# @toronto_archives on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DbsxakFDqPL
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/68934594-toronto-archives-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/0750bc2e59.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-06T13:02:57.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** City of Toronto Archives (@toronto_archives) — https://gondola.cc/toronto_archives

## Caption

Standing at the mouth of the Humber River in the 1950s, you would have been faced with a very different scene on the lakeshore – the Palace Pier. 

Conceived as “Canada’s Million Dollar Pier” in the late 1920s, the original development was to include a ballroom, a “Palace of Fun”, a band pavilion, and a theatre – all on a pier extending over half a kilometre into the lake. The project was delayed by financial difficulties and the Great Depression, and after the cornerstone was laid in 1931 the building would sit vacant for a decade. The final iteration was a main ballroom on a 100m long pier. 

First opening as a roller rink called the Strathcona Palace Pier in June 1941, it was would later be known as the Queensway Ballroom, the Humber Pier Ballroom, then the Palace Pier from the mid-1940s onwards. For two decades, the space hosted dances, orchestras, fundraisers, competitions, and rallies with Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Lionel Hampton among the performers. 

In the early hours of January 7, 1963, a fire destroyed the building. Today, the Palace Place and Palace Pier condo buildings stand by the site and a plaque marking the former venue can be found on the waterfront trail. 

1. Palace Pier postcard. Fonds 534, File 65.

2. Aerial photograph, 1956 (detail). Fonds 220, Series 12, File 1956, Item 184.

3. Palace Pier - Murray Dance contest - Mr. and Mrs. Harry Spearin, July 1949. Fonds 1266, Item 135706.

4. Convention, corn roast at Palace Pier, September 1953. Fonds 200, Series 2791, File 374.

5. Hydro Ball at the Palace Pier, 1950. Fonds 1653, Series 975, File 519.

6. Duke Ellington orchestra, Queensway Ballroom, 1949. Fonds 1266, Item 101157.

7. Aerial views of Gardiner Expressway and Lake Shore Boulevard West, ca. late 1950s. Fonds 220, Series 65, File 47, Item 12.

8. Construction of the outfall sewer at Humber River, with a western view of Palace Pier dance hall, 1956. Fonds 220, Series 163, File 43.

9. F.G. Gardiner Expressway construction, 1957-58. Fonds 220, Series 3, File 188.

10. Aerial view of Palace Pier and Palace Place condos at the Humber River, 2010. Fonds 219, Series 2311, File 3084, Item 45.

#TOhistory #TorontoArchives

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