Eaton's Got Approval to Demolish Toronto's City Hall

How Eaton's Almost Erased Downtown Toronto | The Eaton Centre Story In 1966, Metro Toronto voted 16 to 5 to let Eaton's tear down Old City Hall for a $260 million tower complex. Then Eaton's walked away. We go through the original Eaton Centre master plan, the volunteers who scrubbed a patch of Old City Hall clean to prove a point, and the surprise cancellation in May 1967. Then the 1970s version: the Church of the Holy Trinity holding out for sunlight, the downtown Toronto streets that were removed from the map, and the glass galleria that opened in 1977. Eaton's went bankrupt in 1999. Old City Hall is still standing, and as of 2025 it's empty again.