Text by Robert Lubinski

For many decades, TTC streetcars and buses were a familiar sight in the St. Lawrence neighbourhood of Toronto. Up until 1980, the buses of Gray Coach Lines, the interurban bus operator owned by the TTC were a common sight, shuttling between the Sherbourne Garage and the Coach Terminal on Bay Street. The Sherbourne Garage was situated at Sherbourne and the Esplanade, and was at one time at the heart of Toronto’s street railway operations.

The Sherbourne Garage dated back to 1894, when it was built by the Toronto Railway Company (TRC), the privately-owned street railway franchise. The TRC built a large complex at this site, including a sub-station (power house), motor shops and stores building. The TRC constructed hundreds of its own streetcars here in the early 1900s. As the streetcar system expanded, so did the Sherbourne facility, with the addition of a brass foundry and new machine shop. When the TTC took over transit operations in Toronto in 1921, it sought a new, larger facility and in 1924 opened the Hillcrest Shops on Bathurst Street at Davenport Road, relegating the TRC building to a freight depot for the Lake Simcoe Radial Line, then as a Stores warehouse from 1933 until 1945.

At around that time, the motor shops were converted to a bus garage, operating several TTC bus routes around the east end of Toronto, including the ASHBRIDGE, MAIN and BROADVIEW buses, as well as a garage for interurban Gray Coach service. The remainder of the property, between George and Frederick Streets, continued to be used for the storage and scrapping of retired streetcars. In the 1950s, the TTC’s surplus streetcars, wooden cars made redundant by the purchase of new streamlined PCC cars, and Peter Witt cars and trailers by the opening of the Yonge Subway, were decommissioned and scrapped at the George Street Yard. This yard was closed in the early 1960s, but the old motor shops continued to be used as a TTC garage until 1967 when the streetcar carhouse at Danforth & Coxwell was converted to a bus facility. At that time, Gray Coach Lines became the sole occupant, along with early GO Transit bus operations for a few years starting in the early 1970s. Gray Coach continued to use the garage until its new facility on Commissioners Street was ready for occupancy at the beginning of 1980, ending almost 90 years of continuous use for the old red brick building.

The Grey Coach garage was demolished to make way for the housing, but of the old TRC complex, the power house still stands at the corner of Front & Frederick streets, as the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People (originally the Young People’s Theatre), a reminder of when the St. Lawrence area was the hub of Toronto’s streetcar system.

Interestingly, in the early 1950s, the upstairs level of the Sherbourne bus garage had a full-size subway station entrance mock-up built in it, so that the TTC could test the design of station entrances, passenger flow, and colour schemes for subway stations.

Sherbourne Garage and Shops Image Archive

	TTC-owned Gray Coaches wait at Sherbourne Garage on March 9, 1951. These coaches were used for intercity service (see TALBOTVILLE) and also for the TTC's premium fare city coach services (especially MOUNT PLEASANT COACH and HIGH PARK COACH). Photo courtesy the TTC, donated by Pete Coulman.
	A track diagram of George Street yard, located near the Sherbourne carhouse, circa 1913. Image courtesy the Rob Pineault collection.
	Ex-Toronto Railway Company streetcar #1668 prepares to depart Sherbourne Carbarn, turning north onto Sherbourne to head for AVENUE ROAD service in this shot, taken circa 1921. The image is courtesy the Toronto Public Library.
	This diagram shows the trackage and facilities of Sherbourne Garage as of November 1922. Image courtesy the Rob Pineault collection.
	The east-side entrance of the freight sheds at Sherbourne Garage, September 23, 1927. Photo courtesy the Toronto Archives.
	Buses stored inside Sherbourne Garage on June 11, 1928. Photo courtesy the Toronto Archives.
	Buses stored at Sherbourne garage on June 9, 1934. Photo courtesy the Toronto Archives.
	In this April 1954 shot, TTC Mack Buses #908, 909, 906 and 907 wait with Gray Coach bus #170 and others at Sherbourne Garage. The photographer is unknown and the photo is from the John Knight collection.
	A shot of the Sherbourne Garage building, circa 1960. Image courtesy the Toronto Archives.
	TTC Mack buses #761 and 764 wait with a former Independent bus at Sherbourne Garage in this 1953 shot. #761 bears a DAVENPORT rollsign. Image courtesy the Toronto Public Library.
	TTC GMC "Old Look" TG-3608 bus #930 poses alongside other GMC Old Look buses, including #934 and #958 at Sherbourne Garage in May 1954. This photograph is by James Victor Salmon and is inscribed by him as follows: "T.T.C. 930 SPECIAL SCHOOL BUS EQUIPPED WITH RINGS FOR SAFETY BELTS / FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN. FREDERICK ST. MAY 1954." Image is courtesy the Toronto Archives.
	A trio of TTC "Old Looks", TG-3609s #1508, #958 and TG-3608 #936, pose at Sherbourne Garage in this early-to-mid 1950s shot, courtesy the Toronto Archives.
	TTC snow-sweeper #2212 (ex-Civic #56) is seen in the George Street scrap yard -- a part of the Sherbourne carhouse -- on August 2, 1955. The photograph is by L. Swanson, and is from the John Knight collection.