Loretto Lofts

History of Loretto Lofts

The Loretto Sisters, who ran Loretto Abbey on Wellington Street, turned the sod here in September 1913. Classes started in a house at the back of the lot that fall, and in September 1915 Loretto Abbey Day School opened in the grand new building designed by Neil G. Beggs, with about 200 girls from grades 1 to 13, boarders and day students, music and commercial students, and boys up to grade 3.

In 1918 Loretto College moved in and the school became Loretto Abbey Day School and College, later Loretto College School. As it grew, the old houses beside it were torn down in 1953 for a new school building to the north, which opened in 1954 and is now the Schoolhouse Lofts. The junior school closed in 1949, the boarding school around 1960 and the secretarial department in 1981, while the music department and high school kept expanding.

On December 3, 1999 a fire in the convent building caused serious smoke damage; the Sisters moved out, and the school, already planning a new building elsewhere, closed in June 2001. The Sisters sold both buildings that year, and they were later resold separately. Context Developments finished the 1915 building in 2007, with architectsAlliance and Quadrangle: the rear wall and an old gym came down, parking went underneath, and two storeys were added, holding five two-storey penthouses with views of Casa Loma. About two-thirds of the original structure was kept, including the red brick and the window openings. There are 50 lofts with 10- to 13-foot ceilings around a landscaped courtyard.