Spadina House

Infobox building
building_name = Spadina House
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building_type = Three Storey House
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location = 285 Spadina Road
Toronto, Canada
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completion_date = 1866
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architect = Unknown (1866)
Vaux Chadwick (1896)cite web|url = http://wx.toronto.ca/inter/culture/doorsopen.nsf/BuildingsAll/4EE2F3E34B116BB0852572880072E00C?OpenDocument|title = Spadina Museum: Historic House & Gardens|publisher = City of Toronto]
Eustace Bird (1905-1912)
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Spadina House, also called Spadina Museum, is an historic manor on Spadina Road in Toronto, Canada that is now a museum operated by the City of Toronto Culture Division. [cite web|url = http://www.toronto.com/attractions/listing/000-100-235|title = Spadina Historic House and Gardens (Spadina Museum)|publisher = City of Toronto] The museum preserves the house much as it existed and developed historically. The art, decor and architecture of the house reflect the contemporary styles of the 1860s through the 1930s, including Victorian, Edwardian, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, Art Nouveau and Colonial Revival styles.cite web|url = http://wx.toronto.ca/inter/it/newsrel.nsf/7017df2f20edbe2885256619004e428e/58ac5a14f3f47242852570ba0060715c?OpenDocument|title = Inaugural Artist in Residence Program exhibition at Spadina Museum|date = November 15, 2005|publisher = City of Toronto|author = Karen Edwards] The estate's gardens reflect both Victorian and Edwardian styles.

Name

Many Torontonians follow a convention of pronouncing Spadina Road with a long "i" and Spadina House as if the "i" like a long "e"; however, it is not uncommon to hear Spadina Road pronounced the second way as well. South of Bloor Street, however, Spadina Road becomes Spadina Avenue, which is "always" pronounced the first way. The distinction between the two ways was once an economic class marker in Toronto with the upper classes favouring the long "e" pronunciation.

History

The first house constructed on the site was built in 1818 by Dr. William Warren Baldwin. He named his convert|200|acre|km2|sing=on property and estate "Spadina", which derived from the native word "espadinong", which translates as "hill" or "sudden rise of land".cite web|url = http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/spadina.htm|title = Spadina|publisher = Toronto Green Community & Toronto Field Naturalists] cite web|url = http://www.springerlink.com/content/r6127304075h0x28/|title = Adventures in Archaeology at the Ontario Heritage Trust|publisher = Springer New York|date = April 18, 2007|author = John H. Jameson Jr. and Sherene Baugher] Baldwin himself designed the two storey wood frame house. The house burnt down in 1835, and owing to the three mile (5 km) trek from the estate into York, he moved to a house on Front Street. He built a smaller country estate on the property in 1836.

The property was acquired by James Austin in 1866, founder of The Dominion Bank and Consumers Gas. By this time, parts of the property had been sold off, and what Austin purchased covered 80 acres. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century the area was the wealthiest in Toronto, with a number of Toronto's leading families having large estates. Austin subdivided and sold off the land west of Spadina Road in 1889, which amounted to 40 acres. In 1892, James Austin turned over the house, and 20 acres of the property to his son, Albert William Austin. Albert Austin expanded the house in several renovations, including the addition of a third floor in 1912. He sold much of the property to the City of Toronto in 1913 for the construction of the St. Clair Reservoir. Albert Austin died in 1933.

The last member of the family to live in the house was Anna Kathleen Thompson, a daughter of Albert Austrin, who lived there from 1942 until 1982. [cite web|url = http://www.torontolife.com/guide/getaways_and_day_trips/day-trips-architecture/spadina-museum-historic-house-and-gardens/|title = Spadina Museum: Historic House and Gardens|publisher = Toronto Life] The aged house had outdated wiring and needed a thorough overhaul, that would have been far more expensive than rebuilding it. While the house could have been sold to private interests such as the Keg Restaurant, the family decided instead to donate the house and all of its furnishings to the city.cite web|url = http://www.historyoftoronto.ca/history/buildings4.html|title = Historic Buildings of Toronto|publisher = Stillwater Productions] In 1984 it opened as a museum, jointly operated by the city and the Ontario Heritage Foundation. The museum is especially known for its gardens. The family still keeps some links with the house and celebrations such as weddings are held there.

Location

The house is at the southern end of the northern section of Spadina Road, on top of Davenport Hill, an escarpment which was the shore of prehistoric Lake Iroquois. Immediately east was Sir John Craig Eaton and Lady Flora McCrea Eaton's massive Italianate palace and estate, Ardwold. Just around the corner on Austin Terrace, on the lot adjacent to Spadina House's, is Casa Loma, a stately pile built in 1911 by Major-General Sir Henry Mill Pellatt.

Awards

The Spadina house was awarded the Peggi Armstrong Public Archaeology Award in 2004. [cite web|url = http://www.ottawaoas.ca/peggi/spadina.htm|title = 2004 Recipient|date = November 16, 2006|publisher = Ontario Archaeological Society - Ottawa Chapter]

The Spadina house was awarded the Ontario Museum Association Award of Merit in conjunction with Dawn Roach Bowen for their Black History Month programme "Meet Mrs. Pipkin" in 2002. [cite web|url = http://wx.toronto.ca/inter/it/newsrel.nsf/11476e3d3711f56e85256616006b891f/a64860238ad1b9ea85256df60045f11c?OpenDocument|title = Culture Division receives two awards for outstanding museum programming|publisher = City of Toronto] Mrs. Pipkin was a laundress at the Spadina house in the 1860s, where she came after escaping slavery in the United States.

References

*Thompson, Austin Seton. "Spadina Story of Old Toronto" Pagurian Press, 1975

External links

* [http://www.toronto.ca/culture/spadina.htm Spadina Museum official site.]