Dr. John Gennings Curtis Adams left a small mark on the city just over a hundred years ago.
Dr. John G.C. Adams (1839-1922) Dr. John G.C. Adams is regarded as the father of public health dentistry in Canada. His Methodist faith inspired him to become Canada’s first resident dental missionary. He funded and operated the first free dental hospital on the continent in 1872, primarily treating poverty-stricken children and their mothers. Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children opened three years later and, in 1883, Dr. Adams became its first dentist of record.
In the building here, Dr. Adams operated Christ’s Mission Hall and Dental Institute from 1897 until 1899 when the City closed it for non-payment of taxes. A champion of preventative health through education, Dr. Adams advocated for dental check-ups in public schools and dental treatment for underprivileged children. His recommendations were finally realized in 1911 with the beginning of dental check-ups in Toronto schools. Canada’s first publicly funded free dental clinic opened two years later.
Although Adams had a mission here, it was only for a few years and he lost possession because he didn’t pay his taxes. So I am not sure why the plaque is here (to bolster the heritage designation of the building?). It’s earlier history is just as interesting, if not more so. Before Adams, it had been a coffee shop run by The Toronto Coffee Association Coffee House – off on a tangent for a moment. the Coffee Houses of the 1880s and 1890s were in response to Prohibition laws and many were run by the Temperance League. I found a thorough, well-written history of these coffee houses as well as Bay Street at the time at Scenes from Toronto
If you have passed by the intersection of Bay and Elm (just north of Dundas), you may have noticed the building on the southwest corner. It’s been derelict for quite a few years now. It has become a small canvas for some graffiti artists; although it gets ‘cleaned up’ every once in awhile, traces remain. Dr. Adams wouldn’t recognize it… nor would he approve of it!
below: Two faced
below: Like a repeating pattern on wallpaper or fabric, columns of men with the same hair cut and facial features. An army of clones.
below: Mexican Jesus
below: 33wallflower33
This building, 55 Elm, is at the east end of a row of bay & gable houses from the late 1800s. All of them are empty and boarded up, awaiting the usual fate of such properties in this city. The image below is a screenshot of the row of houses that was included in the 2021 City of Toronto report (pdf) that designated the row as heritage properties. The study was prompted by the possible tear down of one of the houses in 2019. In other words, these have been empty for a long time.
These houses back onto a large parking lot. The last few photos are a quick look at remains behind.
as I walk Toronto 
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