Chapter LXVII: The Toronto Mechanics' Institute

The following account of the rise and progress of this institution, has been obligingly furnished me by one of its earliest and best friends, Mr. William Edwards, to whom, undoubtedly, more than to any other man, it has been indebted for its past success and usefulness:

The Toronto Mechanics' Institute was established in January,
1831, at a meeting of influential citizens called together by
James Lesslie, Esq., now of Eglinton. Its first quarterly
meeting of members was held in Mr. Thompson's school-room; the
report being read by Mr. Bates, and the number of enrolled
members being fifty-six. Dr. W. W. Baldwin (father of the Hon.
Robert Baldwin), Dr. Dunlop, Capt. Fitzgibbon, John Ewart, Wm.
Lawson, Dr. Rolph, James Cockshutt, James and James G. Worts,
John Harper, E. R. Denham, W. Musson, J. M. Murchison, W. B.
Jarvis, T. Carfrae, T. F. (the late Rev. Dr.) Caldicott, James
Cull, Dr. Dunscombe, C. C. Small, J. H. Price, Timothy Parsons,
A. Thomson, and others, were active workers in promoting the
organization and progress of the Institute.

Where the institute was at first located, the writer has not
been able to ascertain; but meetings were held in the "Masonic
Lodge" rooms in Market (now Colborne) Street, a wooden building,
on the ground floor of which was the common school taught by
Thomas Appleton. A library and museum were formed, lectures
delivered, and evening classes of instruction carried on for the
improvement of its members.

During the year 1835, a grant of L200 was made by the
legislature, for the purchase of apparatus. The amount was
entrusted to Dr. Birkbeck, of London, and the purchases were
made by him or by those to whom he committed the trust. The
apparatus was of an expensive character, and very incomplete,
and was never of much value to the Institute.

The outbreak of the rebellion of Upper Canada in December, 1837,
and the excitement incident thereto, checked the progress of the
Institute for awhile; but in 1838, the directors reported they
had secured from the city corporation a suite of rooms for the
accommodation of the Institute, in the south-east corner of the
Market Buildings--the site of the present St. Lawrence Market.

In the year 1844, the Institute surrendered the rooms in the
Market Buildings, and occupied others above the store No. 12
Wellington Buildings, just east of the Wesleyan Book-room; and,
through the kindness of the late sheriff, W. B. Jarvis, had the
use of the county court-room for its winter lectures. During
this year the city corporation contracted to erect a two-story
fire-hall on the site of the present fire-hall and police-court
buildings. On the memorial of the Institute, the council
extended its ground plan, so as to give all necessary
accommodation to the fire department in the lower story, and the
Institute continued the building of the second story for its
accommodation, and paid to the contractors the difference
between the cost of the extended building and the building first
contracted for, which amounted to L465 5s. 6d.--this sum being
raised by voluntary subscriptions of from 1s. to L1 each.

The foundation stone of the building was laid on the 27th of
August, 1845, and the opening of the rooms took place (John
Ewart, Esq., in the chair), on the 12th of February, 1846; when
the annual meeting of the Institute was held, and the Hon. R. B.
Sullivan delivered an eloquent address, congratulatory to the
Institute on its possession of a building so convenient for its
purposes.

The statute for the incorporation of the Institute was assented
to on the 28th July, 1847, and a legislative grant of money was
made to the Institute during the same year.

In 1848, the Institute inaugurated the first of a series, of
exhibitions of works of art and mechanism, ladies' work,
antiquities, curiosities, &c. This was kept open for two weeks,
and was a means of instruction and amusement to the public, and
of profit to the Institute funds. Similar exhibitions were
repeated in 1849, 1850, 1851, 1861, and 1866; and in 1868 an
exclusively fine arts exhibition was held, of upwards of 700
paintings and drawings--many of them being copies of the old
masters. In obtaining specimens for, and in the management of
nearly all these exhibitions, as well as in several other
departments of the Institute's operations, Mr. J. E. Pell was
always an indefatigable worker.

