THE AREA

The Bridlepath area has a rich history in Toronto. Along its winding ravine roads, rolling lawns and through massive old trees one glimpses Canada's grandest mansions. The "Who's Who" list of residents cherish the privacy and grandeur of their estates while at the same time living in the heart of Canada's most vibrant city. This enclave for the international set is minutes to downtown while, at the same time, close to access routes to the airport and to Ontario's cottage and recreational playgrounds, Blue Mountain, and the Muskoka's.

ITS HISTORY

by Mike Filey

The new condominium residences at One Post Road sit on 2.67 acres of prime residential property that, as recently as 50 or so years ago, was still farmland. Indeed, the names adopted for several of the nearby streets underscore the fact that not all that long ago, this part of suburban Toronto, dubbed "Bayview Heights" by land developers and "Millionaires' Row" by the press, was the preserve of those seeking the quiet serenity afforded by country living. Horseback riding became a popular pastime for many and over the years some of the trails they used emerged as residential streets with names like the Bridle Path, Country Lane and Post Road.

Research indicates that the first residential street in the Bridle Path-Post Road area was the original part of today's Bridle Path, to be precise the portion running east off Bayview Avenue north of the present Post Road intersection. That occurred about 1928 when a new road was cut through the 13th fairway of the old Glen Mawr Golf Club. This early course was located east of the First Concession Road East of Yonge (the present Bayview Avenue) between Lawrence Avenue and what was called either Mercer Road (after a pioneer settler) or the York Mills Sideroad. When play at the Glen Mawr course was suspended for financial reasons, the site was quickly acquired by IBM. The company operated a golf and country club for its staff until the course was relocated even further north into Markham Township.

The first house erected on the new Bridle Path was sited right at the corner of Bayview Avenue, which at the time was still dirt-covered and little-travelled. No. 2 The Bridle Path was designed in 1936 in the lovely Cape Cod style by architect Forsey Page, a partner in the internationally-recognized Canadian architectural firm of Page and Steele (architects, as it happens, for One Post Road.) In his design Page utilized the foundation stones of the original farmhouse that had stood on the site since 1876. Not long after the owner of the house moved in, plans were announced to erect six more residences along the new street. To ensure the architectural integrity of the neighbourhood, plans for these houses had to be approved by a selection committee. To quote from the City of North York's report on its reasons for designating No. 2 The Bridle Path as architecturally significant under the Ontario Heritage Act, "this house and the adjacent subdivision were the impetus for the development of the exclusive Bridle Path neighbourhood."

Co-incident with the development of what would become the original Bridle Path neighbourhood, someone else was looking to purchase land in the vicinity of The Bridle Path.

E.P. Taylor

Thirty-six-year-old Edward Plunkett ("E.P.") Taylor, President of Canadian Breweries Limited, was both a successful businessman and an enthusiastic and competent horseback rider - a talent he had acquired as a young man in his hometown of Ottawa, where he was a member of a cavalry militia unit known as the Princess Louise Dragoon Guards. The Taylor family moved to Toronto in 1930 and after living for a time in a small house in north Rosedale they moved to rented accommodations in the former Clifford Sifton residence on the north side of Lawrence Avenue just west of Bayview (now the Toronto French School). As the Siftons too were horse lovers the house came complete with barn and stables. The place was just what "E.P." wanted.

However, as the years went by, Taylor's business successes were to make him a rich man and soon he was searching for property where he could build a proper home for his wife and three growing children. Eager to remain in an area of suburban Toronto with easy access to the business core as well as a place where he could continue to enjoy riding during those infrequent periods away from the office, Taylor eventually found the perfect location, a 20-acre parcel on the east side of Bayview Avenue just north of No.2 The Bridle Path.

