Evocative Images of Lost Toronto

[r937]

as an addendum to the story of the deer park church(es), there was a church schoolhouse on that little triangle which was picked up and moved in 1920 to 110 glenrose avenue just south of st clair and mount pleasant, and used as a studio by "the girls" frances loring and florence wyle --

http://www.torontohistory.org/Pages_DEF/Frances_Loring.html
http://www.thegridto.com/city/places/ghost-city-loring-wyle-parkette/
http://www.osgoodehall.com/francesloringstatue7.html
http://section15.ca/features/people/2000/05/04/loring_wyle/

 

[nostalgic]

The development of Deer Park between 1900 and 1923 is vivid in the early photos of idyllic Lawton Park and the later one showing the built-up area. And, the link to the history of Christ Church Deer Park has interesting detail. I hadn't known that there was a connection to St. John's York Mills.

 

[k10ery]

Today, the site of one of Toronto's finest Regency villas is now a cul-de-sac, flanked by 1950's apartment buildings:

Thanks for this wonderful short history. Would you call the original style Regency? By the time of the first photos it was rather Italianate. But these styles did seem to get mixed together in mid-century Toronto.

 

[themarc]

The development of Deer Park between 1900 and 1923 is vivid in the early photos of idyllic Lawton Park and the later one showing the built-up area. And, the link to the history of Christ Church Deer Park has interesting detail. I hadn't known that there was a connection to St. John's York Mills.

Where is the link for the connection to York Mills?

 

[nostalgic]

It's here:

"A history of the church and the neighbourhoold can be found on: http://www.christchurchdeerpark.org/...ItAllBegan.pdf ."

 

[thecharioteer]

Thanks for this wonderful short history. Would you call the original style Regency? By the time of the first photos it was rather Italianate. But these styles did seem to get mixed together in mid-century Toronto.

I'm no architectural historian but I think the veranda and roof-line certainly seems Regency-esque....(http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/regency.htm)

 

[k10ery]

I'm no architectural historian but I think the veranda and roof-line certainly seems Regency-esque....(http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/regency.htm)

For "no architectural historian" you sure post lots of interesting architectural history.

There's also this:

http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/italianate.htm

 

[thecharioteer]

Thanks k10ery!

We have to remember that period-style demarcations are very imprecise, particularly in a "colonial" city like Toronto. Eric Arthur described a "late-flowering Georgian" period in Toronto mid-nineteenth century. What is the transition between this and what we would call Victorian? It's very fluid. Lawton Park was definitely a pumped-up Regency villa or cottage (and the Italianate influence is undeniable), worlds apart from the rustic simplicity of Colborne Lodge and Elmsley Villa, a generation earlier. It would seem that by the 1860's the Regency style was already passé soon to be replaced by Second Empire as the preferred style for the upper classes. A generation later the "hefty" style (as Urban Shocker used to call it) of Romanesque Revival would dominate.

Good article on the style: http://spacing.ca/toronto/2009/10/01/regency/

Elmsley Villa (Bay and Grosvenor) in 1840:

Colborne Lodge in 1920:

Spadina and Sullivan:

Drumsnab in Rosedale, sketch from 1845:

 

[k10ery]

Thanks k10ery!

We have to remember that period-style demarcations are very imprecise, particularly in a "colonial" city like Toronto. Eric Arthur described a "late-flowering Georgian" period in Toronto mid-nineteenth century. What is the transition between this and what we would call Victorian? It's very fluid. Lawton Park was definitely a pumped-up Regency villa or cottage (and the Italianate influence is undeniable), worlds apart from the rustic simplicity of Colborne Lodge and Elmsley Villa, a generation earlier.

Yes, it's very fluid. It's interesting to compare Lawton Park

to Mashquoteh, designed by John G. Howard around the same time and built a block to the west:

The latter is a more standard Regency villa in the picturesque style, with much simpler detailing in the windows, architraves, brackets, and balustrade.

Of course, some of that detail could have been added later. The first sketch you posted shows a much simpler porch, and a verandah supported by treillage. Those did not last well, given the Canadian winter, and the changing styles.

 

[nostalgic]

I wonder if John G. Howard also designed Lyndally, built sometime after 1835 on the east side of Yonge St. north of York Mills Rd. by Lt.-Col Duncan Cameron. The proportions and details are similar to other homes by Howard (with the verandah presumably filled in at some point). According to Patricia Hart in Pioneering in North York, the house contained 28 rooms, seven fireplaces, and wine cellars. The photo, taken when the building was the St Andrews Golf Course clubhouse, is from the book. I remember the clubhouse from the '50s (sneaking in to buy ice cream). Howard designed the current St. John's York Mills, completed in 1843.

 

[Conrad Black]

Great history lessons here.

 

[thecharioteer]

Yes, it's very fluid. It's interesting to compare Lawton Park

to Mashquoteh, designed by John G. Howard around the same time and built a block to the west:

The latter is a more standard Regency villa in the picturesque style, with much simpler detailing in the windows, architraves, brackets, and balustrade.

Of course, some of that detail could have been added later. The first sketch you posted shows a much simpler porch, and a verandah supported by treillage. Those did not last well, given the Canadian winter, and the changing styles.

There are also similarities to Kearsney House (1846), which became "Dundonald" (and ultimately Dundonald Street; see post #1629 in this thread):

And the John Willoughby Crawford House (SE corner of Yonge and Granby); TPL:

The picturesque style was logical for the Crawford House given its location in the country north of the "city" (on the "Young Street Road"), as can be seen in the 1842 Kane map. Granby, then known as Ann Street, can be found two blocks north of Gerrard:




http://oldtorontomaps.blogspot.ca/2013/01/1842-cane-topographical-map-of-city-and.html

 

[k10ery]

Kearsney House is similar to Kingsland, which Howard built in 1840 in what is now Lawrence Park. Scadding calls it "an English-looking mansion of brick with circular ends". The footprint looks the same on maps before it was demolished after 1810. But I haven't been able to find a picture.

 

[thecharioteer]

Kearsney House is similar to Kingsland, which Howard built in 1840 in what is now Lawrence Park. Scadding calls it "an English-looking mansion of brick with circular ends". The footprint looks the same on maps before it was demolished after 1810. But I haven't been able to find a picture.

The original home on the "Lawrence Park Estates" was called Kingsland and was located at the height of the property near the end of what was the driveway and is now Lympstone Avenue. It was designed by prominent Toronto architect, John Howard, and built in the late 1830's.

The following photograph was recently uncovered in the Toronto Star archives and shows the unusual design which included curved ends. Under the orginal plans for Lawrence Park, a five acre park was set aside in Lawrence Crescent where the Lawrence farmhouse and outbuildings stood. Evidence of the home is mostly gone now, except for an old well which was discovered behind 11 Lawrence Crescent during an historic walking tour for school children in the mid 1990's!

http://ymlp.com/zWEqJL

From the 1910 Goad Atlas:



1910 Proposed Subdivision:



1924 Goad. Kingsland, and the proposed park, are gone:

 

[k10ery]

thecharioteer, you're a wizard!

It's very interesting to see Kingsland, which was actually 1836-7 according to Howard. There's nothing of the picturesque there except maybe the curved bays - quite different than what he was building for himself at the same time in Colborne Lodge. With the small windows, pilasters, and string course, that's a pretty stern neo-classical look. The original roof and window hoods might have lightened it a bit, but I'd say he got better in the 10 years to Kearsney House.