The Clarion Hotel & Suites Selby mansion at 592 Sherbourne Street is where celebrated writer Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Hadley, lived in the 1920s while Hemingway worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star.
Tower and townhouses: A condominium complex featuring a 52-storey tower with a 4-level podium and 5 townhouses has been proposed for the site of an historic 130-year-old Victorian mansion on Sherbourne Street near Bloor Street.
Designed by architect David Roberts and constructed in 1882 for the founder of Toronto’s Gooderham and Worts Distillery, the mansion is perhaps best known as the residential hotel where Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway lived in the 1920s while working as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star.
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This was my hangout in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Many fond memories. Bad enough that it became a gay bar later but now a 52 storey building. Toronto continues to destroy itself.
“Bad enough that it became a gaybar” The bigoted remard aside, the fact that it became a gaybar probably saved it from an earlier destruction.
No kidding.
Whats wrong with gay bars? Were you upset that it did not become the HQ of the Bigot Association of Canada?
Toronto was well on the road to destroying itself with provincial attitudes like those expressed above before gay gentrification saved many a downtown neighbourhood, including this area & this building. I too have many fond memories- of dancing the night away at Boots!
My Grandfather was the manager of the Selby for over 30 years. He would be so upset by this news of erecting a condo on this property. I loved going there as a kid and getting a free lunch in the lounge. What’s next, tear down Union Station and Royal York to make room for more glass structures?
When does it stop?
I noticed info on this project along with cool renderings at https://condonow.com/The-Selby-Condos
Looks really modernistic while they maintain the historic Clarion Hotel
Oh Goody – Just what Toronto needs right now! – We can never ever have enough Chinese laundry towers in this world class city.
True, but I think Toronto more than perhaps any other city in North America loves diversity. Half of Toronto’s population is foreign-born, compared with about 35 percent for New York, 40 percent for Los Angeles and 60% for Miami. Miami, however, attracts largely Hispanic immigrants.More to the point, no other city is as obsessed with diversity. It’s even our motto: Diversity Our Strength.
Stayed here for a weekend in 1989. From Chicago. Had the best time with couple of guys from one of the neighborhood bars. Always wanted to return. Never made it. Love those Toronto men!!!!!!
Stayed here for a week in 1993 for a friends wedding. Old building and even older plumbing! Even went to the nightclub. Happy memories as my partner at the time passed away recently.
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