Public Notice

IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO HERITAGE ACT

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

CITY OF TORONTO, PROVINCE OF ONTARIO

180 QUEENS DRIVE

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 180 Queens Drive 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 180 Queens Drive is worthy of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for their 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 180 Queens Drive contains a substantial three-storey house designed in the Shingle style in 1911and historically known as the Oliver Master House. The red-brick house is distinguished by its multiple, shingle-clad gables, broad verandah, and stone corner tower. The property is located at the northeast corner of Queens Drive and Pine Street in the Weston neighbourhood where the house is deeply set back on its large corner lot. 

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value

The property has value for yielding information that contributes to an understanding of the community's history, being among the earliest to be constructed in a large area of Weston east of Pine Street, between King Street and Lawrence Avenue. The property was commissioned for Oliver Master, a prominent insurance broker, village councillor (1912-13) and civic leader. Its grand design and context recall local 1856 subdivision plans calling for much of the core of Weston to develop as suburban estates for villas and large houses. The property was one of the few to develop in such a way, thereby representing this aspirational aspect of Weston's history.

Constructed in 1911, the Oliver Master House is valued as an eclectic composition representative of the Shingle style of residential architecture that originated in the United States in the 19th century. Characteristic of the Shingle style, the house is distinguished by its profile of prominent multiple front gables containing shingle-cladding, a distinctive gable overhang, its crenelated tower, and broad verandah with rough-dressed stone detailing. Brick cladding comprises the wall surfaces of the first storey and the side, and the rear of the house below the cornice. While sharing similarities with the more common Queen Anne Revival style, the form and detailing of the subject property aligns with the more uncommon Shingle style, making the house a rarity for this architectural character.

The property at 180 Queens Drive is one of five properties in a grouping on Queens Drive and King Street which are visually linked to their surroundings with their large lots, and/ or large setbacks, containing grand, early-20th century houses. The other four properties in the grouping are 190, 200 and 204 Queens Drive and 175 King Street. Together the houses comprise a visually cohesive grouping with their historical and grand architectural character and contextual attributes. This contextual character reflects the ambitious historic development aspirations and subdivision plans for the community, dating to 1856, historically linking the subject property and the others to their surroundings. 

Heritage Attributes

Design and Physical Value

The following heritage attributes contribute to the design and physical value of the

property as a representative example of the Shingle style:

• The grand three-storey form, scale and massing of the house (deeply set back on its large corner lot)
• rectangular form with rear two-storey extension (with upper-storey sleeping porch) and rounded tower (front corner)
• complex roofline comprising multiple front and rear gables and cross-gambrel roof and gabled dormers; hipped roof rear extension (sleeping porch)
• materials including red-brick exterior cladding; rough-dressed stone finishes comprising the tower, the verandah supports, window sills and lintels; wood-shingle cladding of the gables, dormers, and rear sleeping porch
• window openings; main entrance and side (west) doorway openings; the bay and oriel windows; the stained-glass window sashes of the west oriel window
• front verandah and surviving elements of the original wraparound configuration;           the open balcony atop the front verandah
• bracketed doorway hood of the side (west) doorway

Historical and Associative Value

The following heritage attributes contribute to the historical and associative value of the

property for its potential to yield information about the ambitious historical aspirations for the area comprising large, suburban estates:

The grandness and architectural design of the house and its placement on its large lot with substantial street setback

Contextual Value

The following heritage attributes contribute to the contextual value of the property which is visually and historically linked to its surroundings:

• The setback, placement and orientation of 180 Queens Drive relative to the four adjacent early-20th century houses at 190, 200 and 204 Queens Drive and 175 King Street
• The scale, form and massing of 180 Queens Drive relative to the four adjacent early-20th century houses at 190, 200 and 204 Queens Drive and 175 King 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 May 25, 2026, which is June 24, 2026. 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=2026.CC41.16.