289 Sumach Lofts

History of 289 Sumach Lofts

On June 13, 1883, Dr. Emily Stowe, a suffragist and the first Canadian woman licensed to practise medicine in Canada, led her supporters to a meeting of the Toronto Women's Suffrage Club that called medical education for women “a recognized necessity.” With the help of Dr. Michael Barrett, its first dean, the Woman's Medical College opened that October, when no other Toronto medical school would take women, starting with three students in a rented cottage near Trinity College's medical school.

This building opened on April 25, 1890, a plain Romanesque Revival design attributed to the architects Smith and Gemmell, equipped with the best medical apparatus of the day. It stood across the street from the Toronto General Hospital, which occupied the block of Spruce, Sackville, Gerrard and Sumach from 1856 to 1914. By 1891 the college had 24 lecturers and demonstrators. When the University of Toronto opened medicine to women in 1906 the college closed, but its dispensary carried on and grew into Women's College Hospital. Smith Gemmell Lane, nearby, is named for the architects.

From 1907 until the 1980s the building was used mainly by Apec Packaging, and it later held a machine shop. In 1983 Bob Mitchell bought it, restored the front from 1898 photos found in a medical calendar behind the old baseboards, and turned the inside into 10 multi-level lofts of about 800 to 2,000 square feet, with ceilings up to 15 feet, wood-burning fireplaces and, in some, terraces and skylights. Resales start on MLS in 1984, which makes it one of Toronto's very first loft conversions.