TORONTO: Parks Canada has recognized Spadina Museum as a site of historic significance. Built in 1866, the #CityofTO landmark is one of 10 Toronto History Museums.
Begun in 1866 for Toronto entrepreneur James Austin and his wife Susan Bright Austin, this Toronto landmark is a rare example of a country estate and villa transformed into an opulent Edwardian residence.
Between 1897 and 1913, Toronto architect W.C. Vaux Chadwick, the American firm Carrère and Hastings with Eustace G. Bird, and painter Gustav Hahn designed extensive changes for the earlier Victorian country house, whose designer is unknown. Spadina was inherited by James Austin’s son Albert.
Together with his wife, Mary, he commissioned renovations that would impress upon neighbours and visitors alike the family’s prominent social position and their wealth.
The mansion’s architecture, interior design and furnishings together with its surrounding grounds, garden, and outbuildings illustrate the grandeur in which Canada’s wealthy elite lived during a period of rapid urban expansion at the beginning of the 20th century.
This is conveyed on the interior through the innovative arrangements of public and private rooms for the family and a servants quarters. On the exterior, it is expressed in the design and arrangement of gardens, a greenhouse, and a garage complete with chauffeur’s quarters.
Spadina sits on a 5.7-acre (2.31 hectare) plot of land on the brow of Davenport Hill in the Casa Loma district of Toronto.
The northern part of the property, now separated from the southern part on the west side by a stone pergola dating to 1909, contains the services buildings – stable (1850), garage/chauffeur’s residence (1909), and greenhouse (1913). An apple orchard also sits
north of the house.
To the east is a formally planned kitchen and flower garden in parterre formation. South of the house, the terrace opens onto a large manicured lawn that culminates in a tree screen at the lip of Davenport Hill.