advertise for tenders.9 When tenders were in, costs were $582,034 more than the $1,050,000 originally stipulated. The total cost of the project was estimated at $1,632,034.10
In 1889 the city mounted a publicity campaign to convince its ratepayers that their money (including an extra $582,034) would be well spent on municipal and county buildings that would reflect Toronto’s importance as a commercial and metropolitan centre.11 The request for additional funding was approved, and work began almost immediately. The site had to be cleared of existing buildings, and the foundations laid.
Legend has it that E.J.’s brother, Charles David Lennox, was as much responsible for the design of Old City Hall as was E.J. himself. Without doubt their relationship was a close one, as Charles worked in his brother’s shop for some thirty-four years, from 1880 until 1914, with the exception of two years away in New York City in the firm of Jardine & Jardine, 1885–86.12 However, though Charles was an active member of the Toronto professional architectural community, none of the drawings, specifications, or letters connected with Old City Hall or any other project of Lennox’s bear the signature Charles D. Lennox. If he was co-architect with his brother on the work, history has not recorded the fact.
At the “laying of the corner-stone” ceremonies in November of 1891, Lennox proclaimed that his building would “be second to none of its kind in America,”13 but the building programme was to be fraught with problems and dissension.
As early as May of 1892 Lennox became dissatisfied with the contracting firm, Elliott & Neelon. He claimed they were using expensive out-of-town labour while Toronto was in the midst of a terrible recession. In a letter to the city building committee, E.J. objected in the strongest terms to this practice while “hundreds” of “starving workmen of Toronto … have to walk the streets looking for work.”14 In addition, E.J. complained of the firm’s poor workmanship and substandard supplies, of rowdyism on site, and lack of progress. By 2 July he was warning the contractors they would be replaced if they did not immediately “supply a force of at least 100 stone-cutters, 30 bricklayers, and 60 labourers, together with the quality of materials specified in the contract.”15
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