The building at 49 Wellington Street East, commonly known the Gooderham Building or the Flatiron Building, is situated on a triangular parcel of land in Toronto's St. Lawrence Market District. The five-storey building assumes a wedge-like shape and was constructed in 1891 to the designs of architect David Roberts Jr.

The Gooderham Building is associated with the Gooderham family, particularly George Gooderham, the eldest son of William, who founded Toronto's Gooderham and Worts Distillery in 1837.
In the 1880s, after taking over his father's continuously expanding distillery, George commissioned architect David Roberts Jr. to construct a building slightly west of the industrial complex to house the offices for the business. At a cost of $18,000 it was the most expensive office building to be erected within all of Toronto at that time.
As the president of the distillery, the Bank of Toronto and the Manufacturer's Life Insurance Company, Gooderham possessed the finances to decorate the building with the most lavish of details. At the time of his death in 1905, Gooderham was listed as the wealthiest man in Ontario.

The Gooderham Building stands like a ship’s bow at the intersection of Church, Wellington and Front streets. It was built to house offices belonging to the Gooderham family, who grew wealthy in the distilling and banking industries. Nicknamed the “Flatiron Building” for its resemblance to an old-fashioned clothes-iron, the building's triangular shape results from the meeting of Wellington Street with Front Street and the diagonal route that followed the 19th-century waterfront.
The distinctive building owes its appeal to more than its shape. Its colours, steep copper roof and distinctive tower aptly express the prestige of the Gooderham family and its power in the community. The tromp l’oeil painting on the rear of the building, by Derek Besant, has become an attraction in its own right.
Many people assume that the Gooderham Building is a copy of the better-known and larger Flatiron Building in New York City, but in fact it predates the latter by some ten years. A designated Heritage property, the Gooderham Building is still used for office space, complete with a pub in the basement.