History of the hall

The Hockey hall of fame has James Sutherland to thank as its founder. He belived Kingston Ontario was the birthplace of hockey, so in 1943 the NHL and the CAHA agreed that the Hockey Hall of Fame would be established in Kingston. It was originally called the "international Hockey Hall of Fame. The first eleven inductees were inducted on April 30th 1945. At this point the Hall did not have a permanent location. In 1955 Stherland died and by 1958 they still had not built a permanent building in Kingston.

In 1958 the NHL and the Canadian National Exhibition agreed to build a Hall of Fame in Toronto. They opened a temporary exhibit within the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame located at Exhibition Place. The temporary Hockey Hall of Fame opened as an exhibit within the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in August 1958, and 350,000 people visited it during the 1958 CNE fair
The first Permanent building was built in 1961 where admission was free until and expansion in 1980.

New hall Of Fame
Then in 1986 they decided it was time to have more room and that a new home was needed. That exhibition Place building was closed in 1992 and the new Hockey Hall of Fame opened in 1993 in the former Bank of Montreal at the corner of Younge and Front Streets.