Please write an email today to the Toronto Preservation Board regarding 28 Daisy Avenue in Long Branch

I’ve written the following email to Robert Saunders c/o Janette Gerrard at jgerrar@toronto.ca regarding 28 Daisy Avenue in Long Branch. [Click on link in previous sentence for background about this historic property.]

Please write a letter of your own as soon as possible; the meeting that will decide on the designation takes place on Feb. 14, 2013.

The previous letter you may have written was with regard to the nomination of 28 Daisy Avenue for designation. The current letter writing project is in support of the final stage of the nomination process under the Ontario Heritage Act.

Please feel free to copy the text of my letter, adding your own name and address at the bottom. Or you may wish to write your own text.

The important thing is that you send a letter as soon as possible.

Text of email in favour of designation of 28 Daisy Avenue under the Ontario Heritage Act

Robert Saunders, Chair and Members of the Toronto Preservation Board
c/o Janette Gerrard – jgerrar@toronto.ca
12th floor, West Tower, City Hall
100 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON M5H 2N2

Subject: Designation of 28 Daisy Avenue under the Ontario Heritage Act

Dear Robert Saunders:

I am writing in support of the designation of 28 Daisy Avenue as a heritage property under the Ontario Heritage Act.

The property is the oldest remaining farmhouse in the lake front area of South Etobicoke. It is also the area’s remaining link to a pre-Confederation agricultural era; the only remaining example in Etobicoke of stucco-over-stone construction; and the oldest remaining building in Long Branch.

The house at 28 Daisy Avenue was built in the Gothic Revival cottage style popular during the late 1800s. The original owners, Richard and Lucy Newborn, emigrated from Lincolnshire, England between 1835 and 1837. They built the house before the 1852 census, on a 100-acre farm purchased in 1847. Their first-born daughter accompanied them from England. Four more daughters, and then three sons, were born in Canada.

The eldest son, Richard Robinson Newborn, born in 1843, worked the farm with his father. The son married Susannah Copeland in 1869 and the younger and older families lived together at the house. Richard Sr. died in 1879 followed by his wife Lucy in 1886. Richard Jr. operated the farm until his death in 1900. His wife Susannah died in 1911, after which the south 41 acres were sold to Colonel Frederick Burton Robins of the Lake Shore Land Co. Ltd.

Robins, who developed the land as the Lakeshore Gardens subdivision, preserved the house as the centre of the latter subdivision. The house was sold in 1911 to a neighbour, who owned it until his death in 1922. The next owner held the house until 1949. The next owner, in turn, lived in the house until 1977. Since then, the house has had at least seven owners. The home’s heritage features have, for the most part, been retained.

This is a property worth preserving for the enjoyment of future generations.

Sincerely,

[Your name]
[Your address]