Ashbridge Estate
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The Ashbridge Estate is an historic home in the east end of Toronto. The building is located on Queen Street East near Coxwell Avenue in the Ashbridge's neighbourhood between Leslieville and The Beaches. It is the earliest known site of residential inhabitation in the east Toronto area.
The Ashbridge family came from Pennsylvania to what was then an area outside of York. They were granted some 600 acres (2.4 km²), stretching from Lake Ontario to Danforth Avenue. After clearing the land, it became a profitable farm. The family remained on the site until 1997, the only family in the history of Toronto to have retained the same property for more than 200 years.
As the city of Toronto expanded eastward and encroached on the estate, the Ashbridges sold off much of their land. The Duke of Connaught Public School (1912) and S.H. Armstrong Community Recreation Centre were built on land that had been the Ashbridge's orchard. Woodfield Road, on the east side of the current property, was originally the farm lane going to the fields farther north.
By the 1920s the property owned by the family had shrunk to the two acres that now make up the estate. It was donated to the Ontario Heritage Trust by the family in 1972, but the last member of the family continued living there until 1997.
A number of localities in the area are named after the Ashbridges. Just to the south of the house is Jonathan Ashbridge Park, while slightly to the east is Sarah Ashbridge Avenue. The bay that marked the southern edge of the property is now known as Ashbridge's Bay. On the east side of the bay is the large Ashbridge's Bay Park while the west side is home to Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, Toronto's main sewage treatment plant.
The main house is the oldest surviving building on the property, and dates to 1854. It was designed by local architect Joseph Sheard, who would later serve as Mayor of Toronto. The second storey was added in 1899. The site is also home to a number of smaller outbuildings. The estate was home to extensive gardens, but recently the Ontario Heritage Trust which owns the property has replaced some of the garden areas with grass.
Current tenants of the house include the Ontario Society of Artists and the Ontario Archaeological Society.
