Berkeley House, York, Upper Canada

Berkeley House was a prominent house in York, Upper Canada. It was the home of two Clerks of Upper Canada's Privy Council, John Small, and his son Charles Coxwell Small.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Upper Canada's first small Parliament buildings were built next door to Berkeley House. Small is reported to have hosted meetings of the Province's Executive Committee in his home.

Later painting of Berkeley House, based on a pencil sketch made in 1831.

John Small bought a one acre parcel of land with a large log cabin on it in 1795, which he covered in stucco, and expanded.[7] The original log cabin had been built in 1793, by George Porter, a former sergeant. Small paid Porter $50 for the property.

Charles Coxwell Small further expanded the house[2] as an Italianate villa that became the centre of 1820s social life in York, after he inherited the property in 1831.[8] It included multiple large rooms, including one 18x45 feet.

The building was demolished in 1925.[3][4][5] It is now site of the Globe and Mail Centre.

Henry Scadding, an early resident of York, whose Toronto of Old recorded his recollections of York and early Toronto, devoted most of a page to describing Berkeley House, the renovations it went through, and early maps of the property.[9] He described the early house existing in a clearing, east of King Street's eastern termination at Ontario Street. He described Charles Small expanding and "elevating" the original log cabin, and incorporating it into the expanded building. One of the maps bore the annotation "A sketch showing the land occupied by John Small, Esq., upon the Reserve appropriated for the Government House at York by His Excellency Lt. Gov. Simcoe."

References
  1. Liam Peppiatt. "Chapter 36: Berkeley House". Robertson's Landmarks of Toronto Revisited. Archived from the original on 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2016-08-02. After Major Small's death, reconstruction on the house was begun by his son, Charles Small, who preserved the home and enlarged and elevated it. This new home was a large rambling building, covering a large extent of the grounds. The new building had thirteen large rooms, the larger of which were 18×45 feet in dimension.
  2. "Heritage Toronto Mondays". Urban Toronto. 2010-05-10. Archived from the original on 2017-01-02. Retrieved 2016-08-02. In 1795, Small purchased an existing log house at the southwest corner of today's Berkeley and King Streets that was one of the first domestic buildings erected in the Town of York.
  3. Chris Bateman (2013-09-30). "Globe and Mail development reveals lost Toronto mansion". Blog TO. Archived from the original on 2015-09-20. Retrieved 2017-06-05. Berkeley House was one of the largest homes in the young town of York. Sitting on the corner of what was once Parliament Street, the hewn timber house was built by Major John Small, an officer in the British militia, in 1794.
  4. John Allemang (2013-10-07). "Archeologists find link to 200-year-old scandal under new Globe home". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on 2017-06-06. Retrieved 2017-06-05. Make that resurface. An archeological dig on the site of The Globe and Mail's new headquarters in the oldest part of Toronto has revealed the remains of Berkeley House – home to a man who killed the attorney-general of Upper Canada in a duel fought over gossip his wife slept around.
  5. Craig White (2011-01-10). "Heritage Toronto Mondays: Berkeley House 1908". Urban Toronto. Retrieved 2017-06-05. Berkeley House was located on a one acre property surrounded by a yard and garden described as "one of the great social centres and few indeed are the members of the old aristocracy who have not danced or dined beneath its roof."
  6. "A Model City: 45 Berkeley House". Town of York Historical Society. Retrieved 2017-06-05. Small improved several times on his home, as did his son Charles in later years. One problem particular to his property was that it encroached on the land reserved for Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe's Government House(5). This was because Small bought his land prior to the government's setting out of property lots and street plans. The house was demolished in 1925(6).
  7. "Stage 1 Archaeological Resource Assessment of 333 King Street East" (PDF). City of Toronto government. December 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-02-01. Retrieved 2017-06-06.
  8. Bruce Bell. "Berkeley House: Where all hell broke loose". TheBulletin.ca - Journal of Downtown Toronto. Archived from the original on 2019-03-26. Retrieved 2017-05-12. Charles Small, son of John, inherited his father's modest home on the southwest corner of Berkeley and King and built an enormous addition. He named the entire estate Berkeley House. The house, an Italian-styled villa, became the center of social life in 1820s York. Carriages overflowing with young party-goers all dressed in the latest fashions would pull up nightly to the candle-lit house for what promised to be yet another evening of booze, laughter and political discussion.
  9. Henry Scadding (1878). "Toronto of Old: Collections and Recollections Illustrative of the Early Settlement and Social Life of the Capital of Ontario". Willing & Williamson. Retrieved 2020-04-30.

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