Ashbridge Estate

Ashbridge Estate
Established 1796 (this building 1854, second floor added 1899)
Location Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Type Ontario Heritage Trust
Website OHT page

The Ashbridge Estate is an historic home in the east end of Toronto. The building is located on Queen Street East near Coxwell Avenue in the Ashbridge's neighbourhood, Toronto between Leslieville and The Beaches. It is the earliest known site of residential inhabitation in the east Toronto area.

History

The Ashbridge family were Quakers who had emigrated from England to Pennsylvania before the American Revolutionary War. Sarah came with her sons John and Jonathan and three daughters to York in 1794 fleeing religious and political persecution; she was a widow, her husband having died in Pennsylvania.

As United Empire Loyalists, they were granted some 600 acres (2.4 km2) of land east of the Don River in 1796, stretching from Lake Ontario to Danforth Avenue. After clearing the land and constructing log cabins, it became a profitable farm. The current building was constructed in 1854 and its roof was replaced in 1899.

As the city of Toronto expanded eastward and encroached on the estate, the Ashbridges sold off much of their land. The Duke of Connaught Public School (1912) and S.H. Armstrong Community Recreation Centre were built on land that had been the Ashbridge's orchard. Woodfield Road, on the east side of the current property, was originally the farm lane going to the fields farther north.

By the 1920s the property owned by the family had shrunk to the 2 acres (8,100 m2) that now make up the estate. It was donated to the Ontario Heritage Trust by the family in 1972, but the last member (Dorothy Ashbridge, great-granddaughter of Jonathan) of the family continued living there until 1997. The Ashbridges are the only family in the history of Toronto to have retained the same property for more than 200 years.

A number of localities in the area are named after the Ashbridges. Just to the south of the house is Jonathan Ashbridge Park (name after Sarah's son), while slightly to the east is Sarah Ashbridge Avenue. The bay that marked the southern edge of the property is now known as Ashbridge's Bay. On the east and north sides of the bay is the large Ashbridge's Bay Park. Ashbridge's Bay Park North, to the north of the bay, is the site of the Ashbridge's Bay Skate Park, opened in 2009. The west side of the bay is the location of the Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, Toronto's main sewage treatment plant.

Historic plaque

The Ontario Heritage Trust plaque on the estate reads: "This property was home to one family for two centuries. Sarah Ashbridge and her family moved here from Pennsylvania and began clearing land in 1794. Two years later they were granted 600 acres (243 hectares) between Ashbridge's Bay and present day Danforth Avenue. The Ashbridges prospered as farmers until Toronto suburbs began surrounding their land in the 1880s. They sold all but this part of their original farm by the 1920s. Donated to the Ontario Heritage Foundation in 1972, it was the family estate until 1997. As they changed from pioneers to farmers to professionals over 200 years on this property, the Ashbridges personified Ontario's development from agricultural frontier to urban industrial society."

Currently

The main house is the oldest surviving building on the property, and dates to 1854. It was designed for Jesse Ashbridge, son of Jonathan, by local architect Joseph Sheard who would later serve as Mayor of Toronto. The second storey was added in 1899. The site is also home to a number of smaller outbuildings. The estate was home to extensive gardens, but recently the Ontario Heritage Trust which owns the property has replaced some of the garden areas with grass.

Current tenants of the house include Camp Quality Canada, FUSION, the Ontario Clay and Glass Association, the Ontario Society of Artists and the Ontario Archaeological Society.

See also

References

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    Coordinates: 43°39′55″N 79°19′22″W / 43.665303°N 79.322759°W / 43.665303; -79.322759

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