Hart House, University of Toronto, Student center at University of Toronto, Canada
Hart House is a Gothic Revival building on the University of Toronto's St. George campus that serves as a central hub for student life. It contains a theater, art gallery, dining areas, and multiple spaces for student activities, meetings, and cultural events.
Vincent Massey offered to fund a building for extracurricular life, and construction began in 1911 with a budget of $300,000; by its 1919 completion the cost had reached $2 million. Architect Henry Sproatt worked without a master plan, adding ideas as work progressed. Massey's deed restricted the house to men until his death in 1967, after which the stewards altered it; women gained full membership in 1972.
The building is named for Hart Massey, Vincent Massey's grandfather, whose estate funded it. The Arbor Room coffee shop, built in 1954, was Hart House's first co-educational space. In 1958 women attended a debate for the first time, seated behind a rope and barred from speaking; full membership came in 1972.
The building is organized around corridors flanked by high-ceilinged rooms, with the theatre below grade and the Soldiers' Tower at the southwestern corner. The Arbor Room, opened in 1954, was the first co-educational space in Hart House. Visitors should note that some areas may have restricted access depending on scheduled events or student functions.
The theatre's rear wall, backstage, still bears scars from service ammunition. Carvings above the map room's bay windows depict the principal units stationed there during the war, and the south façade commemorates the house's first occupants.
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