With the appointment of Sheila Larmer as project director, the Ontario government has signaled its interest in moving ahead on interpretation of the site of the province’s first parliament buildings. The two plain brick structures, erected in 1797 at the southeast corner of Front and Berkeley streets, Toronto, were burned by U.S. invaders in 1813, rebuilt and enlarged after the war, destroyed again by fire in 1824, and finally demolished in 1830.
After the Parliament Buildings were taken down the Home District Jail was built on the land. In 1888 it was replaced by a retort house for the Consumers’ Gas Company, which gave way in the 1960s to automotive-related uses. Today the Ontario Heritage Trust owns part of the site, which is occupied by an automotive dealership and a car wash.
Sheila Larmer comes to her new job with impressive experience. After training at Waterloo and Carleton universities in architecture and art history, she arrived at Queen’s Park in 1978 to work as a heritage conservation officer for the Ministry of Culture & Recreation. Later she headed the ministry’s Libraries Planning and Operations unit. Since 2001 she has been Director of Policy and Research at the Ministry of Tourism. In her new responsibilities she is based at the Ontario Heritage Trust, 10 Adelaide St. E. (tel. 416-314-6885).
It is hoped that initiatives to conserve and interpret this important site, sometimes described with Fort York as early Toronto’s bookends, will coincide with province-wide celebrations marking the Bicentennial of the War of 1812.
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