Osgoode Hall Restaurant

Story

Osgoode Hall is a landmark building in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The original -storey building was started in 1829 and finished in 1832 from a design by John Ewart and W. W. Baldwin. The structure was named after William Osgoode, the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada (now the province of Ontario).It originally served to house the regulatory body for lawyers in Ontario along with its law school (formally established as Osgoode Hall Law School in 1889) which was the only recognized professional law school for the province at the time. It was constructed between 1829 and 1832 in the late Georgian Palladian and Neoclassical styles. It currently houses the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice, the offices of The Law Society of Upper Canada and the Great Law Library.HistoryThe six-acre site at the corner of Lot Street and College Avenue was acquired by the Law Society in 1828. At the time, the location was on the northwest edge of the city, which has since grown around the building. It was originally bounded on its north side by Osgoode Street, and on its east side by a street that would eventually be known as Chestnut Street. The former no longer exists, and the latter now stops at Armoury Street as Nathan Phillips Square now lies to the east. The portico of Osgoode Hall's east wing was built at the head of Toronto's York Street to serve as a terminating vista, though it is now obscured by trees planted on the building's lawn.