Abandoned since the 1960's | The Story of Toronto's Ghost Tower - Documentary (Short Film)
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Published 2021-03-09
The Whitney Block Tower is located in downtown Toronto, Canada. This is a secret abandoned building that not too many people know about. The tower has been empty since the 1960’s. The building was named in honour of former Premier James P. Whitney. It was designed by architect Francis Heakes who died in September 1930 before the building was completed. The Whitney Block Tower was built in 1932 it has 16 storeys and contains one of the few operational hand cranked elevators remaining in Toronto. Only a handful of people have seen inside this building after it was abandoned so finding interior photos was extremely hard. Thanks to The City of Toronto Archives I found only a few. At the top there are 4 female guardian eight foot tall sculptures made by Charles Adamson representing Justice, Tolerance, Widsom and Power. At the mid height there are eight male figures representing occupations: a labourer and a miner on the north, a judge and a professor on the east, , a farmer and a lumberjack on the west, and a businessman and a doctor, plus a small boy looking up at the doctor, on the south. There was once a bowling alley in the basement and stories of an underground tunnel leading to the Ontario Parliament building across the street. The provincial veterinary services was located on the sixth floor. There are animal pens left over from when provincial veterinary services were housed there. They brought up cows to the lab in an service elevator. There are also reports of the tunnel and tower being haunted. There is no ventilation system in the tower so the only way to get fresh air into the building is by opening the windows. In the summer months the building would get extremely hot and its rumoured they even brought huge amounts of ice to the top of the building in an effort to cool down the interior of the building using the downwards airflow. The lower level of the building is used by government workers but the tower is completely empty. The tower only has 1 set of stairs and a hand cranked elevator. The building does not meet the current fire and safety codes so it has been unused since the 1960’s. There were talks to install a new set of emergency stairs and an elevator on the outside of the building but the plans failed. The tower is still being maintained and they have repaired and upgraded the exterior over the years but the interior is dusty, dark and empty.
Produced and edited by: Abandoned Urbex Canada
Drone footage: Abandoned Urbex Canada
Voiceover: Jeff Laurence
www.jefflaurence.com/studio.html
Jeff Laurence YouTube
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Pictures:
- Abandoned Urbex Canada
- City of Toronto Archives
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All Comments (21)
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Want to see abandoned places I explore? youtube.com/playlist?list=PL55wWBj2eUHWY8uO2uVh0pT…
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Beautiful, we've lost so many old buildings in Toronto Awesome to see they are saving thus one. Least for now.
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I can't tell you how many times I have seen this but never aware of its history. Good choice, Brent. Very well done.
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I worked in the 6th floor of the Whitney Block in the 70s and one time the security guard took me up the hand cranked elevator and out to one of the balconies. He said the tower was mostly used for storage.
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What a beautiful, stately building. Too bad it couldn't be retro-fitted to today's standards and turned into a hotel or conference center or something.
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I must have passed this building in my travels around Toronto hundreds and hundreds of times, both in day and night. I had no idea this building is abandoned!
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That would be a truly epic explore, if it's even possible.
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Sweet biscuits. What a breath taking piece of art this building is. It is weirdly sandwiched...like it's been prevented from trying to escape back to Gotham City. Canada is amazing and full of surprises. I am learning so much about it via your channel Brent.
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Very nice drone work. That is a shockingly beautiful building. I’d love for you to get in there and document it!
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Turn it into nightly light show. That building would look amazing lit up at night like they do to heritage buildings in Montreal
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Nice video. Besides the tower, the rest of the original Whitney is still in full use, maintained and protected. The tunnel from the Whitney to the Legislature exists and is still in regular use. And those two red-tailed hawks live happily in one of the Legislature's windows.
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Hi Brent. Sure is beautiful. I'm glad to hear it is being taken care of instead of being left to rot and decay. Thank you Brent. Stay safe.
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Eyes wide open! Watching and Loving every minute! Thank you for sharing this VERY informative Great mini doc! Beautifully done, filming and editing excellent🔥🔥🔥
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Nice video. The top floor was actually used by the Ontario Department of Mines in the 1970s to store rocks and minerals. This is where they made the small rock and mineral kits the Ministry would distribute for free at public mining classes. I was up there in the early 1980s and there were rocks, minerals and those small kits all over the place. All this had to be moved out in the 1980s to make room for renovations. I remember a fellow, at that time, who drove the elevator. He would take you up the tower and then return with the elevator to pick you up at a designated time.
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This video is so high quality. This is better than most television shows, commercials, even movies. Stunning!!!
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With real estate prices where they are today in TO I’m very surprised someone hasn’t done something with it. Gorgeous building and fantastic presentation.
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I'll also add that in the mid-80's College Park housed some completely abandoned gems that now, thank God, have been restored. The condo developer was a client and one afternoon she took me through the dusty shambles that had been the dining room and the recital hall and there was this immaculate grand piano on the stage surrounded by footprints in the dust. My client mentioned that the Eaton's family let Glenn Gould come in here on his own, usually late at night to practice. Otherwise it was a shambles, with the beautiful stone flooring having been lifted and re-purposed and heaps of broken crockery and rotting waitresses uniforms in the corners. This at a time when Montreal's Eaton's still had that Art Deco marvel of restaurant inspired by the first class dining room of the Queen Mary up on the 9th floor packed for lunch weekdays and on Saturdays.
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In the late 90s and early 2000s I was good friends with the Head of Maintenance for all of Queen's Park. I saw only tiny hint of what is below this large government complex, but I can definitely say there are many levels below ground level, and tunnel systems connecting many or maybe all of the buildings that make up Queen's Park.
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What a gorgeous, stately old Queen. I've driven within a few blocks of her once or twice and never realized she was abandoned. They're doing an amazing thing, keeping her repaired, though I wish they could bring the building up to current code. 💖
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I don't understand why it wouldn't become some of the most expensive penthouses in Toronto? Lots of millionaires would have no problem in renovating and installing proper ventilation and updating the elevators.
