Spadina House, historic house museum in Toronto, Canada
Spadina House is a two-storey mansion at 285 Spadina Road, built for James Austin and expanded by his son Albert, who added a third floor in 1912. Its pale facade has curved ground-floor bays, a projecting balustraded balcony, and a steep grey shingled roof with two arched dormers and tall pale chimneys. Inside are 55 rooms with a floating central staircase, high baseboards, ceiling medallions and plaster crown mouldings.
The property was purchased in 1866 by James Austin, founder of The Dominion Bank, who developed it into a grand family estate. The house reflects Toronto's growth during a period when wealthy business leaders built spacious homes on the city's outskirts.
The rooms show how wealthy Toronto families lived and what they valued in craftsmanship and design during the early 20th century. The Austin family's choices in furnishings and decoration reveal their tastes and the social habits of their time.
Tours run at set times each day and cover political, economic and social themes of the early 20th century. The house has 55 rooms across three floors, so expect stairs; the 2010 renovation added reproductions of family artefacts, including stuffed wolves placed at the museum entryway.
The name Spadina derives from the Ojibwe word espadinong, meaning "hill" or "sudden rise of land", given by Dr. William Warren Baldwin to his 200-acre estate at the top of the escarpment. The house stands on Davenport Hill, the former shore of prehistoric Lake Iroquois.
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