Step back in time inside the Wellington Destructor as the city mulls the landmark's future

Sunshine spears in through the old windows, illuminating decades of graffiti and the memories of a gaping pit into which horsedrawn buggies unloaded the city's garbage in the decades following the First World War. 

The smokestacks at the 667 Wellington St. W stopped belching their fumes in the 1970s. And 10 years later, the site was decommissioned. 

But it will get a rebirth. 

The past

The City of Toronto launched public consultations about what to do with the former industrial hub overlooking Fort York Tuesday. 

And as city staff make plans for its future, CBC Toronto wanted to take you back into its past for inspiration. 

The city designated the former incinerator a heritage building in 2005. While nearly 30 years of vacancy, peeling paint and graffiti have taken their toll on what was not an architectural masterpiece to begin with, the building's value lies in the stories it's preserved from the past, architect David Lieberman said. 

"The value of the building is that it was a critical part of the infrastructure that made the city function when it was first built in 1925 and continued to do so for many years."

The future

The site can also become an icon for the present community, he said, much like the Evergreen Brick Works and Wychwood Barns.

Residents have suggested the brick building, which still has its massive ovens and industrial beams, could be converted into a community health centre, a theatre, or a school.

Studio space.

A library.  

Affordable housing.

"It has something that we can look back and something that we can look forward," Lieberman said.

The Niagara neighbourhood went through several iterations, shaped by the immigrants and the industry that moved into it over the years, Coun. Mike Layton said. 

"It's actually quite striking when you're inside," the Ward 19 councillor said. "And you realize the kind of potential we'd have with a site like that."