139-145 Front Street East

Photos by Alan L Brown - September 2006

These buildings at 139-145 Front Street East have a 1984 Toronto Historical Board plaque attached. Here's what it says:

In 1867, William Davies built a two storey brick building here and established the first large meat-packing house in Toronto. J. & J. Taylor Safeworks purchased the building in 1871, and as the business flourished, added two storeys and an addition to the west and south. The buildings were renovated in 1978-80 as part of the revitalized historic St. Lawrence District.

Related web page
St. Lawrence District

Plaque Location Co-ordinates: 43.649887 -79.369376

More commercial buildings

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Posted April 1, 2010
The words on the west wall appear to be "Taylor Safe Works" rather than "Taylor Safe Company".

Posted November 14, 2009
In 1855 the brothers James and John Taylor, emigrants from England, began making, in a small factory on Toronto's Palace Street, the first safes ever produced in Canada. From the 1870s their factory ( J & J Taylor Safe Company or, later, The Toronto Safe Company) was located at the corner of what is now Front Street East and Frederick Streets - 133-147 Front Street East - and they owned a wharf from which to ship their safes; Taylor's Wharf was located between Frederick and George Streets about where The Esplanade now runs. If you look closely at the west wall of the building you can still see the name "Toronto Safe Company" painted on the wall. These buildings housed the factory until 1959 when Chubb-Mosler and Taylor Safes Ltd. was formed, and a new office and plant were built at Brampton. In 2009, to commemorate the Taylor Safe Company and their wharf the City of Toronto named the laneway which runs behind the building Taylor's Wharf Lane.

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