A wedge-shaped office block that predates New York's more famous Flatiron by a decade
The Gooderham Building
Built in 1892 for distiller George Gooderham to fit a triangular downtown lot, the Gooderham Building is commonly called Toronto's Flatiron — and it opened years before New York's better-known building of the same shape.
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The Gooderham Building opened in 1892 at the wedge-shaped intersection of Wellington, Front and Church Streets, built as an office headquarters for George Gooderham, head of the Gooderham and Worts distilling company. Architect David Roberts Jr. designed the five-storey red sandstone and brick building to fit the awkward triangular lot exactly, giving it the narrow, pointed prow shape that has made it Toronto's best-known example of the architectural type nicknamed a "flatiron."
Older than its more famous namesake
Toronto's Gooderham Building predates the far more famous Flatiron Building in New York City, completed in 1902, by a full decade, a fact Toronto boosters have long enjoyed pointing out even though the New York building is the one that gave the architectural style its popular name. The Gooderham Building remains a well-preserved and heavily photographed downtown landmark, its narrow point marking the eastern edge of the city's old financial and warehouse district near the St. Lawrence Market.
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