Park Hyatt Toronto

The Park Hyatt Toronto is a Hyatt hotel in the Yorkville area of Toronto, Canada. Long the independent Park Plaza Hotel it is one of the most venerable hotels in the city.

The hotel is located at the northwestern corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road. The first known building on the site was a small wayside inn built in 1820 and named Tecumseh Wigwag. Then a considerable distance from the city it served travellers on their way north out of town. The inn was demolished around 1875.

Originally planned to be called the Queen's Park Plaza it was designed by Hugh G. Holman. Construction began in 1928 and was due to be completed in 1929; however, the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression caused its builder to go out of business. The steel framed structure was left partially completed for several years as various attempts to restart it failed. It was finally completed and opened for business in 1936, with rooms costing $3 per night and up. It was expanded with a second tower added to the north, the new building being a modernist structure designed by Peter Dickinson.

Hyatt

Hyatt Hotels Corporation is an American international company and operator of hotels. The Hyatt Corporation came into being upon purchase of the Hyatt House, at Los Angeles International Airport, on September 27, 1957. In 2015, Fortune magazine listed Hyatt as the 78th-best U.S. company to work for.

History

The original owners were entrepreneurs Hyatt Robert von Dehn and Jack Dyer Crouch; after a few years, Von Dehn sold his share in the hotel to entrepreneur Jay Pritzker. Jay's younger brother Donald Pritzker also took on an important role in the company.

Over the following decade, acquisitions were made, and Hyatt became the fastest-growing hotel chain in the United States. Donald died in 1972; Jay continued to run the company.

In 1969, Hyatt opened its first hotel outside the United States, the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong. In 1980 the Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt brands were introduced. Hyatt runs resort hotels, starting with the Hyatt Regency Maui in 1980.As of 30 November 2015 Hyatt had over 627 hotels worldwide.

Toronto

Toronto (ⁱ/təˈrɒntoʊ, -tə/,local /təˈrɒnoʊ, ˈtrɒ-/) is the most populous city in Canada, the provincial capital of Ontario, and the centre of the Greater Toronto Area, the most populous metropolitan area in Canada. In the 2011 census, Toronto had a population of 2,615,060, making it the fourth most populous city in North America, after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. An alpha global city, Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, and culture, and is widely recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.

Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years. The urban history of the city dates back to 1787, when British officials negotiated the Toronto Purchase with the Mississaugas of the New Credit. They established the Town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York and suffered heavy damage by U.S. troops. York was renamed and incorporated as the City of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario in 1867. The original borders of Toronto were expanded through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history, the results of which can been seen in the 140 independently unique and clearly defined official neighbourhoods that make up the city.

Old Toronto

Old Toronto is the retronym of the original city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from 1834 to 1998. It was first incorporated as a city in 1834, after being known as the Town of York, and became part of York County. In 1954, it became the administrative headquarters for Metropolitan Toronto. It expanded in size by annexation of surrounding municipalities, reaching its final boundaries in 1967. Finally, in 1998, it was amalgamated into the present-day "megacity" of Toronto.

Post-amalgamation, the area within the boundaries of the former city is variously referred to as the "former city of Toronto" or "Old Toronto". Historically, Old Toronto has referred to Toronto's boundaries before the Great Toronto Fire of 1904, when much of city's development was to the east of Yonge Street. The term "downtown core" is also sometimes used to refer to the district, which actually refers to the central business district of Toronto, which is located within the former city.

Old Toronto is the densest area in the Greater Toronto Area.

Toronto Professional Hockey Club

The Toronto Professional Hockey Club was Toronto's first professional ice hockey team, founded in 1906. The team played the 1906–07 season in exhibition games against other professional teams. In 1908, the team was one of the founders of the Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL). The club operated for two seasons in the OPHL, 1908 and 1909, before disbanding. The club challenged unsuccessfully for the Stanley Cup in 1908. They were usually referred to as the Toronto Argonauts.

The team featured several prominent players of the time, including Newsy Lalonde who would be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and Bruce Ridpath, who would manage the Toronto entry in the National Hockey Association (NHA), fore-runner of the National Hockey League (NHL).

History

On November 14, 1906, the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) banned Bruce Ridpath, Rolly Young and Harry Burgoyne from playing with the Toronto Marlboros. The three had been receiving money to play, strictly banned by the OHA. On November 22, Ridpath announced the formation of the Toronto Pros. Ridpath would be captain, and Alexander Miln was named as manager. Miln was manager of the Mutual Street Rink and had previously managed the Toronto Wellingtons, Stanley Cup challengers in 1902. On November 24, Miln attended a meeting of the International Hockey League (IHL) and secured a place in the IHL for the Pros for the 1907–08 season. For the initial season, the Toronto Pros would play only exhibition games.