Michie's Grocers

Michie & Company

There are two plaques at this location.
Both can be seen on this page.

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted June, 2011

This plaque, located here at 1 King Street West in the window of a bakery, has this to say:

Plaque coordinates: 43.648996 -79.378235

At this address, Michie's Grocers first opened its doors in 1835, starting a city institution that was to serve faithfully Torontonians for over a century.

Michie's carried an inventory that included such exotic items in the 1800s as Valencia oranges, figs, spices and imported cognac. The company's insistence that service was as important as quality quickly led to Michie's becoming the pre-eminent retail destination in all of Toronto. This was the golden age of customer service where the sales clerk signed each hand-written bill with "Your most faithful servant."

Michie's customers, whose names could be found in any book listing the country's Who's Who, made their way to the busy King and Yonge corner from all parts of the city and surrounding countryside. The transaction completed, servants would load the goods on wagons prior to the homeward trip to Rosedale, affluent Parkdale, or far off Richmond Hill.

Michie's continued as a family run business until 1947 when John Forbes Michie, the grandnephew of founder George, sold the company to the Simpsons Company.

At about the same time Michie's was opening its doors in Toronto, a baker named Marcel Thuet was setting up his shop "Boulangerie Thuet" in the Haut-Rhin region of Alsace, France. Out of this tiny village bakery comes the 200 year old starter that is still used in all Thuet breads today.

Chef Marc Thuet and his wife Biana Zorich are proud to continue the legacy of a family-run retail food shop at 1 King West.

Petite Thuet will provide exceptional products to Torontonians with the care that these two family histories inspire.

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted June, 2011

This plaque, located on the ground floor, in the passageway between the lobby and the inside door of the bakery, has this to say:

Michie & Company, grocers and wine merchant, opened its doors on this site, at 5 King Street West, in 1835. York, as Toronto was first known, had been settled only 42 years earlier. Prior to that, the shore of Lake Ontario had been the hunting and fishing grounds of the Mississauga First Nations.

George Michie (pronounced "Mickey") initially sold "iron mongery," stovepipes, linens, dry goods, food stuffs, building materials, fine wine from France, and spirits from nearby Gooderham & Worts Distillery. His business thrived as the intersection of Yonge and King Streets evolved into the commercial centre of the rapidly growing city. By 1861, streetcar tracks were laid on both streets, providing patrons with easy access during and after work.

Michie's original plain, Georgian-style, three-storey brick store was improved in 1893 with a more elaborate red-brick-and-sandstone structure. It was soon dwarfed by its neighbours: the 12-storey Dominion Bank (1914), the Canadian Pacific Railway Building (18 storeys, 1913) and the Royal Bank Building (20 storeys, 1915).

In 1915, the liquor attracted the attention of police enforcing the Ontario Temperance Act (similar to America's Prohibition Act of 1919). But the storm passed. Michie's business lasted until 1947, when the shop was sold to Robert Simpson Company. The Nags Head Tavern occupied this shop front for many years, followed by Friedberg & Company, a currency-exchange service. The building was demolished in 2001 to make way for the foundation to the residential tower.

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Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

Posted January 14, 2012
I have a Michie & Co. Ltd. Emberlins English Stilton Cheese box - It says Case # 11, Ripe - It also has a Red Shipping Label from Michie & Co. Ltd. stappled on it - Just wondering how old this would be.
Thanks

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