The 1900 Architectural Sheet Metal Building Material of Every Description is a fascinating 362 page catalogue that has been scanned and made available online on the Internet Archive. It was produced by the Metallic Roofing Co of Canada – located at King and Dufferin streets in Toronto.
The catalogue has illustrations and photos on most pages, from the tools required to work with their products, to examples of how they can be used, to interior and exterior photographs of their products installed. Some notable Toronto buildings included in the catalogue:
- The Princess Theatre interior before the 1915 fire (originally the the Academy of Music)
- The Temple Building – also know as the IOF Building
- The Toronto Metallic Roofing building – which includes the showroom as late as 1987
- and many more linked below
There are also countless examples of tiles, cornices, mouldings, borders, etc. – like these Ventilating Centres:
This is a sales brochure, and page 10 (n13) makes this clear in how it describes the use of these ‘new’ sheet metal products:
Old prejudices that existed against the use of anything, simply because it was not used hundreds of years ago, have been forced to the wall. In building construction, as indeed in anything else, we have to adapt ourselves to circumstances, and do as did the old masters – use the materials at hand. The massive stone and brick construction necessary In large buildings has been superseded by the lighter, smaller and stronger steel frame ; the cumbersome, crumbling and expensive stone cornice by the lighter, fire-proof and cheaper metal one – the crude wooden shingle and heavy earthen tile by the more ornamental, durable, fire and lightning-resisting metal roofing – the wooden lath by its infinite superior in every respect, metal — the crumbling, dropping plaster and inflammable wooden ceiling by the more artistic, ornamental and better, embossed steel – and now, in modern fire-proof buildings, even the wooden doors and trim have given place to the metal.
Besides many Toronto landmarks, the catalogue has photos of buildings across Canada and the US:
- Canadian Pacific Railway Elevators
- Court House – Montreal
- General Hospital – Montreal
- Hiscox Building – London
- Home Insurance Building – New York
- Le Grande Seminaire – Montreal
- Le Monument Nationale – Montreal
- Mansion House – Cape Town
- Ogilvy & Sons Store – Montreal
- Parliament Buildings – Ottawa
- Y.M.C.A Building – London
Here are thumbnails and links to each Toronto building in this wonderful catalogue:
- A.R. Creelman residence in Queen’s Park
- British Hotel
- Canadian Pacific Railway freight shed
- Confederation Life building
- Dewson Ave School
- Dominion Bank Head Office
- Edward V. Ransford residence
- Francis J. Phillips residence
- Old City Hall
- Polson Iron Works
- Pressed Metal Building
- Princess Theatre
- Queen Victoria School
- Salvation Army Temple
- Temple Building
- Union Station
- University of Toronto
- Walker House
- Winchester Hotel & Hall
- W.R. Brock & Co warehouse
This version of the catalogue is the only one with images of buildings and interiors, but there are other versions available:
- Fire-proof building materials catalogue – June 1891 (when they were at the rear of 84, 86, 88 and 90 Yonge Street
- What the people say General Testimonials – 1894 (now at 82 to 90 Yonge Street)
- Catalogue R2 illustrating and describing metallic building materials for outside use, 1912 / Metallic Roofing Co. of Canada.