Why Toronto Demolished Its Most Beautiful Building | The Story of Old Union Station
/ 2026 / … Why Toronto Demolished Its Most Beautiful Building | The Story of Old Union Station Toronto called it the most beautiful building in the country, then demolished it on purpose. We dug into why, and the answer is stranger than losing a pretty building. This is the second Union Station, the 1873 Grand Trunk landmark on Toronto’s waterfront: how a building everyone admired became an operational disaster that choked the city, why the First World War broke it completely, and how its replacement stood finished and padlocked for seven years while the old station strangled downtown. We follow it from the lake-facing towers and the Grand Hall to the wrecking crews of 1927, and to the single piece of it that still survives today.