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Historic Bell Telephone Building & Garden Courtyard
BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY of CANADA 1926
Designated under the Ontario Heritage Act, 2008. Designed in Edwardian Classical style by Montreal architect W. J. Carmichael, this building was constructed to accommodate the switching equipment, switchboard operators, and technicians needed for Bell Telephone’s rapidly expanding service in this area. Prior to automated call routing, operators would direct each telephone call to its requested number.
The first local phone calls were routed from a drug store in New Toronto, where a switchboard was in operation by 1914.
By 1925, Bell Telephone employed 26 people in the area, and one year later, this new facility was completed on an increasingly industrial section of Birmingham Street.
By 1929, fifty-two staff worked here, and handled a daily average of 13,000 phone calls in an area including Humber Bay, the Towns of Mimico and New Toronto, and Long Branch. This Bell Telephone Company building was extended to the east in 1948, and continued to serve Bell until 1981.
HERITAGE TORONTO 2008
Birmingham Centre Original Building Plan
The way Birmingham Centre was first originally planned to be built.
Birmingham Centre Original Building Plan
The way Birmingham Centre was first originally planned to be built.
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In 1923, Bell acquired land at the corner of Sixth Street and Birmingham in New Toronto, intending to construct a modern common battery (manual) central telephone office to replace the older magneto system. The original plans called for a two-storey brick building with a basement, designed to house centralized battery power, eliminating the need for individual telephone sets to generate their own.
This advancement meant customers would no longer turn a crank to signal an operator; instead, lifting the receiver would prompt a simple "Number, please?" from the operator on duty. The structure, built with durable brick, was envisioned as a functional hub, with the basement likely reserved for equipment or storage and the two upper floors accommodating switchboards, operator stations, and possibly administrative spaces.
Intended to serve 1,500 Bell customers across Mimico, New Toronto, and Long Branch, the building reflected a significant investment, with the final construction (completed in 1925-1926) valued at $125,000. However, the 1923 plans researcher of Historical Services at Bell Archives in Montreal, Lorraine Croxen referenced "look nothing like" the finished building, hinting that the initial design—whether in style, layout, or scale—was either heavily altered or discarded before construction began, though its core purpose as a regional telephone exchange remained unchanged.
Mayors G.C. Warner (New Toronto) and W.E.S. Savage (Mimico) were present and had the honour of placing the first calls. There were two extensions to the building, completed in 1948 and 1950.
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