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Lecture Tour of America 1882

Writing and Research on Oscar Wilde

Toronto

Ontario

Horticultural Gardens (Pavilion)

Saturday, May 27, 1882

The House Beautiful

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Verification

Newspaper reports

The Toronto Evening Telegram, May 27, 1882

The Toronto Mail, May 28, 1882

Among others, both newspapers reported Wilde's lecture, his appearance, and his activities.

Quoted in Oscar Wilde Discovers America (1882), Lewis & Smith, 1936

Newspaper announcement

The Toronto Globe, May 26, 1882

Announced after Wilde's first lecture in Toronto that he would speak again next Saturday afternoon... and:

"if it is as well packed as was the Grand Opera House last night it will assuredly be a house beautiful..."

Venue

Pavilion of the Horticultural Gardens

Between Carlton and Gerrard Streets, Toronto, ON (now Allan Gardens Conservatory, 19 Horticultural Ave.)

Opened: 1879 (Langley, Langley and Burke, architects)

Conservatory expansion: 1894

Destroyed (fire): June 6, 1902

Replaced: 1910 by the Palm House

Accommodation

Queen's Hotel

NE corner of Front and York Streets, Toronto, ON (now 100 Front Street West)

Original residential buildings: 1844

Buildings combined: 1856 (as Sword’s Hotel)

Expanded until: 1862 (as Queen's Hotel)

Closed: September 10, 1927

Demolished: 1927

Replaced by: The Royal York Hotel (opened June 11, 1929, extant)

The Horticultural Pavilion in the 1880s

John Cooper on Oscar Wilde © 2026