672 Dupont Street, Toronto — The Ford Motor Company of Canada Building
The Ford Building at 672 Dupont Street, at the corner of Dupont and Christie in Toronto, was designed in 1914 by John Graham and Company, Architects, as the Ford Motor Company of Canada factory and showroom. It opened on February 22, 1915, at the time of that year's car show, the forerunner of the present Canadian International Auto Show. A contemporary newspaper described the building floor by floor: a richly appointed showroom, customer waiting room, executive offices and a modern garage on the main floor; loading and unloading facilities for crates arriving by box-car plus a parts stockroom on the second; a repair shop occupying the entire third floor; the Model T assembly line on the fourth; the paint shop on the fifth, where a car could be finished in any colour as long as it was black; and an abbreviated test track on the roof.
In 1925 the Ford Motor Company of Canada required larger facilities and the building was offered for sale at 110,000 square feet with two high-speed elevators and a Canadian Pacific railway siding. Structural changes accommodated new tenants, a series of food processing companies including Planter's Peanuts from 1948 to 1987. In May 1988 the Toronto Historical Board recommended the property for inclusion on the Inventory of Heritage Properties for architectural reasons, and it was listed as property number 73. In 1999 the building was meticulously restored and looked almost exactly as it had 85 years earlier. Today the upper floors hold multiple offices, the former Ford showroom and first-floor loading area house the showroom and cafe of Faema Canada, and the rooftop that once served as a test track overlooks the Toronto skyline and CN Tower.
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The Ford Building
An automobile factory at Dupont and Christie, where Model Ts were assembled five floors above the street, painted on the fifth and road-tested on the roof. Now owned & operated by Faema Canada.
1914
Designed by John Graham & Co.
Feb 22, 1915
The doors opened
110,000 sq ft
Five floors and a rooftop track
№ 73
Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties
Brick, copper and arched glass
Built for the assembly line and dressed like a showroom, the Ford Building still holds the corner at Dupont and Christie much as it did in 1915 — red brick above a pale stone base, a green copper cornice, and a top floor of tall arched windows that flooded the workshops with daylight.
It has since been fabulously redesigned, incorporating many of the original architectural features. The mosaic thresholds still spell out № 672 at the doors.
John Graham and Company, 1914
The Ford Motor Company of Canada — factory, showroom and service garage
Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties, property № 73 (1988)
Offices, the showroom and café of Faema Canada
The original entrance at № 672
From Model Ts to macchiatos
Ford's Toronto assembly plant became a peanut factory, then a heritage listing, then a restoration. This is how the building got here.
Designed for the Ford Motor Company
In 1914 John Graham and Company, Architects, designed the building as the Ford Motor Company factory and showroom — Ford's new Toronto home at the corner of Dupont and Christie.
The doors open — February 22, 1915
Ford's new Toronto home opened just at the time of that year's car show. The annual event, put on by the city's car dealers, was the forerunner of the present Canadian International Auto Show that's also held in February. A contemporary newspaper walked its readers through the building, floor by floor.
… on the main floor is a richly appointed showroom, a customer waiting room, executive offices, a lunch room for the female workers and, at the rear, a modern garage.
A contemporary Toronto newspaper · 1915Watch the Model Ts being built
Step onto the fourth floor a century ago. This archival footage shows Ford's Toronto assembly line at work, inside the building that still stands at Dupont and Christie.
Ford outgrows Dupont Street
In 1925 the Ford Motor Company of Canada decided that increased production required new, larger facilities, and the building went up for sale — 110,000 square feet, two high-speed elevators, a Canadian Pacific railway siding.
The corner of Dupont and Christie underwent structural changes to accommodate new tenants: a run of food processing companies, including Planter's Peanuts from 1948 to 1987.
Listed as a heritage property
In May 1988, from information prepared for the Toronto Historical Board meeting:
"The property at 672 Dupont Street, known as the Ford Motor Company of Canada building, is recommended for inclusion on the Inventory of Heritage Properties for architectural reasons."
Toronto Historical Board · May 1988
The Board accepted the recommendation and included the building as property № 73 on the list.
Meticulously restored
By 1999 the former motorcar manufactory looked almost exactly as it did in its early days, 85 years before. The former showroom's beauty was meticulously restored — the same room that once held Model Ts now pours espresso as Faema's café.
What, in Ford's days, was loading and unloading facilities on the first floor became a showroom and and Faema Canada headquarters.
A century-old landmark on the corner
The building still turns heads at Dupont and Christie — copper cornice, arched top-floor windows, the original mosaic thresholds underfoot. Offices fill the upper floors, Faema Canada occupies the old loading floor and showroom, and the rooftop where new cars once ran their laps now looks out over the CN Tower.
The doors are still open
672 Dupont Street, at Dupont & Christie, Toronto. Walk the restored showroom floor Monday to Friday 9–5 and Saturday 10–5.
