Old City Hall Courthouse — Jimi Hendrix Trial (1969)

Toronto's Old City Hall, a grand Romanesque Revival building at 60 Queen Street West completed in 1899, was the setting for one of rock history's most dramatic legal proceedings: the December 1969 drug trial of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix had been arrested at Toronto airport the previous May on charges of illegal possession of heroin and hashish — charges he consistently denied, insisting the substances had been placed in his bag without his knowledge. The trial drew enormous crowds of young fans who filled the courthouse steps and lined the corridors, turning a criminal proceeding into something closer to a vigil.

The trial lasted three days, with Hendrix testifying in his own defence. His lawyers argued successfully that the drugs had been planted — a credible claim given the number of fans and hangers-on who routinely moved through his orbit. After eight hours of deliberation, the jury returned a not guilty verdict on both counts. Photographs from that day show Hendrix, visibly relieved, moving through a crowd of supporters outside the courtroom's stone arches — images that have become some of the most reproduced of his later years.

Old City Hall still functions as a criminal courthouse and is one of the most beautiful civic buildings in Canada. The building is a National Historic Site of Canada and receives thousands of visitors each year, most of whom pass through its great entrance hall unaware that Jimi Hendrix once stood before a judge inside these walls. A small number of music-history devotees make the journey specifically to stand where he stood — an unremarked pilgrimage to a building that briefly held the fate of the greatest guitarist who ever lived.