Toronto Normal School
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In 1846, the United Province of Canada passed its School Act, which called for a normal school (equivalent to a modern teacher's college) to be built. On November 1, 1847, the first Provincial Normal School opened in the former Government House of Upper Canada.
In 1849, the provincial Parliament buildings in Montreal were burned down, and the capital of the Province of Canada shifted to Toronto, taking over the old Government House. The now-displaced Normal School took up temporary residence on Temperance Street.
On July 2, 1851, the cornerstone for a new building was laid, and the Toronto Normal School opened in May of 1852. The Normal School vacated the structure in 1941 and moved to another site as Toronto Teachers College. The Normal School building became a ground training centre for the RCAF. After the war, the building was given to the new Toronto Training and Re-establishment Institute in 1945 and renamed Ryerson Institute of Technology in 1948. Demolished in 1962, a two-storey wall (called the Arch) remains of the original school building and forms the entrance to Ryerson University Recreation and Athletics Centre. South of the Arch is the clock tower which was retained within a part of Kerr Hall South on Gould Street.
