{"id":67384,"date":"2023-06-30T08:15:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T12:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=67384"},"modified":"2023-06-30T08:19:45","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T12:19:45","slug":"lost-heritage-on-queen-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost heritage on Queen West"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/toronto\/queen-west-building-torn-down-developer-1.6885688\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent CBC News report<\/a>, the gable-roofed wooden commercial storefront at 520 Queen Street West was about 170 years old when its new owner began demolishing it piecemeal last year. By May, 2023, despite its having received an official historic designation, there was nothing left of it.<\/p>\n<p>The photo of the building posted here was part of a series I completed in 2008, documenting selected commercial facades along Queen West, many of which have hardly changed since I first saw them during the 1970s.<\/p>\n<p>I recall that while I was getting ready to take this view, I was approached by a passer-by who claimed to have knowledge of the building. By his account, its upper floor had recently been used as a crack house. The condition of the second floor windows did in fact suggest that something sinister might have gone on up there.<\/p>\n<p>Later views of the building, taken when the ground floor was occupied by a tattoo parlour, show that the facade had been repainted and the upper windows uncovered. Thus, at the end of its life, this modest structure had regained something of the dignity it must have had when new.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span class=\"s1\">Photo<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a9 P. MacCallum, 2008 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.petermaccallum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">petermaccallum.com<\/a>)<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to a recent CBC News report, the gable-roofed wooden commercial storefront at 520 Queen Street West was about 170 years old when its new owner began demolishing it piecemeal last year. By May, 2023, despite its having received an official historic designation, there was nothing left of it. The photo of the building posted<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Lost heritage on Queen West&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8367,"featured_media":67385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,56,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-architecture","category-headlines","category-history"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lost heritage on Queen West - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lost heritage on Queen West - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to a recent CBC News report, the gable-roofed wooden commercial storefront at 520 Queen Street West was about 170 years old when its new owner began demolishing it piecemeal last year. By May, 2023, despite its having received an official historic designation, there was nothing left of it. The photo of the building postedContinue reading &quot;Lost heritage on Queen West&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-30T12:15:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-30T12:19:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/MacCallum-15.QW-10-6B-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1647\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter MacCallum\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter MacCallum\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/\",\"name\":\"Lost heritage on Queen West - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/MacCallum-15.QW-10-6B-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-30T12:15:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-30T12:19:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/1ceca72aff9106b139f24f140a895ccb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/MacCallum-15.QW-10-6B-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/MacCallum-15.QW-10-6B-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1647,\"caption\":\"Image of 520 Queen West from 2008\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lost heritage on Queen West\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/1ceca72aff9106b139f24f140a895ccb\",\"name\":\"Peter MacCallum\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/130df2b2583a0592433615f56a863970?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/130df2b2583a0592433615f56a863970?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter MacCallum\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/petermaccallum\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lost heritage on Queen West - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lost heritage on Queen West - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"According to a recent CBC News report, the gable-roofed wooden commercial storefront at 520 Queen Street West was about 170 years old when its new owner began demolishing it piecemeal last year. By May, 2023, despite its having received an official historic designation, there was nothing left of it. The photo of the building postedContinue reading \"Lost heritage on Queen West\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2023-06-30T12:15:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-06-30T12:19:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1647,"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/MacCallum-15.QW-10-6B-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Peter MacCallum","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter MacCallum","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/","name":"Lost heritage on Queen West - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/MacCallum-15.QW-10-6B-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2023-06-30T12:15:18+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-30T12:19:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/1ceca72aff9106b139f24f140a895ccb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/MacCallum-15.QW-10-6B-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/MacCallum-15.QW-10-6B-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1647,"caption":"Image of 520 Queen West from 2008"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2023\/06\/30\/lost-heritage-on-queen-west\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lost heritage on Queen West"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered  |  Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/1ceca72aff9106b139f24f140a895ccb","name":"Peter MacCallum","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/130df2b2583a0592433615f56a863970?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/130df2b2583a0592433615f56a863970?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Peter MacCallum"},"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/petermaccallum\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67384"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67389,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67384\/revisions\/67389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}