Early Exhibition Buildings

These five buildings - the Press (1904), Music (1907), Horticulture (1907), Government (1912), and the Fire Hall and Police Station (1912) - are the largest and finest group of early 20th century exhibition buildings in Canada. Designed by G.W. Gouinlock, they reflect the influence of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition of Chicago in their creative classical decoration and ordered integration to a site plan. The first permanent exhibition buildings in Toronto, they are an impressive reminder of the Canadian National Exhibition as the major industrial and agricultural fair of the period.