Work on the new Taylor residence commenced in 1936 and in the following year the family moved into "Windfields", a name selected by "E.P.'s" wife, Winifred after the couple returned from a walk over the property one windy, autumn day. In the years that followed "E.P." enlarged his Windfield Farm property by purchasing additional farmland in the vicinity of his original 20 acre parcel upon which he built racing stables, greenhouses, workers' cottages and a gatehouse. In 1963, for tax reasons, the Taylors took upon residence in the Bahamas and 5 years later sold all but 60 acres of his Windfields holdings to subdivision developers. At about the same time 30 acres alongside the creek that flows through the property became part of the City of North York's park system. In 1986 the Taylor home, the gatehouse and the original 20 acres of land were turned over to North York. Two years later the Canadian Centre for Advanced Film Studies opened in the former Taylor residence. E.P. Taylor died in the Bahamas on May 14, 1989.

When the Taylor family moved into "Windfields" in 1937, they were to join a number of other prominent Toronto businessmen who had also found the charm and prestige of Bayview Heights.

Other Entrepreneurs and Horsemen

Near the intersection of two still sparsely-travelled country roads, now Bayview and Lawrence Avenues, brothers Edward (E.R.) and Frank Wood had already built their own grand estates. E.R. Wood was living the good life in a place he had built in 1925 and named Glendon Hall. The house is now part of York University's Glendon Campus. Just north, across the valley of the West Don River, E.R.'s younger brother Frank built himself a lovely house in 1930. In later years it would become the Garfield Weston residence and is now part of Crescent School. South of the Glendon estate, as well back from Bayview Avenue, a thoroughfare that some believed might become a major city traffic artery some day, Eaton vice president J.J. Vaughan moved into his new Donningvale estate in 1931. In that same year, Canada Packers' founder and president, James McLean, also seeking the prestige and serenity of Bayview Heights, moved into his new residence just south of Vaughan's palatial home. Both the McLean and Vaughan estates were carved from the sprawling farmland owned by Joseph Kilgour, another successful Canadian businessman and famed horse breeder whose property, Sunnybrook Farm, was known far and wide. This trio of estates now form part of the sprawling Sunnybrook Health Centre complex.

The One Post Road Lands

The oldest of the fine residences in the Bridle Path-Post Road neighbourhood is the Tudor-style structure secluded in amongst the trees next door to One Post Road known as "Stonedene." It was built for stockbroker Harry Plummer in 1928/9. Plummer enjoyed horseback riding and on part of his property, the portion on which One Post Road is now located, he erected substantial stabling facilities. The stables and outhouses were later taken down by a subsequent owner of this portion of the estate. About 1949, "Stonedene" was purchased by insurance executive Major General Albert Bruce Matthews who would eventually succeed his friend and business colleague E.P. Taylor as head of the Argus Corporation. In 1976, the residence was sold to the Ontario Mission for the deaf and now, known as The Manor, forms part of the modern Bob Rumball Centre for the Deaf that opened in 1979.

The Modern Bridle Path

An interesting player in the more recent development of The Bridle Path-Post Road neighbourhood is George Montegu Black, Jr., father of the ubiquitous Conrad Black. In 1945, Black was hired by E.P. Taylor, then president of Canadian Breweries, as his executive assistant. A few years later Black joined his mentor in what had become the exclusive Bridle Path-Post Road community when he constructed a large impressive residence on the nearby Park Lane Circle. In the early 1950's, in an effort to exert some control over exactly who his future neighbours would be, Black took over Property Holdings Limited that owned most of the rolling pasture land on the east side of Bayview Avenue both north and south of Lawrence Avenue, which at the time was a narrow, two-lane trail bisecting the property . Soon after restrictions were in place permitting only single-family dwellings and requiring building lot sizes of a minimum of 2-acres (330 ft x 300ft.) With these regulations enshrined in the North York zoning by-laws, prominent businessmen eagerly snapped up the 50 or so lots that were selling then for up to $25,000.

Moving to the present day, residents of the Bridle Path-Post Road community include, or have included, Conrad Black, Robert Campeau, Wilfred Posluns, Thomas and Sonja Bata, Murray Menkes, and the Bassett family.