The Ford Hotel was a historic hotel in central Toronto. It was one of five hotels in the R.T. Ford & Company hotel chain and was identical to the Ford Hotel, Buffalo and Ford Motel, Montreal. The 750 room hotel consisted of three 12 storey towers on Dundas Street West, east of Bay Street

Bay Street

Bay Street, originally known as Bear Street, is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Canada's financial industry since succeeding Montreal's St. James Street in that role in the 1970s...

. It was built in 1928 and for several decades was one of the city's most prominent hotels. The hotel was next to the Toronto Bus Terminal

Toronto Bus Terminal

The Toronto Coach Terminal is the main bus station for inter-city services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 610 Bay Street, , in the downtown core of the city. The terminal is owned by Toronto Coach Terminal Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of the Toronto Transit Commission...

 and provided cheap rooms for lower income travellers. It was also well known as a site for crime and vice. The Toronto Star called it the "rendezvous of choice for couples pursuing an illicit affair." In 1973 one of the rooms was the site of the sexual assault and murder of 9 year old Kirk Deasley by John McBeth Finlayson.

The building was demolished in 1973 and the site is today home to the Atrium on Bay

Atrium on Bay

Atrium on Bay is a retail and office complex in Toronto, Canada. It was built on the former site of the Ford Hotel on the north side of Dundas Street West, extending from Yonge Street to Bay Street. The 14-floor building was built in 1981 with two floors of retail stores...

.

Other Ford Hotels

All buildings were designed by Rochester architect John Foster Warner (1859-1937) and all but Toronto and Buffalo locations survive today:

• Ford Hotel, Erie - Built in Erie, PA, the 400 room hotel located at 515 State Street was renamed Richford Hotel and is now Richford Arms apartments

• Ford Hotel, Buffalo - Built in 1922, the 750 room hotel located at 210-214 Deleware Avenue was later converted as an office tower and home to Buffalo Athletic Club. It was demolished in 2000

• Ford Hotel, Rochester - Built in the 1920s, this 300 room hotel is now the seedy Hotel Cadillac (45 Chestnut Street)

• Hotel Ford, Montreal - Opened in 1930, the 750 room hotel is now converted as office building and referred to as 1425 René-Levesque Ouest. It also served as CBC-Radio-Canada Montreal headquarters from 1936 to the early seventies.