Inside Toronto is a unique new book of interior urban photographs. Preservation architect Martha Werenfels, AIA, recently discussed the book with author Sally Gibson.


Martha Werenfels: Inside Toronto seems like a truly unique book in that it documents the interiors rather than the exteriors of many different types of historic buildings. Is this the first book to provide extensive documentation of historic interior spaces in a major urban area?

Sally Gibson: Yes, somewhat to my own surprise, Inside Toronto is the first book published anywhere to focus on the complex inner life of a single city—the ordinary and extraordinary places where people of all types lived, worked, shopped, and performed the rituals of daily life. It really does provide a new perspective on architecture and urban living.

As I did more research, I became less surprised! Although we spend most of our lives inside buildings, interior photographs are quite rare and often difficult to find. Perhaps only 5 percent to 10 percent of photographs taken during the period under investigation were interior shots. So documenting the private, as well as the public, face of a city became quite a challenge.

Photo courtesy of the Sally Gibson Ceiling of Toronto Union Station, as shown in an April 4, 1919, photograph

The city is, of course, Toronto, which is now Canada’s largest urban center. During the period under investigation—the Victorian, Edwardian, and Early Modern eras—Toronto experienced a huge burst of growth and change, as did many other cities. At the time, Toronto was a very British North American city, reflecting architectural and cultural trends from across the Atlantic (e.g., William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement) and south of the border (e.g., Daniel Burnham and the City Beautiful movement). As a result, the book should be of interest to an international audience of architects, urban designers, interior decorators, and heritage specialists.

Werenfels: The book contains 260 vintage photographs of some of Toronto's most interesting interiors, as well as extensive documentation of the buildings and their sociological contexts. How were you able to gather such an extraordinary collection of images and information?

Gibson: Toronto is lucky, but not unique, in having a rich visual heritage. I combed through thousands of period photographs at the City of Toronto Archives, the Archives of Ontario, and a variety of smaller, specialized collections, such as a police museum, private clubs, and historic houses. Among my favorites are an 1897 photograph of a hotel bar that appeared in a catalogue for a tin ceiling manufacturer and a 1915 photograph of firemen in one of Toronto’s oldest surviving fire halls—with a fireman coming down the brass pole.

In order to understand the photographs, and provide the necessary context, I also combed through a huge range of other records, such as architectural drawings, advertisements, newspaper articles, diaries, city directories, tax rolls, government reports, and so on. Naturally, I also consulted a wide range of secondary literature—books by architectural historians, labor historians, and so on.

Photo courtesy of Sally Gibson Workers on a Toronto factory floor in 1909

Werenfels: The images in Inside Toronto range from an 1893 photo of the legislative chamber in the Ontario Parliament Building to the inside of a men's shelter photographed in 1913. While much of the architectural history that we are typically exposed to documents high-style buildings, your book depicts a fascinating cross-section of life in Toronto from the 1880s to 1920s. How were you able to document so many types of spaces?

Gibson: Right from the beginning, I was determined to investigate not only the movers and shakers, but also the moved and shaken. I still vividly recall my first encounter with the haunting image of that Edwardian “flophouse” that contrasted so poignantly with more familiar images of Edwardian mansions. Ironically, hunting down photographs of middle-class life turned out to be more difficult than finding images of either the very rich or the very poor.

Werenfels: How do you think Inside Toronto might help practicing preservation architects?

Gibson: I certainly hope that preservation architects and others in the heritage field will find Inside Toronto a valuable resource. I think there are three main ways that it can help. First, it uses photographs as primary sources of information, illustrating the wide range of questions that architects might ask and find answered. Second, it makes available specific examples of rarely documented interiors. The grocery stores or middle-class parlours or grand banking halls of Victorian and Edwardian Toronto share characteristics with their counterparts in other great cities. Third, it identifies, by example, useful research strategies: where you might find interior photographs, what types of photographs might be available, what kinds of complementary materials might prove useful, and what questions to ask.

After obtaining an bachelor's degree from Vassar and a master's degree in urban studies from Yale University, Sally Gibson moved to Toronto. Her first book, More Than an Island: A History of the Toronto Island, grew out of her PhD dissertation and was described by Jane Jacobs as “city history at its very best.” She is currently a heritage consultant at Toronto’s unique Distillery Heritage District and continues to investigate urban interiors.

Martha Werenfels, AIA, is a principal at Durkee, Brown, Viveiros & Werenfels Architects, a 30-person firm in Providence. For the past 20 years, Werenfels's architecture career has focused on the preservation of landmark structures, industrial mill complexes, and historic residential neighborhoods.