The Selby Hotel was originally home to the Gooderham family, distillers extraordinaire. A prime example of Victorian architecture, it features wraparound verandahs, gables, bargeboards, dormer windows, and exceptional stone and brickwork. The architect, David Roberts Jr, was the same architect who designed the mansion at 504 Jarvis Street in 1891, the Flatiron building at Front and Wellington (the original head office for Gooderham and Worts), and the York Club on the northeast corner of St George and Bloor.

Sherbourne Street, like the parallel Church and Jarvis streets, was at one time the most fashionable street in Toronto. But the area experienced a decline as other residential neighbourhoods, such as the Annex and Rosedale, grew. Upkeep was especially onerous on these large properties. Only in the 1980s did signs of revitalization begin to be seen, as the once elegant mansions became commercial spaces incorporating offices, restaurants, rooming houses, and convenience stores. Despite the fact that it presently serves as a budget hotel, the Selby is fortunate to have largely maintained the scale of its original spaces, although the visitor has to work to imagine it as a luxury residence.

The Gooderhams lived in the house from 1894 to 1910, after which their home became the early incarnation of Branksome Hall, a private girls’ school, from 1910 to 1913. Thereafter, the building became known as the Selby Hotel, so named as it is situated on the corner of Sherbourne and Selby streets.

A classic H-plan configuration was added to the western portion of the property to increase capacity. The Selby served as an early budget hotel and was seconded as a home for World War II officers. At one time Ernest Hemingway stayed at the Selby with his wife Hadley, who occupied an adjoining suite next to her husband. By the 1970s the Selby had become seedy as prostitutes were using its main floor rooms for clients.

The Selby continued to slip into decline until Rick Stenhouse purchased the hotel in 1984 and went about the process of restoring and preserving the property to its original character. The suites in the original home were restored to their 15-foot ceiling heights, and mouldings, doorways, and fireplace mantels were all restored. The cast-iron fence bordering the property is not original but it is similar to the fence that protected the original Gooderham home. The slate roof was restored in the mid-1980s. Today, the well-known gay bar “Boots” occupies the basement of the hotel and the Selby attracts both locals and tourists who are drawn to the offerings of the neighbouring gay community.

Ian Chodikoff