Lone Primate
Active Member
Yes. And it's all the more galling because it could have been rented to a park-keeper, or maybe even on commercial terms, and so been kept in good shape at minimal cost to the public.
But I will say that there's 5000 better Gothic farmhouses still standing in Ontario. And the modern siding probably destroyed any architectural value in the building anyway.
"In Ontario" and "in Toronto" aren't really equivalent in my opinion. Surviving 19th century farmhouses in the vicinity of Bracebridge in 2012? Ho hum. Surviving 19th century farmhouses a two minute walk from a superhighway and thoroughfare interchange in heart of a city of 2.5 million? Considerably rarer. I don't doubt there are better ones out there, and in spades. But this is the one that's come down to us, here, in Toronto, and I'm amazed every time I see it that it's still standing, against all odds.
For me, the fact that siding was added to it at some point to preserve it doesn't diminish it; if anything, it's probably a factor in our still having it. I don't think that matters any more than the fact that a building has had indoor plumbing, electrification, and attachment to a sewer system over the centuries would. It's still a place where historic things happened. Families lived there. A community and mill once stood around it. Civic organizations used it. Don Mills folk drove past it every day for years going to and from work. A little aluminum shouldn't change our estimation of all that.
I'd like to see something done with it to give it some public life again before some drunk teenager uses the all-too-obviously benign neglect as his justification to practice his budding pyro skills. I really don't understand what the city's waiting for. Frankly, I'd rather they put the money into the Milne House than the almost uniquely uninspiring park on its doorstep.