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It wasn't until 1943, more than 50 years after hockey began, that a group of men first sat
down to discuss a way to acknowledge the achievements of those who had made great contributions
to the game. In 1945, the first of the honoured members were inducted and tentative plans were
laid by Capt. J.T. Sutherland for a building to be constructed in Kingston, Ontario. Sutherland, one of the genuine fathers of hockey, was instrumental in popularizing the game in the years before the First World War. He remained active after the war in the development of amateur hockey in Canada and in the formation of the Hockey Hall of Fame. With his death in 1955, the focus for the still unbuilt Hall of Fame shifted to Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) grounds.
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Our First Home At the CNE
It was at the CNE that the Hockey Hall of Fame's first home was built. It was founded by
the NHL, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association and the City of Toronto but once again it
was not organizations but individuals who made things happen. In this case, it was primarily
Conn Smythe. The patriarch of the Toronto Maple Leafs had steered his hockey club through
seven Stanley Cups and now, as chairman of the NHL owners' committee, Smythe personally
supervised construction of the Hockey Hall of Fame building on the grounds of the
CNE, just west of downtown Toronto.
Before its construction, however, the Hockey Hall of Fame moved in with Canada's Sports Hall of
Fame in a building generously provided by Harry I. Price of the CNE. Afterwards, Canada's Sports
Hall of Fame was invited to share space in the new facility at Exhibition Place. The building was completed on May 1, 1961, and was officially opened by Canadian Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker on August 26, 1961.
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The Move to BCE Place
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On June 18, 1993, the Hockey Hall of Fame opened the doors of its current home in BCE Place.
The new $35 million facility comprises 57,000 square feet, including 10,000 square feet in the
magnificently restored Bank of Montreal building located on the corner of Yonge and Front Streets, with the balance in the Shopping/Food Court Concourse level at BCE Place. The new Hockey Hall of Fame quickly established a reputation as a world-class sports and entertainment facility and one of Toronto's prime tourist attractions, with over 500,000 visitors in its
first year.
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