The Archives of Ontario was approached by the Marketing and Public Affairs Department of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) to put together an exhibit for the TTC’s Melinda Street entrance to the King Subway station.

In order to develop this exhibit the Archives of Ontario drew on the over 1.7 million photographs, over 200,000 architectural plans and thousands of pieces of documentary art in its collection to select depictions of the streets and buildings surrounding the King Street station.

The items selected for the exhibit span from an early watercolour depiction of King Street circa 1842, in what was then Canada West, to photographs showing the building of the Yonge Street subway line in 1949.

Also featured in the exhibit are several architectural plans such as a watercolour drawing by the architectural firm of Cumberland and Storm from the mid 1800s of St. James Cathedral and the Rice Lewis Warehouse designed by William G. Storm located at King and Victoria streets.