1 Spadina Crescent

1 Spadina Crescent is a University of Toronto building located in an island in the centre of Spadina Avenue, just north of College Street. The building was originally erected in 1875 as the home of Knox College, the main theological college of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. In 1887, Knox affiliated with the University of Toronto and in 1914, moved east to its current home at 59 St. George St. It is an example of Gothic Revival architecture in the city.

During the First World War the building became the Spadina Military Hospital. For a period in 1918 Amelia Earhart worked for a time as a nurses aide at the hospital. It remained a veterans hospital until 1943 when it was purchased by Connaught Laboratories and it became one of Canada's main centres for the development and manufacture of pharmaceuticals.

In 1972 the University of Toronto bought the building. It continues to hold labs and also has the offices the Fine Arts department (University of Toronto Faculty of Arts and Science) and the student paper "The Newspaper".

The building currently is the home of the Ontario division of the Eye Bank of Canada. (http://www.eyebank.utoronto.ca/)

The building was also the site of a U of T professor's murder in 2001 which until today remains unsolved (http://www.unsolved-crimes.com/buller.html).

Until late 2007, the building was impossible to access by foot, without jaywalking. This was resolved by installing stop-lights on the east side of the crescent just south of Russell St.

ee also

*List of oldest buildings and structures in Toronto