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George Brown House

Info

The Designation: This building, designed in the Second Empire Style, was home to George Brown - Canadian statesman and founder of The Globe. In 1976, the George Brown House was designated as a National Historic Site.

Address: 186 Beverley Street
Telephone: 416-314-3585
Website: http://www.heritagefdn.on.ca/userfiles/HTML/nts_1_8828_1.html
Managed by: Ontario Heritage Trust

Opening hours: Not open to the public. Convention and banquet space may be
rented. Tours available on advanced reservation.

Architecture

A House fit for the Browns
This house is a fine example of an opulent residence, built in the 1870s. In scale and style, it was deliberately designed to present its first resident, George Brown, as an important publisher, editorialist, Father of Confederation and statesmen.

The house was designed in the Second Empire style – a popular architectural trend of the Victorian Era, in the 1870s – by architects William Irving and Edward Hutchings. Features of the Second Empire style include:

The mansard roof;
Its symmetrical plan;
Italianate details such as round-headed door, heavy paired cornice brackets, bay windows;
Façade articulation in (slight) corner pavilions.

In spite of the importance of its residents, the house was not overly lavish or pretentious. As J.M.S. Careless wrote in his biography entitled Brown of the Globe: “It was not a notably large or extravagant mansion by the standards of Victorian Toronto plutocracy but it was unquestionably substantial and distinguished. Built of red brick with carved stone trim, it rose three stories to a mansard roof. Elegant cast-iron railings set it off from the two street sides, while a high board fence and hedges enclosed the large garden and range” (HSMBC report).

Interior Features
The interior of the house reflects the wealth and stature of its original residents:

The expansive foyer;
The quality (and expense) of imported encaustic tiling throughout the entrance area;
The majestic wooden canopies, decorated with the Brown Family Crest, hanging over interior doors on the ground floor.

These features underscore the historic association of the house with one of Canada’s most important public men.

Then

George Brown: Journalist, Editor, Orator, Statesman and Father of Confederation
George Brown (1818 – 1880) was an important figure in early Toronto. He was born in Scotland and emigrated to New York in 1838. He moved to Toronto in 1843 and, a year later, founded The Globe, predecessor to the Globe and Mail. He was later elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1851 and became recognized as the leader of the Reformers of Canada West.

His conciliatory gestures in 1864 broke a deadlock that saw 10 governments in 10 years in the Province of Canada’s Parliament and led to the grand coalition between himself (representing the Clear Grits) and Sir John A. Macdonald (representing the conservatives) on a new federal political union.

Despite being defeated in the 1867 federal election, Brown was renown as one of Canada’s most colourful Fathers of Confederation as well as for his superb oratory skills and speeches. He was appointed to the Senate in 1873.

The Life of the Residence
Construction of the Brown’s residence began in 1874, and the family took possession of their new home in 1876. His enjoyment of the new home was short-lived as a disgruntled former employee from The Globe attacked Brown in his office and shot him. The leg wound became infected and brought about Brown’s death. After Brown’s death in 1880, his widow Ann remained in the house until 1886, when she returned to Scotland.

Thereafter, the house was purchased by Duncan Coulson, general manager of the Bank of Toronto in 1891. His family remained there until 1920 when the home was sold to the Pearson Hall for Blind Soldiers. In 1924, Pearson Hall was taken over by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. In 1955, the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto bought the property.

Now

The Ontario Heritage Trust
Today, the George Brown House is owned by the Ontario Heritage Trust (OHT). This organization, created some 40 years ago, is the only legislated organization in the province responsible for the identification, protection, renewal and promotion of all types of heritage – built, cultural and natural.

The Restoration: True Detective Work
After a $2 million renovation, the building is in superb condition. Careful renovation has enabled the restoration and preservation of many of the building’s heritage values.

One of Brown’s two studies (on the ground floor) has been restored, in association with Parks Canada, as a small interpretive centre. Here visitors can see a room furnished very much as it was when George Brown lived here in the last few years of his life.

Restorers were able to copy a plaster ceiling decoration from the Sitting Room and duplicate it in the attaching Morning Room. A previous owner of the building – the Canadian National Institute for the Blind – had a photograph of a dinner hosted in the George Brown House. The image showed very clearly the details of a hanging lamp, and this has been faithfully reproduced. Photographic evidence was also used to design the wallpaper in the dining room.

In some cases, the restorers made educated guesses (e.g., they introduced a small, lamp-bearing sculpture representing agriculture – one of Brown’s many interests – on the newel post: restorers knew that a figure had been screwed into that position, but not what it looked like). When plywood was removed from a stained glass panel on the first floor landing, only half of the brightly coloured glass was intact. Restorers used the surviving half to reconstruct the broken panel.

Today: An Excellent Example of Adaptive-Reuse of a Heritage Building
The George Brown House is now used as a convention and banquet space. As well, offices are rented to tenants (many of them not-for-profit organizations operating in the cultural sector – for example, the Ontario Museums Association). Income from rentals is needed to restore and maintain the house and to pay for annual operations and regular upkeep.

Did you know...

Regrettably, George Brown lived in the house for just four years. In 1880, a disgruntled employee of The Globe – dismissed for drunkenness – shot Brown in the leg. Initially, Brown was expected to survive. However, the wound turned gangrenous, and Brown died seven weeks later in his bedroom on the first floor of this house.
One happy discovery during renovation of the house was a fragment of wallpaper behind a bit of paneling in the front hall. OHT was able to strike a creative deal with a wallpaper manufacturer. By selling the rights to a pattern used by a Father of Confederation, it was able to negotiate a good price for reproduction wallpaper. As a result, the restorers could afford to paper all three central halls with a dense, floral motif in gold. George Brown would certainly feel at home if he walked in.
The introduction of modern systems is a challenge in old houses. In the George Brown House, restorers minimized visual ductwork by using five separate heating and cooling units. In upstairs rooms, the areas behind transoms were used to disguise new ducts. An elevator was tucked into a corner of what was once a pantry; upstairs; the elevator opens discreetly into a tenant space.
George Brown referred to his house as Lambton Lodge.
The George Brown House features a small exhibit on Brown’s newspaper history.

Discovery

Have you ever wondered what kind of books people read in the late 19th-century? As an important statesman and founder of The Globe, George Brown had acquired a substantial collection of books – with treatises on agriculture and economics as well as rows of popular novelists, such as Sir Walter Scott. Drop by the George Brown House and enjoy perusing his antique collection of books!

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