Haultain Building

The Haultain Building (formerly the Mill Building) is located at 170 College Street, tucked behind the Mining Building and to the west of the Rosebrugh Building. It was completed in 1903 and is named after H.E.T. Haultain, Canadian inventor and professor at the School of Practical Science (as it was then known).

Haultain Building
Lassonde Mining Building
Location 170 College Street
Year Constructed 1903 (expansion 1931)
Building Code HA
Architects Francis Riley Heakes and Frank Darling (1903), Craig & Madill (1931 expansion)

HistoryEdit

The Mill Building, as it was known when it opened, was originally constructed to house milling equipment for the School of Practical Science, particularly for experiments on mechanical processing of ores. The original part of the building, which was completed in 1903, consisted of a large basement and one above-ground main level. Later, in the 1930s, three additional floors were added as the Faculty began to grow out of its existing space.

Structure & ArchitectureEdit

 
Mill Building, c. 1930, with its original one storey. The Red Skulehouse building can be seen on the background to the right.

The Haultain Building is built on a small foundation of approximately seventy square feet (twenty-one square meters). It is built in an Edwardian style, and made of red brick in the original facade. The 1931 expansion, which added several floors, built on the same architectural style but included more prominent window and column structures on the facade.[1]

Although the Haultain Building, when completed in 1903, was the only comparable building on its site and was the vanguard of an early westward expansion by the University of Toronto, it has since been overshadowed and surrounded on all four sides by other buildings including the Mining Building (completed 1905) to its south, the Rosebrugh Building (completed 1920) to its east, and the Mechanical Engineering Building to its north (as the Thermodynamics Building completed in 1909) and its west (completed in 1948). A bridge connecting to the Mining Building was later constructed.

ReferencesEdit

  1. L.W. Richards, University of Toronto: An Architectural Tour, Princeton Architectural Press (New York: 2009).