Adelaide Street Court House, Courthouse in St Lawrence neighborhood, Toronto, Canada
The Adelaide Street Court House at 57 Adelaide Street East is a two-storey former courthouse designed by the firm Cumberland and Ridout and built in 1851-1852. Its front on Adelaide Street East is framed by four fluted pilasters around the entrance. Inside, the former courtrooms now serve as dining rooms of the Terroni restaurant, which occupies four floors.
Designed by the firm Cumberland and Ridout, the building was erected in 1851-1852 and served as the York County Court House from 1852 until 1900, when the courts moved to Toronto City Hall. It later housed The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto and, from 2007, a restaurant.
The building later housed The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, a group of Canadian artists and writers. In the 2000s the upper-level event space reopened in March 2007 as a jazz nightclub called Live@Courthouse, while the main hall became a Terroni trattoria in December 2007.
Terroni occupies all four floors of the former courthouse at 57 Adelaide Street East, with the main dining room in the old courtroom space. The building is a designated heritage property under Ontario's Ontario Heritage Act, so its exterior and historic interior features are protected. It is a working restaurant, not a museum, so visiting means dining there.
The building's later life is easy to miss: after the courts left in 1900 it housed The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto, then the Courthouse Market and Grill, which closed in 2007. That year the upper event space reopened in March as the jazz club Live@Courthouse, and in November 2016 Terroni took over the upper levels, making it a four-floor restaurant.
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