John Irwin House
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For the similarly named historic house in Iowa, see John N. and Mary L. (Rankin) Irwin House.
The John Irwin House is named on the city of Toronto's registry of historic properties.[1] It is one of the oldest surviving residential buildings in its neighbourhood.[2] The city describes the house as being an example of "Second Empire" style. The house is located at 21 Grenville Street. That part of the city, east of Queen's Park, was opened for residential development in 1860, and the house was recorded on city records as being owned by John Irwin in 1873.
Enzo di Matteo, writing in Now magazine included the house in a profile of 15 historic properties that were nevertheless under threat of demolition.[3]
In the winter of 2012 a rear wing of the house was demolished.[4]
In 2012, 2013 and 2014 the block surrounding the house was redeveloped into a 50 storey highrise, and extraordinary steps were taken to preserve the John Irwin House.[1] The house was temporarily moved to a concrete platform, supported by deep piles that extended through what would be several underground floors, to bedrock. When the highrise is complete the historic house will be repurposed as commercial space.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sarah Sweet (2014-01-29). "Spotted: The John Irwin House, Mid-Air". Toronto, Ontario: Torontoist. Archived from the original on 2014-01-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20140130164249/http://torontoist.com/2014/01/spotted-the-john-irwin-house-mid-air/. Retrieved 2014-01-30. "The John Irwin House, dating back to 1873, which had to be moved to the north-east corner of the site in order to accommodate the new 50-storey Karma condo development."
- ↑ "REASONS FOR LISTING: 21 GRENVILLE STREET". City of Toronto. Archived from the original on 2014-01-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20140130161914/http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2007/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-1013.pdf. "The John Irwin House has design or physical value as one of the last surviving examples of a house form building in this area, and for its Second Empire stylistic features."
- ↑ Enzo di Matteo (2012-03-29). "15 Toronto architectural gems under threat". Now magazine. Archived from the original on 2012-04-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20120416113921/http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=185982. Retrieved 2014-01-30. "The original development plan for the site proposed the relocation of one of the last examples of Second Empire architecture still standing in the Yonge and College neighbourhood."
- ↑ "Demolition of rear half of 1873-era heritage house heralds construction start for Karma condo tower". The Toronto blog. 2012-08-28. Archived from the original on 2014-01-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20140130171737/http://thetorontoblog.com/2012/08/28/demolition-of-rear-half-of-1873-era-heritage-house-heralds-construction-start-for-karma-condo-tower/. "… and work to prepare the site for construction of the 50-storey tower has finally started with the demolition of the rear half of the heritage house at 21 Grenville …"
