IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO
HERITAGE ACT
R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER O.18 AND
CITY OF TORONTO, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO
324 OLD YONGE STREET
NOTICE OF INTENTION TO DESIGNATE
THE PROPERTY
TAKE NOTICE that Council for the
City of Toronto intends to designate the property, including the lands, buildings
and structures thereon known municipally as 324 Old Yonge Street under Part IV,
Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.O.18, as amended, as a
property of cultural heritage value or interest.
Reasons for Designation
The property at 324 Old Yonge Street is worthy
of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for its
cultural heritage value and meets Ontario Regulation 9/06, the provincial
criteria prescribed for municipal designation under the categories of
design/physical, historical/associative, and contextual value.
Description
The property, known as the Jephcott - Sanderson
Residence, contains a two-and-one-half-storey brick house constructed in 1935
in the Georgian Revival style and a compatible detached brick garage. 324 Old
Yonge Street was among the original seven grand mansions situated in an
exclusive enclave that was constructed on the west side of Old Yonge Street in
the North York - York Mills area, backing onto Yonge Street and north of York
Mills Road and St John's Anglican Church (1843-44). These elaborate mansions
sit on lots with large frontages and setbacks, circular driveways, and
expansive landscaped grounds. Alfred
Jephcott (1866-1940), president of the Dominion Paper Box Company, commissioned
the house for his daughter, Amulette Sanderson, and son-in-law Arthur C.
Sanderson, a salesman with the Toronto Brick Company Ltd who later became
Secretary Treasurer of the company. The Sandersons purchased the land in
1935 from St Andrew's Estates and Golf Course and owned the property until
1947. 324 Old Yonge Street is listed on the City of Toronto's Heritage Register
and is adjacent to three properties listed or designated properties.
Statement of Cultural Heritage Value
The property has design and physical value for
being a representative example of a fine suburban estate home constructed in
the early-20th century and for its Georgian Revival style architecture with
Neoclassical style influences. Characteristic of the style, the house features
a restrained and dignified appearance with a symmetrical main façade, stylized
hipped roof, prominent chimneys and segmental arched windows and dormers.
Understated detailing is limited to window keystones, brick belt courses and
recessed panels which ornament the facades. The house was constructed of
Toronto Brick Company brick from the company’s John Price plant on Greenwood
Avenue in Scarborough. The house is further distinguished by its fine
craftsmanship, exemplified by its English-bond brickwork with alternate courses
of headers and stretchers.
The rear of the house is distinguished by its
rounded central bay, a derivative of Neoclassicism. Ornamental, classical stone
urns top the corners at the rear of the house. The roof at rear of the house is
placed behind a parapet and is very characteristic of 1930s design, making it
ornamental in nature.
The house is significant because it reflects the
work of the Toronto architects Henry J. Allward and George W. Gouinlock. Their
firm became known for its residential designs prior to World War II winning
local and national awards. The partnership rose to prominence in the later half
of the 1930s and early 1940s with their high-end residential designs – an
extension of each partner’s individual work in the late 1920s and early 1930s
before their partnership. As a team, Allward and Guinlock designed more than a
dozen deluxe residences in North York during the 1930s and 1940s. The property
at 324 Old Yonge Street, is a period interpretation of traditional design
reflective of the firm’s stylistic approach to residential architecture.
The house was commissioned by Alfred Jephcott,
the president of the Dominion Paper Box Company and owned by his daughter
Amulette, and son-in-law Arthur C. Sanderson, who was employed with the Toronto
Brick Company. The Sandersons owned the property until 1947 with Jephcott and
the Sandersons occupied the property jointly until Jephcott's 1940 death.
The property also has historical value for
yielding information that contributes to an understanding of the development of
York Mills and Old Yonge Street in the early 20th-century from a historic
village and a historic rural road to an exclusive residential enclave and the
beginning of the upscale suburbanization of the village. The area was even
touted as becoming the next "Rosedale" - a reference to Toronto's
most expensive residential area at the time. Beginning in the late 1920s, and
continuing through the 1930s, Old Younge Street developed as a street of
substantial and grand, architect-designed houses on spacious landscaped
properties marking the beginning of the evolution of the village into a
suburban area of Toronto.
Additionally, 324 Old Yonge Street has
contextual value for its contribution to defining, maintaining and supporting
the historic suburban estate character of the area. Like most of the other
properties developed on Old Yonge Street in the 1920s and 1930s the subject
property contained a substantial architect-designed house inspired by revival
style architecture - in this case, Georgian Revival. Like the other historic
estate properties on Old Yonge Street, it is defined by the lot's large
frontage and setback, circular driveway, and expansive landscaped grounds.
Historically, 324 Old Yonge Street was one of seven estate homes dating from
the late 1920s and 1930s situated on Old Yonge Street between York Mills Road
and Highway 401. The subject property is among four of these seven properties
which survive, three of which been listed on The City's Heritage Register or
designated with the others no longer extant.
Heritage Attributes
Design and Physical Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
property at 324 Old Yonge Street for being a representative example of a fine
suburban estate home constructed in the early-20th century and for its Georgian
Revival-style architecture with Neoclassical style influences include:
·
The substantial
two-and-one-half-storey, rectangular form, scale and massing of the house with
rear, central, circular bay and a northerly side extension
·
Stylized hipped main
roof with flat top and the hipped extension roof with flat top, both situated
behind a parapet; segmental-arched front dormer windows
·
Three substantial and
broad end and internal chimneys with stone caps
·
Brick exterior
cladding, in English bond, forming belt courses, keystones and recessed panels
and stone window sills
·
Ornamental
Neoclassical stone urns and plinths at the parapet corners
·
Symmetrical
fenestration and central main entrance
·
Adjacent two-storey,
complementary, brick garage with hipped roof and dormer windows and being three
bays in width
Historical and Associative Value
Attributes that contribute to the value of the
property at 324 Old Yonge Street for its contribution to an understanding of
the development history of the immediate and broader Old Yonge Street and York
Mills area:
The substantial Georgian Revival-style
architecture of the house with its spacious two-and-one-half-storey form, and
spacious lot on Old Yonge Street which recalls the areas historic and upscale
character of early-20th century suburban houses.
Contextual Value
Attributes that contribute to the contextual
value of 324 Old Yonge Street as helping to define, maintain, and support the
historic early-20th century character of its context include:
The property's lot with large frontage
and setbacks, circular driveway, and expansive landscaped grounds and the
early-20th-century revival style architecture and substantial character of the
house.
Notice of Objection to the Notice of
Intention to Designate
Notice of an objection to the Notice of
Intention to Designate the Property may be served on the City Clerk, Attention:
Registrar Secretariat, City Clerk's Office, Toronto City Hall, 2nd Floor West,
100 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 2N2.; Email: RegistrarCCO@toronto.ca within thirty (30) days of July 28, 2025, which is August 27, 2025. The
notice of objection to the Notice of Intention to Designate the Property must
set out the reason(s) for the objection and all relevant facts.
Getting Additional Information:
Further information in respect of the Notice of
Intention to Designate the Property is available from the City of Toronto at:
https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.PH23.13
Dated at the City of Toronto on July 28, 2025.
John D. Elvidge
City Clerk