Public Notice

IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO HERITAGE ACT

R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER O.18 AND

CITY OF TORONTO, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO

94 CORTLEIGH BOULEVARD

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 94 Cortleigh Boulevard 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 94 Cortleigh Boulevard 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 at 94 Cortleigh Boulevard, constructed in 1914 and historically known as the William Weeks Residence, comprises a substantial two-storey house that was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. The house is finished in rustic red brick, stone detailing, and has half-timbered gables. An extended roof slope bisects and distinguishes the main façade, which also features a prominent stone porch. The property which comprises a spacious lot is located between Avenue Road and Rosewell Avenue in the Lytton Park neighbourhood. The property incorporates the wooded ravine, at its rear, which crosses the community.

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value

The property has historical value for yielding information that contributes to an understanding of the community's history, being among the earliest to be constructed in the Lytton Park neighbourhood and Alexandra Gardens. Commissioned for a professional interior decorator, William Weeks, it represents the original urban development phase of the Alexandra Gardens subdivisions which comprised much of the southern half of the Lytton Park community south of Glencairn Avenue. Despite the ambitious subdivision plans being registered between 1910 and 1911 to create hundreds of building lots, the 1913 maps show just a half-dozen houses constructed in the western third of the community including the subject property. Since Alexandra Gardens was built out primarily in the late-1920s to early-1940s, the property at 94 Cortleigh Boulevard, constructed in 1914, reflects the original development phase of Lytton Park.

The property is a representative and fine example of a suburban estate home from the early-20th century inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. The house displays a half-timbered front gable with extended slope that bisects the front of the house, dominating the facade. Further characterizing the design is a finish of rustic brick with stone detailing, multi-pane windows, an asymmetrical façade arrangement and rear-gable half timbering. A slate-clad roof with a complex roofline, bell-cast eaves, and a Jacobethan cantilevered window on the side of the house add a picturesque quality to reinforces its Arts and Crafts character. A high calibre of exterior detailing differentiates the house from more typical Arts and Crafts examples, such as the corbelling below the eaves with stone brackets, and stonework of the foundation that rises at the corners of the house.

Classical windows with semi-circular heads together with the classically detailed veranda at the rear of the house served to imbue the design with an eclectic styling relieving the rigid conformity with the overall Arts and Crafts design.

The property has contextual value for its contribution to defining, maintaining and supporting the character of the area. Like a significant number of the properties historically developed on Cortleigh Boulevard and in the area, the design of the subject property was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement - a preferred aesthetic during the early-20th century. Additionally, when Alexandra Gardens was developed, it had numerous restrictive covenants such as minimum setbacks, minimum building cost, specific high-quality finish materials, landscape provisions, and a residential use requirement that contributed to a harmonious contextual character which is further reflected by 94 Cortleigh Boulevard.

The property is linked to its Cortleigh Boulevard and Lytton Park surroundings in visual, physical, functional and historical ways. Its materials, stylistic design, substantial character and spatial relation to the street, which were specified by original restrictive covenants tie the property visually and physically to its context. As one of the earliest residences in the area, the property helped set the tone and vision for development in the area.

Heritage Attributes

Design and Physical Value

Attributes that contribute to the value of the property at 94 Cortleigh Boulevard as a fine and representative example of design inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement incorporating classical-style finishes include:

• The substantial two-storey, rectangular form, scale and massing of the house
• Complex roofline with hip roof and cross gables, and a dormer; the extended roof slope of the front gable bisecting the main façade; one internal and one external chimney; slate roofing with copper flashings; open eaves with wooden soffits and exposed rafter tails; wooden bargeboards and fascia boards
• rustic, red-brick exterior cladding with wide, white, deeply recessed mortar joints; red-brick detailing forming corbels below the gable eaves and aprons below many front and side façade windows
• rough-dressed stone foundation and front porch cladding; smoothly dressed stone window sills, lintels and eave brackets
• front, rear gable and dormer detailing including half-timbering and bracketed overhang
• The asymmetrical fenestration - regular and irregular (reflecting stairway locations) - with rectangular and semi-circular (conservatory) openings; wood-sash windows in a variety of profiles and configurations including hung-sash and casement sashes with single-pane and multi-pane lights containing wood muntins or leaded cames; band of second-storey south-facade multi-pane casement sash, windows; cantilevered south-façade second-storey bay window with formed sheet-metal base
• Open, main entrance stone porch with gabled slate roof, wooden tongue-and-groove ceiling, red-tile flooring, stone stair wing walls and cap; main doorway assembly containing multi-pane and panelled sidelights and an oak front door with multi-pane glazing
• rear, open, integral porch with wooden tongue-and-groove ceiling, a doorway containing glazed wood door, and stone stair wing walls
• rear verandah with brick piers, balustrades with classical wood balusters, stone stair wing walls, red clay-tile flooring, and doorway containing glazed wood door
• north and south secondary doorways openings containing glazed wood doors

Historical and Associative Value

Attributes that contribute to the value of the property at 94 Cortleigh Boulevard for its contribution to an understanding of the development history of the immediate and broader Lytton Park area:

• The substantial architecture of the house inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement with its spacious two-storey form, and high-quality materials which recalls the areas historic and upscale character of early-20th century suburban houses.

Contextual Value

Attributes that contribute to the contextual value of 94 Cortleigh Boulevard as helping to define, maintain, and support the historic early-20th century character of its context include:

• The characteristics which align with the historic restrictive covenant for the area including the setback of the house to the street; the use of quality finish materials comprising brick and stone; and its residential character
• The substantial size of the house with its Arts and Crafts inspired design, which aligns with a significant percentage of the other historical houses in the immediate and broader context of the neighbourhood

Attributes that contribute to the contextual value of 94 Cortleigh Boulevard as helping to physically, functionally, visually or historically link it to its surroundings include:

• Its masonry materials, Arts and Crafts inspired architectural detailing, substantial character, and spatial relation to the street.

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 December 19, 2024, which is January 20, 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=2024.PH17.17.