The Empress Hotel was a three storey red-brick building at the corner of Yonge and Gould streets, in downtown Toronto, that was destroyed by fire on January 3, 2011. The hotel was opened in 1888. The hotel changed hands several times. The property ceased operating as a hotel in the mid-1970s.
Hotel period
335 Yonge Street housed hotels from 1888, under different owners, to sometime in the 1970s. In the 1960s, it was known as the Edison Hotel and was a major live music venue in Yonge Street's booming Rock n' Roll culture.
Designation as a heritage property in 2010
Part of the building's facade collapsed in April, 2010.
After the building stopped functioning as a hotel portions were leased by a number of businesses. In 2010, after the property was bought by the Lalani Group, the owners started to demolish the building, only to be stopped when the Toronto city council designated it a protected heritage property on July 16, 2010.
Arson
The building was severely damaged by fire on January 4, 2011.
After the building's destruction Heritage Toronto quoted from the intent to designate application describing the building as a "local landmark", and a "well-crafted example of a late 19th century commercial building that blends elements of the popular Second Empire and Romanesque Revival styles of the era."
A security camera captured an individual whose face was obscured by a hood in the vicinity of the building around the time the fire was set.
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