Toronto's iconic Inglis billboard is no more

Since 1975, the Inglis billboard alongside the Gardiner Expressway entertained drivers with quirky messages.

For many years, the billboard was all that remained of Inglis — an appliance manufacturer, now owned by Whirlpool, which once had a plant on Strachan Avenue, near Exhibition Place. 

This week, the iconic sign was removed.

The contract for the sign was between outdoor advertising agency Pattison Outdoor Signs and Whirpool Canada. The sign's former space is no longer considered viable for advertising because it is obscured by condominiums.

Once the contract was up, "there was no appetite to continue," said a Pattison spokesman. The sign was carted to Orillia where it will be dismantled. 

For years, the sign displayed quirky, all-capitalized messages, such as:

• "Destiny is not a matter of chance it is a matter of choice"
• "The greatest remedy for anger is delay"
• "No day in which you learn something is a complete loss"

John Inglis and Company was an appliance manufacturer founded in Ontario in 1859. The plant on Strachan Avenue was built in 1881, and at its height employed nearly 2,000 people. The plant was directly under the sign.

Whirlpool acquired Inglis in 1987 and changed the company name to Whirlpool Canada in 2001.