Saturday 30 April 2011

Historic Plaques of Toronto - Trinity College


Today we took KC for a walk over to Trinity Bellwoods Park. Teena took pictures and wrote about it.

At the south end of the park is a gate which used to be the entrance to Trinity College. The gate is kept in excellent condition and on one of the west pillars is a historic plaque placed by the Toronto Historical Board in 1988.

Trinity College admitted its first students at a new building designed by Kivas Tully on Queen Street West on January 15, 1852. The first class consisted of fifteen divinity students who had begun their studies at the Cobourg Diocesan Theological Institute (also founded by Strachan), plus four students in Arts, and some students in Medicine. On July 16 of the same year Queen Victoria granted Trinity College a royal charter.


The plaque reads:

The University of Trinity College was located on this site 1852-1925, occupying a large Gothic-Revival building designed by Kivas Tully with later additions by Frank Darling. Trinity was founded as an independent institution by Bishop John Strachan following secularization of the provincially-endowed university. Awarded a Royal Charter in 1852, Trinity offered instruction in arts and divinity, and, for varying periods, in law and medicine. It also granted degrees in music, pharmacy and dentistry. In 1904 Trinity federated with the University of Toronto and in 1925 moved to a new but similar building on the Queen's Park campus. The old building was used by the Kiwanis Boys Club until 1956, when it was demolished. This gateway, put up in 1903, has been left standing in commemoration.

No comments: