Allandale is a historic house in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It was built by prominent brewer Enoch Turner in 1856 on Sherbourne Street just north of Dundas St. When it was built this was the fringe of the town, and the house is rural in appearance with a style common to rural Ontario in this period. The house was named after William Allan, who had owned the large

Moss Park Moss Park is a residential neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The area known as Moss Park is typically considered to be between Jarvis Street and Parliament Street, south of Dundas Street, an area dominated by public ho ...

estate upon which the house was built. In the years after the house was built the Sherbourne/Jarvis area became home to the city's elite, and Allandale was dwarfed by several mansions in the area. The area changed again dramatically in the 20th century, becoming one of the poorest in Toronto; home to a working class and transient population with the old houses left in poor condition. One of Allandale's last occupants was I.F. Hellmuth, who founded the

Toronto Lawn Tennis Club The Toronto Lawn Tennis Club is a private social and athletic club in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The club is the oldest active and surviving lawn tennis club in the world. Founded in 1876, it has a long history of tennis competition. It is located ...

in 1874, and in 1881 won the first Rogers Cup. He died there in 1944. In the 1960s Allandale was slated for demolition, as it and its neighbours were to be replaced with a public housing project, similar to the nearby

. Public protests halted the demolition in 1973. Instead a new form of public housing was tried by architects Jack Diamond and

Barton Myers Barton Myers (born November 6, 1934) is an American architect and president of Barton Myers Associates Inc. in Santa Barbara, California. With a career spanning more than 40 years, Myers is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and wa ...

. The Sherbourne Lanes project integrated Allandale with several neighbouring Victorian structures and modern infills to preserve the character of the neighbourhood while a creating modern public housing complex.

References

*Cruikshank, Tom. ''Old Toronto Houses.'' Toronto: Firefly Books, 2003. {{coord, 43.658878, N, 79.370947, W, region:CA-ON_type:landmark, display=title Houses in Toronto Houses completed in 1856