The Custom House, London, Ontario

Description

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Photographs

Description

Black and white photograph of the Custom House, designed by the architect William Robinson in a restrained Second Empire style. The building which opened in 1873 was demolished in the early 1970s. St. Paul's Cathedral located to the northeast acquired the property and used the beaver motif from the Custom House's iron fence to surround its grounds. The trees in the right foreground may have been some of the 15,000 trees London planted in 1871 to line city streets. This effort was instigated by James Egan who after his photographic career became a city politician. The wooden guards placed around the base of each tree were built by John Purdom.

Notes

The inscription at the bottom of the photograph was added in 1939. PG L17

Inscriptions

The Custom House, north-east corner Queen's Avenue and Richmond Street. Erected 1872. The spire of North Street(Queen's Avenue) Methodist Church in the left background. The concrete and iron fence shown here in front of the Custom House was later moved in front of St. Paul's Cathedral where it remains today. Photograph taken about 1875.

Date of Original

ca. 1875

Dimensions