Residence.
Details of Site Location: The north side of Front Street West, west of York Street.
Boundary History: The property was bounded by Front, Simcoe, Wellington, and York Streets, and was one block east of the third Parliament Buildings.
Current Use of Property: Two office buildings with restaurants on their first floors.
Historical Description: In February of 1817, the rented house of the Reverend Doctor John Strachan burned to the ground, but its furniture was saved on the orders of Lieutenant-Governor Gore. Strachan decided to build a brick house; and as his intentions were to make it elegant, construction took two years. It was a Georgian Palladian villa with three sets of windows on each side of the double front door. The door had a semicircular fanlight above it. Each of the thirteen windows across the front of the house had shutters. In the gable, far above the front door, was another semicircular window. In front of the door was a porch with an overhead balcony. The floor of the porch reached across the entire front and had steps at either end as well as those leading to the covered section. The house was rumoured to have cost £4,500. The large entrance hall had stairs directly ahead and was flanked by a drawing room and a dining room. The furniture from the old house was used until Gore left York, when Strachan purchased Gore’s furniture. In 1832, Strachan gave the east half of his property to his son-in-law. The appointment of Strachan as Bishop of Toronto came in 1839. In the 1840s, the northern part of the property was divided into lots. Strachan died on 1 November 1867. Later, the house was purchased by Sir John Carling. Eventually it ended as the Palace Boarding House and was demolished in 1890.
Relative Importance: The house was the home of Toronto’s first Anglican bishop and was a social centre for nearly fifty years. As it was privately owned rather than by the church, no other Anglican bishops lived there.
Planning Implications: The site should be plaqued for its importance, both to church history and the history of architecture in the city. An existing plaque is at the east end of the most easterly building at about second-floor level. As the house was at the west side of the property, it would be more appropriate to relocate the existing plaque to the other building at a level where it can be read.
Reference Sources: Upper Canada Gazette, 27 February 1817; Eric Arthur, Toronto: No Mean City (University of Toronto Press, 1964); Toronto Reference Library picture collection.
Acknowledgements: Maps Project.