The building was constructed in 1931 as a City of Toronto Police Station Division 6.The architect was City of Toronto architect, J.J Woolnought. Esq. A police constable came up with some drawings that caused a little controversy. Drawings were submitted by Chief Draper. (See articles). The art deco building was constructed on the site of a former police station/municipal building that had burned down. You can see a blue print of the building on the wall of the art gallery.
The gallery was the site of the holding cells. There was a horse stable in the back and horses were brought in the gate and through the courtyard. Artists are now living in the former stable house.
The building ceased to be a police station in the early 1960’s. The building was converted to emergency housing units with the City of Toronto. Families lived in the building for the next 15 years.
The building then reverted to Metro and was empty accept for the occasional squatter.
Numerous film shoots and videos were filmed at the gallery – Robo Cop, the series, It Takes A Thief, the series, Maryln Mansion music videos and more.
In 1994 the local Parkdale Village BIA started looking into possible other uses for the building.
Artscape, a not for profit, also was looking into acquiring possible space in the building for artist live/work studios. Other community service and support organizations such as the Parkdale Intercultural Centre also were looking for space. A series of meeting took place. Metro Councillor David Miller was very involved as was City Councillor Chris Korwin-Kuczynski.
In 1997 after much discussion the building was turned over to Artscape for 20 years. The process of selecting tenants then came about. About $275,000 of monies were received from the City of Toronto for renovation. Tenants did a lot of the work themselves. Artscape had 9 units of live work space for artists. Mariposa Festival occupied space to store there archives. The Kababayan Community Centre and Vietenamese Women and Childrens Group also occupied the uilding. There have been meetings to look into the opening of the basement (2000 sq ft) for more rental community space. The space was a former shooting gallery.
The building is owned by the City of Toronto Offices now include the Parkdale Village BIA and Students for Tibet plus there is the Gallery 1313 of course. And the Kababayan Community Centre for Philipino settlement services.
The spaces that are not live work studios are managed by the Parkdale Arts and Cultural Centre Community Board.
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