In 1851, the members of the Institute began to realize the fact
that their hall accommodation was too limited; and in September,
1853, the site at the corner of Church and Adelaide Streets was
purchased by public auction, for L1,632 5s. 0d., and plans for a
new building were at once prepared, and committees were
appointed to canvas for subscriptions. The appeal to the
citizens was nobly responded to, and before the close of the
year the sum of L1,200 was contributed. The president of the
Institute, the late F. W. Cumberland, Esq., generously
presented the plans and specifications and superintendence,
free of charge. A contract for the erection of the new building
was entered into in November, and the chief corner stone was
laid with Masonic honours on the 17th of April, 1854.

During the year 1855, the Provincial Government leased the
unfinished building for four years, for departmental purposes,
the Government paying at the time $5,283.20 to enable the
Institute to discharge its then liabilities thereon. At the
expiration of the lease, the Government paid to the Institute
the sum of $16,000, to cover the expense of making the necessary
changes in the building, and to finish it as nearly as possible
in accordance with the original plans. The building had a
frontage of eighty feet on Church Street, and of 104 feet on
Adelaide Street, and its cost to the Institute when finished was
$48,380.78. The amount received by subscription was $8,190.49;
sale of old hall, $2,000; sale of old building on the new site,
$14.50; from Government, to meet building fund liabilities,
$5,283.20; by loans from the U. C. College funds, $18,400; and
from the Government for completion of the building, $16,000;
leaving a balance to be expended for general purposes of
$1,507.41. This commodious building was finished and occupied
during the year 1861. A soiree was held as a suitable
entertainment for the inauguration; and this was followed by a
bazaar--the two resulting in a profit of about $400 to the funds
of the Institute.

During the year 1862, the very successful annual series of
literary and musical entertainments was instituted. From the
first organization of the Institute, evening class instruction,
in the rudimentary and more advanced studies, had been a special
feature of its operations; but the session of 1861-2 inaugurated
a more complete system than had before been carried out. These
classes were continued annually with marked success until the
winter of 1879-80; when the Institute gave up this portion of
its work in consequence of the Public School Board establishing
evening classes in three of its best city schoolhouses.

In 1868, the Institute purchased a vacant lot on the east of its
building, on Adelaide Street, with the intention of erecting
thereon a larger music hall than it possessed. The contemplated
improvement was not carried out by the Institute; but the Free
Library Board has now made the extension very much as at first
intended, but for library purposes only.

In the year 1871, the Ontario Government purchased the property
from the Institute for the sum of $36,500, for the purposes of a
School of Technology, then being established. The sale left in
the Institute treasury upwards of $11,000, after paying off all
its liabilities; and owing to the liberality of the Government
in allowing the Institute to occupy the library, reading-room,
and boardroom free of rent during its tenancy, it was placed in
a very favourable position, and considerably improved its
finances. In 1876, the Government resolved to erect a more
suitable building for the School of Technology (then named
"School of Science"), in the University Park, and re-sold the
property it had purchased to the Institute for $28,000. Many
alterations were made in the building when the Institute got
possession. A ladies' reading-room was established, the music
hall was made a recreation-room, with eleven billiard tables,
chess-boards, &c., for the use of the members. This latter
feature was a success, both financially and otherwise.

In the year 1882, the "Free Libraries Act" was passed, which
provided that if adopted in any municipality, the Mechanics'
Institute situated therein may transfer to such municipality all
its property for the purposes of the Act. The ratepayers of
Toronto having, by a large majority, decided to establish a Free
Library, the members of the Institute in special general meeting
held on 29th March, 1883, by an almost unanimous vote, resolved
to make over all its property, with its assets and liabilities,
to the City Corporation of Toronto for such library purposes;
and both the parties having agreed thereto, the transfer deed
giving legal effect to the same, was executed on the 30th day of
June, in the said year 1883.

With the adoption of the Free Library system in this city, the
usefulness of the Institute as an educator would have passed
away. It was better for it to go honourably out of existence,
than to die a lingering death, of debt and starvation. During
its fifty-three years of existence it had done a good work.
Thousands of the young men of this city, by its refining and
educating influences, had their thoughts and resolves turned
into channels of industry and usefulness, that might otherwise
have run in directions far less beneficial to themselves and to
society. Its courses off winter lectures in philosophy,
mechanics, and historical and literary subjects, inaugurated
with its earliest life and provided year by year in the face of
great difficulties until the year 1875, led many of its members
to study the useful books in the library, to join with their
fellows in the class-rooms, and in after years to take
responsible positions in the professions and in the workshops,
that only for the Institute they would not have attained to.

