Description:                                

Few historical sites can portray the bygone elegance and homey preoccupations of early Toronto as “Spadina,” a soaring mansion flanked by handsome gardens typical of the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Located three miles from the lakeside village of York (later Toronto), the present structure was completed in 1866 on the site of a summer villa built decades earlier. Furnished with distinction, Spadina House was planned and built for the prominent Toronto entrepreneur, James Austin (1813-97) and his wife, Susan Bright (1817-1907). They held countless balls and parties, a tradition that has been maintained at the present-day historical facility operated by the Ontario Heritage Foundation and the City of Toronto.