What jails have been in Toronto?
Toronto’s first jail, built around 1800, was a wooden building with ten cells on the south-east corner of King and Yonge Streets. It was replaced in 1824 by a brick building designed by John George Howard on the north-east corner of King and Toronto Streets. The Home District Jail, on Front Street East, west of Parliament, started construction in 1838, and was demolished in 1887. The Don Jail, built in 1858 on Gerrard Street near the Don River, has had modern additions and is still standing. The Central Prison, in the west end, between the railway tracks and west of Strachan Avenue, opened in 1874 and closed in 1915.
