E.J. Lennox carved his own name into the building after the city refused to
Old City Hall
E.J. Lennox's 1899 Romanesque city hall served Toronto for over sixty years before Nathan Phillips Square opened — and Lennox, denied formal credit, carved his name into the stone himself.
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Old City Hall, at Queen and Bay Streets, opened in 1899 after a decade of construction, designed by architect E.J. Lennox in the Romanesque Revival style with a soaring clock tower that made it one of the largest municipal buildings in North America at the time. It served as Toronto's seat of government for over sixty years, until Nathan Phillips Square and the new City Hall opened nearby in 1965, after which the older building was repurposed as a courthouse, a role it still serves today under the Ontario Court of Justice.
An architect's lasting grudge
Lennox's relationship with the city that commissioned the building turned sour over cost overruns and disputes about credit; city council reportedly refused to let his name appear on the building. Lennox is said to have had his own name, along with the faces of council members he disliked, carved discreetly into the building's stonework by sympathetic stonemasons — a bit of architectural revenge visitors can still spot in the building's gargoyles and decorative details today.
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