Item - 2021.PB25.1

The Toronto Preservation Board recommends to the North York Community Council that:  

1. City Council include the property at 55 St. Edmunds Drive on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register in accordance with the Listing Statement (Reasons for Inclusion), attached as Attachment 3 to the report (May 25, 2021) from the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning.

2. City Council state its intention to designate the property at 55 St Edmund's Drive under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, in accordance with the Statement of Significance: 55 St Edmund's Drive (Reasons for Designation) attached as Attachment 3 to the report (June 10, 2021) from the Senior Manager, Heritage Planning, Urban Design, City Planning.

3. If there are no objections to the designation, City Council authorize the City Solicitor to introduce the bill in Council designating the property under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

4. If there are objections in accordance with the Ontario Heritage Act, City Council direct the City Clerk to refer the designation to the Conservation Review Board.

5. If the designation is referred to the Conservation Review Board, City Council authorize the City Solicitor and appropriate staff to attend any hearing held by the Conservation Review Board in support of Council's decision to designate the property.

This report recommends that City Council include the property at 55 St Edmunds Drive on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Register for its cultural heritage value.

The subject property is east of Yonge Street and south of Lawrence Avenue East, situated prominently at the northeast corner of St Edmunds Drive and Lympstone Avenue in the Lawrence Park neighbourhood. It contains a two and a half storey stucco-clad house with stone detail constructed in 1926 to plans prepared by the architect William Breden Galbraith, and is a fine and representative example of the Tudor Revival style.

55 St Edmunds Drive represents the early wave of residential development in the Lawrence Park neighbourhood, which was planned and developed on the Garden Suburb model and envisioned by businessman Wilfrid Dinnick. The neighbourhood was developed to plans prepared by the architects Vaux Chadwick and Samuel Beckett and features houses designed by some of Toronto's most prolific and talented 20th century architects.

55 St Edmunds Drive is one of six houses known to have been designed by William Breden Galbraith within the Lawrence Park neighbourhood, of which four remain. Galbraith is believed to have been a self-taught architect, who established a primarily residential practice in Toronto in 1918. He designed one of the earliest houses in Lawrence Park – in 1913 – for himself, and through the 1910s and 1920s received commissions within the neighbourhood as well as in other residential suburbs in Toronto, including Rosedale, Forest Hill and Moore Park. Much of Galbraith's residential portfolio was featured through a series of articles published in the newspaper Saturday Night between 1925 and 1930, and which were subsequently included in his 1930 pattern book, A Canadian Home Plan Book. 55 St Edmunds Drive is featured as house plan number 1601 in the aforementioned publication.

The property at 55 St Edmunds Drive was documented by the Toronto Historical Board in 1982, and was included in the Historical Walking Tour of Lawrence Park (2007 edition), published by the Toronto Public Library in partnership with the Lawrence Park Ratepayers' Association and the North Toronto Historical Society. A nomination was submitted to Heritage Planning by the North York Community Preservation Panel with the support of the North Toronto Historical Society in May, 2021 requesting the property be evaluated to determine whether it merits inclusion on the City's Heritage Register.

City staff have undertaken further research and evaluation and determined that the property at 55 St Edmunds Drive meets Ontario Regulation 9/06, the criteria prescribed for municipal designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, which the City of Toronto also applies when evaluating properties for inclusion on the Heritage Register.

Properties on the Heritage Register will be conserved and maintained in accordance with the Official Plan Heritage Policies.

This supplementary report recommends that City Council state its intention to designate the property at 55 St. Edmund's Drive under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act.

Following research and evaluation, it has been determined that the property at 55 St Edmund's drive meets Ontario Regulation 9/06, the criteria prescribed for municipal designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for its design, associative and contextual value.

Properties on the Heritage Register will be conserved and maintained in accordance with Official Plan Heritage Policies. Designation under the Ontario Heritage Act enables City Council to review alterations to the site, enforce heritage property standards and maintenance, and refuse demolition.