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A.R. Williams Machinery Company
Built: 1929
Mostly, it's a barn. It may be listed as a historic building. It may even be Toronto's first ‘free-span’ industrial building. But, it's still effectively a barn. With skylights.
Built in 1929, the Liberty Storage Warehouse was built on the site of the old Toronto Central Prison. This area had become the heart of Toronto's industrial community and after the prison closed in 1915, the A.R. Williams Machinery Company purchased part of the land to build this machine shop.
And then what happened? I'm not sure. There's a 65-year gap where I can find no mention of the building. It's not until 1995 when it's mentioned as having been used for a rave event (by fellow photographer Chris Smart).
Today, A.R. Williams still exists as a company, but one that serves western Canada, without a Toronto office. As for the building, it was renovated as a slick condo sales office in 2007 during the recent construction boom in Toronto. Apparently this is a temporary measure. Even though the building has been designated ‘historic’, it will be replaced with a 15-storey condo tower. Only the front 28 meters (92 feet) of building will be retained.
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The 'B-Roll'
Photos in the “B-Roll” group are (in my opinion) lower-quality images, included for completeness or because they were posted when this site was in its infancy.