Until the Canadian Institute--which was nursed into existence in
the Mechanics' Institute, through the energy and activity of
Sandford A. Fleming, Esq., one of its members--the Institute had
the lecture field in Toronto to itself. Next came the Young
Men's Christian Association, with its lectures, and free
reading-room and library. In the face of all these noble and
better sustained associations, it would have been but folly to
have endeavoured to keep the Mechanics' Institute in existence.

This notice of the Institute in some of the leading events in
its history, is necessarily brief; but it would be unjust to
close without noticing some of those who have for extended
periods been its active workers. They have been so many, that I
fear to name any when I cannot name them all. I give, however,
the names of those who served the Institute in the various
positions of president, vice-presidents, treasurer, secretaries,
librarians and directors, for periods of from eight to thirty
years in all, as follows:--

W. Edwards (30 years consecutively), W. Atkinson (17), J. E.
Pell (15), Hiram Piper, R. Edwards, Thos. Davison (each 13),
John Harrington, M. Sweetnam (each 12), Francis Thomas, W. H.
Sheppard, Charles Sewell (each 11), F. W. Cumberland, R. H.
Ramsay, J. J. Withrow, John Taylor, Lewis Samuel, Walter S. Lee
(each 10), Daniel Spry, Prof. Croft, Patrick Freeland, Rice
Lewis (each 9), James Lesslie, H. E. Clarke, Dr. Trotter (each 8
years).

Except for the years 1833, 5, 8, 9 and 1840, of which no records
have been found, the successive presidents of the Institute have
been as follows: John Ewart, (1831, 1844), Dr. Baldwin (1832, 4,
7), Dr. Rolph (1836), R. S. Jameson (1841), Rev. W. T. Leach
(1842), W. B. Jarvis (1843), T. G. Ridout, (1845, 6, 8), R. B.
Sullivan (1847), Professor Croft (1849, 1850), F. W. Cumberland
(1851, 2, 1865, 6), T. J. Robertson, (1853), Patrick Freeland
(1854, 9), Hon. G. W. Allan (1855, 1868, 9), E. F. Whittemore
(1856), J. E. Pell (1857), John Harrington (1858), J. D. Ridout
(1860), Rice Lewis (1861, 2), W. Edwards (1863), F. W. Coate
(1864), J. J. Withrow (1867), James McLennan (part of 1870),
John Turner (part of 1870), M. Sweetnam (1871, 2, 3, 4), Thos.
Davison (1875, 6, 8), Lewis Samuel (1877), Donald C. Ridout
(1879), W. S. Lee (1880, 1), James Mason (1882, 3).

The recording secretaries have been in the following order and
number of years' service: Jos. Bates (1831), T. Parson (1832, 3,
4, 5, 6), C. Sewell (1837, 8 and 1841), J. F. Westland (1840
and 1842), W. Edwards (1843, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1850, 1859,
1860), R. Edwards (1851, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), G. Longman (1861,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6), John Moss (1867), Richard Lewis (1868), Samuel
Brodie (1869, 1870, 1), John Davy (1872, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
1880, 1, 2, 3).

The corresponding secretaries have been A. T. McCord (1836), C.
Sewell (1842, 3, 4, 5), J. F. Westland (1841), W. Steward
(1846), Alex. Christie (1847, 8, 9, 1850, 3), Patrick Freeland
(1851, 2), M. Sweetnam (1854, 5), J. J. Woodhouse (1856), John
Elliott (1857), J. H. Mason (1858, 9, 1860). From this date the
office was not continued.

The treasurers have been, James Lesslie (1831, 4, 5, 6), H. M.
Mosley (1832), T. Carfrae (1833), W. Atkinson (1840, 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6), John Harrington (1847, 8, 9, 1850, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6),
John Paterson (1857, 8, 9, 1860, 1, 2), John Cowan (1863), W.
Edwards (1864, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1870), John Hallam (1871), Thos.
Maclear (1872, 3, 4, 5), W. B. Hartill (1876), R. H. Ramsay
(1877, 1881, 2, 3), G. B. Morris (1878, 9), John Taylor (1880).