A History Of Osgoode Hall In 1 Minute

Osgoode Hall is a historic building nestled in the heart of downtown Toronto, featuring late Palladian style and Victorian architecture with an iron fence and gates. Constructed in the early 1800s, this building has housed legal operations in Ontario for almost 170 years — and still operates to this day. The Hall is home to the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Divisional Court of the Superior Court of Justice and the offices of The Law Society of Upper Canada. Named after Ontario’s first chief Justice, William Osgoode, this building is a National Historic Site of Canada (1979) and is designated under the Ontario Heritage Act (1990) as a means to keep the building preserved and intact.
The Law Society of Upper Canada was created in 1797 in Niagara-on-the-Lake as means for gathering and regulating the lawyers and paralegals of the province. The second meeting was held again that year, but this time in Toronto. In 1820, the Society decided to put 500 British pounds towards building a united meeting place for legal operations: Osgoode Hall. Although the original plan was to build upon land already owned at Church and King, the search for a different site continued. Debates ensued (from 1827 to 1829) between those held responsible for finding a suitable location for the building, many agreeing that it would be best to construct Osgoode Hall on the site of the old Parliament buildings at the bottom of Berkely Street. Dr. William Warren Baldwin, the Treasurer of the Law Society, stepped in and suggested that the Society purchase a six-acre piece of land from the Attorney General, Sir John Beverley Robinson, located at today’s Queen and University.