 William Stone was the proprietor; with John Douglas Wright 1883-1885, and Frederick William Heath and William Crowley Jephcott from 1886.

“In 1884 the company moved from Wellington Street to 60 York Street where it remained for one year before moving to 26-28 King Street East. In 1891 the firm moved to 13 Jordon Street, and on January 6, 1895 the facility was destroyed by fire. The following year the Toronto Lithographing Co. re-located in a new building at 459-467 King Street West at Bathurst Street.

“In 1909 the Toronto Lithographing Co. became Stone Ltd., with William Stone as president, and Frank Stone as vice-president and managing director. In 1917 the company merged with Rolph & Clark Ltd. to form Rolph-Clark-Stone Ltd., with Frank Rolph honourary president, William Stone president, Thomas J. Clark vice-president, Frank A. Rolph 2nd vice-president and managing director and treasurer, and Frank W. Stone general manager and secretary.”

 

This entry was posted in camera and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.