It was home to the Toronto Athletic Club - an all male bastion- and had Toronto's first indoor swimming pool.
The Stewart Building, reflected in the windows of the Ontario Power Generation office building.
According to the information found on the web, the Toronto Athletic Club used this building until 1931; but there seems to be a conflict here.
Below is a picture from the Toronto Archives that shows it being used as a barracks during the First World War.
As well, there are pictures (again courtesy of the Toronto Archives) to show that the swimming pool in the basement was being used for Chemistry classes when the building was known as the Old Technical School; again circa 1908.
Thus far, I have not been able to find any written information about this school.Most of the documents pertaining to 149 College are labelled "unavailable" in the Archives.
So it would seem that the men's club/spa vacated the building in just over ten years.
I am curious to know why & where did they go?
In 1931 the building became home to the Toronto Police Department, who used it as their headquarters until 1957, when they moved to Jarvis Street.
It was at this time that 52 Division moved in, and I have it on good authority that they used the empty pool to store stolen bicycles.
Also around this time a detainee reportedly committed suicide by jumping out a window. His ghost has managed to frighten a few OCAD students over the years.
The building was officially opened as the second campus for the Ontario College of Art & Design, by Lieutenant-Governor Pauline McGibbon in 1979.
For many years the old swimming pool was used as a world famous holography studio.
It is now home to the Rotman School of Management, part of the University of Toronto.
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