06/16/2026
Mount Sinai Hospital's Yorkville Origins
Many Torontonians know Mount Sinai Hospital on University Avenue, but the hospital actually began in Yorkville.
In 1922, a group of Jewish immigrant women from the Ezras Noshem Society purchased a house at 100 Yorkville Avenue. At the time, many Jewish patients and physicians faced barriers at existing hospitals. Physicians were not hired, and in some cases patients were turned away, due solely to their religious beliefs.
The new institution was created to provide culturally appropriate care, including kosher food and Yiddish-speaking staff.
The hospital opened in 1923 as the Hebrew Maternity and Convalescent Hospital, with only a few dozen beds. A year later it was renamed Mount Sinai Hospital. Toronto's Jewish doctors, many of whom had difficulty obtaining hospital appointments elsewhere, volunteered their services there. Many Jewish physicians were forced to treat patients in cramped old buildings in "The Ward" or in Kensington Market. This new hospital provided a clean, modern facility for the patients and physicians.
A key figure in its creation was Dorothy Dworkin, a nurse and community organizer who led fundraising efforts and became the hospital's first president.
As Toronto grew, the hospital quickly outgrew its Yorkville home. A major addition designed by architects Benjamin Kaminker and Edward Richmond was completed in 1934, giving the building the distinctive brick façade that survives today.
In 1953, Mount Sinai moved to a new purpose-built facility on University Avenue, where it remains today. While it opened with the same intent, by 1960 it was serving all Torontonains.
The original Yorkville building later served as a nursing home. Most of the structure was demolished in the late 1980s, but the historic façade was preserved and incorporated into the redevelopment of the site.
This is one of the neighbourhood's most important surviving institutional landmarks. The preserved façade still stands at 100 Yorkville Avenue, now incorporated into a luxury retail and residential complex. If you've walked past the Chanel store on Yorkville Avenue, you've walked past the birthplace of Mount Sinai.
