Notice of intention to designate

2 O'Connor Drive

Take notice that Toronto City Council intends to designate the lands and buildings known municipally as 2 O'Connor Drive under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Reasons for Designation

Description
The property at 2 O'Connor Drive is worthy of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, and meets the criteria for municipal designation prescribed by the Province of Ontario under the three categories of design, associative and contextual value. Located on the north side of O'Connor Drive where the street intersects with Broadview Avenue, the John F. Taylor House (1885) is a 2½-storey house form building. The property is listed on the City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties.

Statement of Significance
The John F. Taylor House is significant for its association with one of East York's founding families. John Fred Taylor belonged to the third generation of the family that established paper mills on the Don River in the early 1800s and went on to acquire other enterprises, including a brewery, in the Don Valley. After John and his brothers inherited the family business in 1885, they founded the Don Valley Pressed Brick Company, which produced building materials that were shipped across North America and also used in the construction of many structures in Toronto (the Don Valley Brick Works complex survives on Bayview Avenue as a recognized heritage site). To coincide with his inheritance, John F. Taylor assembled an irregularly-shaped parcel of land at present-day 2 O'Connor Drive where he commissioned a large residence. It was subsequently occupied for nearly 30 years by Robert L. Patterson (presumably a relative of Taylor's wife, Elizabeth Patterson), who named the estate "Fernwood." Beginning in 1930 and continuing into the 21st century, the property at 2 O'Connor was associated with the Ina Grafton Gage Home for the Aged, a nursing home operated by the United Church of Canada. The institution was named for the wife of Sir William Gage, the noted Toronto businessman and philanthropist whose trust fund financed the acquisition of the site.

Toronto architect D. B. Dick's designs for the John F. Taylor House were executed at the high point of his career during the 1880s. David Brash Dick (1846-1928) was a Scottish-born and trained architect who, following his arrival in Canada in the 1870s, entered into a short partnership with builder Robert Grant. During this period, Dick's major client was the Consumers' Gas Company, and he prepared plans for industrial, commercial and residential buildings for its president, James Austin. In solo practice, Dick designed many landmark buildings on the University of Toronto's St. George Campus, where he also oversaw the restoration of University College. Concurrent with the John F. Taylor House, Dick received residential commissions from other prominent businessmen in Toronto, among them politician Sir William Mulock, financier Sir Edmund Osler, and publisher Sir William Gage.

The John F. Taylor House is a well-crafted example of the Queen Anne Revival style applied to a residential building. Popular at the close of the 19th century when the scale and detailing of houses became increasingly exuberant, the style is identified by its asymmetrical shapes, variety of materials, and profusion of decorative elements. The John F. Taylor House displays a mixture of Queen Anne Revival features, including the distinctive corner tower and the ogee-shaped parapet containing an oriel window with stained glass panels. The ornamental flourishes continue on the interior, where the entrance hall and flanking library (southwest) and dining room (southeast) retain their original fireplaces and wood and plaster detailing.

Contextually, the John F. Taylor House is a landmark in East York. The building is positioned to terminate the vista extending north of Danforth Avenue along Broadview Avenue to O'Connor Drive. It is placed at the edge of a ravine overlooking the Don Valley to the west and north. With the changes in the neighbourhood over time, the John F. Taylor House is an important surviving remnant of the historical appearance of the area as the setting of residential estates.

Heritage Attributes
The heritage attributes of the John F. Taylor House are:

• The scale, form and massing
• Above a sandstone foundation with openings, the 2½-storey asymmetrical plan
• The materials, with brick, stone, wood, metal and glass
• The hipped roof, with gables, bargeboard, finials, dormers and brick chimneys (some of the roof details have been altered or removed)
• The principal (south) façade, with the gable with an ogee-shaped parapet over the entrance bay, the gabled frontispiece to the right (east), and the two-storey rounded corner tower with a domed roof and bellcast eaves on the left (west)
• The west and east elevations, with the gables and fenestration (which have been altered)
• The north wall overlooking the Don Valley, which retains much of its original character
• Located on the principal (south) façade, the main entrance where a round-arched surround contains a pair of paneled wood doors with etched glass inserts and a transom
• The fenestration, with flat-headed and segmental-arched window openings, which contain wood sash windows, with brick and stone trim
• On the south façade, the oversized three-sided oriel window with wood and metal detailing that contains a four-panel stained glass window depicting the four seasons
• The detailing, with decorative brickwork on the south façade, and brick string and belt courses
• On the interior, the layout of the first-floor rooms where the entrance hall is connected to the dining room (southeast) and the library (southwest)
• The detailing on the interior, with the paneled doors with stained glass inserts separating the vestibule and the entrance hall, the wood staircase and three sets of paneled doors with metal grille transoms in the entrance hall and, in the entrance hall, library and dining room, the fireplaces, decorative plasterwork, and wood door and window mouldings
• The setback of the house on the property, with landscaped open space to the south
• The location of the house to terminate the vista extending north along Broadview Avenue from Danforth Avenue to O'Connor Drive, and the views from the house to the south down Broadview Avenue, and to the north and west overlooking the Don Valley

The west and east additions to the John F. Taylor House, completed for the Ina Grafton Gage Home for the Aged in the 1940s through the 1970s, are not included in the Reasons for Designation.

Notice of an objection to the proposed designation may be served on the City Clerk, Attention: Rosalind Dyers, Administrator, Toronto and East York Community Council, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, 2nd floor, Toronto, ON M5H 2N2, within thirty days of the 4th day of February, 2010, which is March 5, 2010. The notice must set out the reason(s) for the objection, and all relevant facts.

Dated at Toronto this 4th day of February, 2010

Ulli S. Watkiss
City Clerk