The Royal York Hotel. This hotel stands on town lots granted in 1798 to William Dummer Powell, who built a log house on the site in 1812. Brick houses built here in 1844 by Captain Thomas Dick later became Sword's Hotel. Re-named the Queen's Hotel in 1862, it was enlarged several times before being demolished in 1927. The lot at York and Front Streets was used by a travelling circus, and, in the 1880s was the site of Alderman Harry Piper's zoo. The Royal York, opened on 11 June 1929, was the largest hotel in the British Empire and dominated the Toronto skyline for almost half a century, it was designed by the firm of Ross, Patterson, Townsend & Fish, who also added the east wing in 1959. The hotel provided Toronto's first major convention centre and has played an important role in the social life of the city. During its fifty years the Royal York has upheld the finest traditions of a grand hotel and remains the largest in the Commonwealth.