Spadina Museum:


Historic House and Gardens


Above: The house and gardens speak of a time gone by, while below, the wisteria drapes the garden in purple beauty.


Once a 200-acre property, the former home of James Autstin has been reduced to 5.7 lovely acres. The grounds once included an orchard, grape arbours and kitchen gardens.


T 26 • Spring 2012


here is a lovely historic garden in the heart of downtown Toronto, a hidden gem on the grounds of Spadina Museum. It’s right next door to Casa Loma and it deserves a visit.


The museum with its elaborate gardens, which are located on the rise


of land overlooking Davenport Road, was once home to four genera- tions of one of Toronto’s leading families. Businessman and financier, James Austin, founder of the Dominion


Bank and president of Consumers Gas, purchased the 200-acre prop- erty in 1866. He built a two-storey Victorian farmhouse with a view of the lake over the farms fields that went north from the lake to St. Clair. Eventually, James, and later his son Albert, subdivided and sold most of the land down to its current 5.7 acres. The grounds once included an orchard, grape arbour, kitchen gardens and the more formal areas of lawn and display beds. These gardens represent more than just a beauti- ful landscape for a stately home; they are a reflection of our history in which we can discover everything from household economy to upper class social values and aesthetic preferences. Spadina today features more than 300 varieties of plants in an historic


www.localgardener.net


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