Eaton’s was Toronto’s largest department store for most of the twentieth century. Founded by Timothy Eaton in 1869, the company ran a store at Yonge and Queen streets, sold across the country by catalogue from 1884, and in October 1930 opened a seven-storey store at Yonge and College streets that housed one of the city’s best-known Art Deco rooms.
This article covers the period from 1900 to the late 1960s, when Eaton’s sat at the center of Toronto’s shopping life. The founder’s own career is told in the article on Timothy Eaton, and the later fight over the Eaton Centre is covered in the article on the Eaton Centre and Toronto’s shopping districts.
The store in 1900
According to the Toronto Public Library’s retail history blog, Timothy Eaton had opened a multi-storey department store on Yonge Street by 1883, with electric lighting, elevators, 300 employees, and 35 departments. His rival, Robert Simpson, had started a dry-goods store in 1871 and later built a large store at the southwest corner of Yonge and Queen streets. The first Eaton’s catalogue appeared in 1884 and, the Library says, changed shopping across the country, making the company Canada’s largest retailer.
By 1900 the two firms dominated the retail district on Yonge Street. The Canadian Encyclopedia describes Eaton’s and Simpson’s as the center of downtown Toronto shopping, and credits Eaton’s with introducing money-back guarantees and a mail-order catalogue service.
Santa Claus parade, 1905
The Toronto Public Library’s account of the T. Eaton Company dates the Eaton’s Santa Claus Parade to 1905. A City of Toronto heritage document gives the first date as December 2, 1905. The same library page says the company ended its sponsorship of the parade in 1982, citing rising costs, while other summaries date the last Eaton’s-run parade to 1981, so the end year is stated differently across sources. The parade still takes place under other sponsors.
Changes for staff, 1907 to 1948
Timothy Eaton died in 1907, and his son John Craig Eaton became president, at age 30 according to Maclean’s. The Toronto Public Library timeline lists several milestones in the decades that followed:
- 1915: John Craig Eaton was knighted, as the library puts it, for philanthropy. The Maclean’s article says he was knighted by King George V for his contributions during the First World War.
- 1919: Saturday holidays and 5:00 p.m. evening closing were introduced at Eaton’s stores, mail-order offices, and factories. Maclean’s, in an article republished by The Canadian Encyclopedia, describes the same year’s change as a 5½-day week with Saturdays off in July and August for the company’s 18,000 employees.
- 1942: John David Eaton became president.
- 1948: John David Eaton personally contributed $50 million to the employee retirement plan, according to the library timeline.
The sources read do not give the number of Eaton’s employees or the size of the catalogue for any year between 1900 and 1969, and this article does not estimate them.
The College Street store, 1930
Parks Canada’s Canadian Register of Historic Places says the overall building at Yonge and College was designed by Ross and Macdonald, with Sproatt and Rolph as associates, and that the seventh-floor rooms were built in 1930 and opened in 1931. The French architect Jacques Carlu designed the Eaton Auditorium and the Round Room restaurant, working with René Cera and the muralist Natacha Carlu. The Round Room is a domed circle set within a square, with raised alcoves faced in Carrara glass and a fountain linked to the lighting system.
The Canadian Encyclopedia says Eaton’s opened the seven-storey store in October 1930, and that it was the only phase completed of a larger plan that had included a 38-storey office tower. The 1930 date of the store and the 1931 opening of the seventh-floor rooms are therefore reported by two different sources for two different spaces. The Eaton Auditorium had 1,200 seats, and its acoustics were compared to Carnegie Hall. It hosted national and local arts events. The Canadian Register records that the rooms were declared a National Historic Site of Canada on June 13, 1983. Other concert venues of the era are described in the article on Massey Hall.
| Year | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1869 | Timothy Eaton opens a Toronto store | Toronto Public Library |
| 1884 | First mail-order catalogue | Toronto Public Library |
| 1905 | First Eaton’s Santa Claus Parade | Toronto Public Library |
| October 1930 | College Street store opens | Canadian Encyclopedia |
| 1931 | Seventh-floor auditorium and Round Room open | Parks Canada |
| 1969 | John Craig Eaton II becomes chairman of the board | Toronto Public Library |
| 1976 | Catalogue discontinued; College Street store and seventh floor close | Toronto Public Library; Canadian Encyclopedia |
Toward the end of the era
The Canadian Encyclopedia notes that Eaton’s announced, in the mid-1960s, plans for a large office and shopping complex that would have demolished nearly every building in the block bounded by Yonge, Bay, Queen, and Dundas streets. A fierce local debate over the proposed loss of Old City Hall and Holy Trinity Church delayed the project for 12 years, and the Eaton Centre opened on February 10, 1977 with both buildings standing. In 1976 the catalogue was discontinued, and the College Street store and its seventh floor closed. The Canadian Encyclopedia says the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against demolishing the auditorium in 1986, after a debate of about a decade, and the space reopened in 2003 as The Carlu event venue.
Frequently asked questions
When was Eaton’s founded in Toronto?
Timothy Eaton founded the company in 1869, according to the Toronto Public Library.
When did the Eaton’s Santa Claus Parade begin?
In 1905. A City of Toronto heritage document gives December 2, 1905 for the first parade.
What was the Eaton Auditorium?
A 1,200-seat concert hall on the seventh floor of the College Street store, designed by Jacques Carlu, which opened in 1931 and is a National Historic Site of Canada.
When did Eaton’s stop issuing its catalogue?
In 1976, according to the Toronto Public Library timeline. The company filed for bankruptcy protection on August 20, 1999.
Related reading
- Timothy Eaton
- The Eaton Centre and Toronto’s shopping districts
- Yonge Street: history of the street
- Massey Hall: history of the concert hall
- An overview of Toronto’s history
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Toronto Public Library, Local History and Genealogy blog, Remembering the T. Eaton Company on August 20
- Parks Canada, Eaton’s 7th Floor Auditorium and Round Room National Historic Site, Canadian Register of Historic Places
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, Toronto Feature: The Carlu
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, Toronto Feature: Eaton Centre
- Toronto Public Library, Local History and Genealogy blog, Shop Local: A Look Back at Toronto’s Early Retail History
- Rae Corelli, “Eaton’s: A Dynasty in Decline,” Maclean’s, March 10, 1997, republished by The Canadian Encyclopedia
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Eaton, Timothy
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). Eaton’s in Toronto: The Department Store, 1900 to 1969. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/eatons-toronto-history
MLA: “Eaton’s in Toronto: The Department Store, 1900 to 1969.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/eatons-toronto-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Eaton’s in Toronto: The Department Store, 1900 to 1969.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/eatons-toronto-history.
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