One King West, Toronto

[Doug MacQueen]

I believe that is a Remington Sherman door having seen pictures of one just like it, but as you say it is strikingly similar to the Cleveland York. I, too have found nothing in the patents for either door. If I remember correctly, York did take over Rem Sherm but that happened later. The overall design of both doors was both innovative and more modern looking than other doors of time, especially if the Toronto door is from 1914. Both doors use pins in the jamb that mate up to pins in the door to push and pull the boltwork. There is definitely a connection between the two but I have yet to figure it out.

[Doug MacQueen]

I think I have found the connection here. Frederick S. Holmes, who was a very active vault engineer during that period designed several doors of this type based on what I have found searching his name. If you have "Lure of Lock" he includes some door pictures in his article at the back of the book. Still haven't found any patents though for this type of door.

[wylk]

Two more things --

I have verified with the One King West hotel that the door is in fact a Remington & Sherman, and that the vault engineer was Frederick S. Holmes.

I found a note in a 1926 magazine that the Bronx County Trust Company installed a vault which included Holmes electric protection, and the "vault was installed by Remington and Sherman." I note the use of "installed" rather than "manufactured"; an image in the magazine looks almost exactly like a Diebold door I examined earlier the same day (please note I am not a locksmith/vaultsmith, this was pure luck). I'm thinking perhaps in R&S' later years (1922-1925) they became more of a reseller/marketer than a manufacturer and their eventual absorption by York was to gain access to their patents and reputation. The magazine was Architecture and Building, volume 58 number 4, April 1926, page 45 and plates. This is about the only mention of R&S that I can find after 1922 excluding some banking directory entries.

[VaultDoors]

I found a floor plan for the One King West vault area and added some detail. Please let me know if any terms are incorrect:



Here is a pic and video gallery I compiled for the One King West vault door.

[wylk]

I found a floor plan for the One King West vault area and added some detail. Please let me know if any terms are incorrect:



Here is a pic and video gallery I compiled for the One King West vault door.

It's my understanding that modern usage is more often "Safe Deposit" than "Safety Deposit."

The "Safety Deposit Room" (as seen in the Realtor video) looks more like something the hotel installed for patrons rather than anything original. It might have originally been a "Coupon Room" or something else.

While the time lock currently has three movements, it probably originally had four (which was frequent on such large doors). I don't have any old images to support this but here is a drawing that suggests four:

[VaultDoors]

Great observations, thank you! I updated the vault plan:

[VaultDoors]

The One King West vault door appears to be missing its glass panel. If you look at the inside of the outer most ring (towards the bottom) you can see what appears to be a track to hold the glass in place. Vault doors of similar design (Cleveland Fed and Equitable Bldg/Capital Grille) have glass panels installed to enclose the locking bolts. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any pics of the vault door with the glass installed.

[wylk]

The One King West vault door appears to be missing its glass panel...

True, I hadn't noticed that. I checked all of my images and could not find one with glass. It would be nice to see it replaced but a piece that large might be a bit pricey to buy and have cut. Plus it would make the door much more difficult to photograph.

The Broker restaurant in Denver used to have its glass panel but it disappeared too, comparing older and newer images. Being in a bar I'd have to guess somebody accidentally broke it, and the staff thinks it looks better without the glass.

[VaultDoors]

It's my understanding that modern usage is more often "Safe Deposit" than "Safety Deposit."

The "Safety Deposit Room" (as seen in the Realtor video) looks more like something the hotel installed for patrons rather than anything original. It might have originally been a "Coupon Room" or something else.

While the time lock currently has three movements, it probably originally had four (which was frequent on such large doors). I don't have any old images to support this but here is a drawing that suggests four:

That's a great drawing. Do you have any other drawings/pictures/plans of the One King West door you can share that are not in my online gallery?

[wylk]

Do you have any other drawings/pictures/plans of the One King West door you can share that are not in my online gallery?

Several. I'll start with some historical images, though they are not of the door itself. I believe you posted one of these but it's not in your gallery.



The above are clearly from the same photograph. Unfortunately the wide view is only 235x295 pixels while the closeup is 960x393. If only the wide view were available at the same resolution!



The above are also about transporting the frame/hinge. Somewhere I read that while it was slowly traversing Adelaide Street, the streetcar shown in the second image was delayed and the streetcar operator was so mad he left the car and almost got in a fist-fight with the owner of the moving company. The move also supposedly damaged the pavement.



Similarly, the above are all the same picture. The first two again show the result of cropping. In the third, somebody took the second image, cropped it a bit, and photoshopped text and models over it; notice you can still see the deposit box lid poking out of the right-hand model.

I'll post a few more later today.