Preserving the Robinson Cottages

Fife and Drum subscribers may recall reading a January 2005 article (“Garrison Common History: The Robinson Cottages”) observing the remarkable survival of fourteen small cottages built on the Garrison Common in the 1850s. Commissioned by a private investor during one of Toronto’s early development booms, thirty-two semi-detached cottages and eight or nine single ones had been constructed on fairly spacious plots of land purchased from Trinity College in 1855. The fourteen surviving cottages (all semi-detached) are now among the oldest private residences in the City of Toronto.

More than 160 years later, a frenzied Toronto real estate market has threatened the survival of these remaining structures. Within the last few months, two have been sold and another two have hit the market, all with the intention to demolish and redevelop. Hoping to protect as many as possible, a few dedicated Toronto residents have been working to secure a heritage listing for all of the cottages on Richmond Street West and Mitchell Avenue (excluding the four that are already listed). In getting the properties listed on the Toronto Heritage Register, the group would be taking the first step towards protecting the cottages from demolition, perhaps with individual heritage designations under the Ontario Heritage Act.

At the forefront of this initiative is Dolores Borkowski, who has started a Facebook page (Save the Garrison Common Cottages) to try and rally support for the cause. Visit them on Facebook and show your support for the preservation of these historic homes on the Garrison Common.

The fourteen Garrison Common cottages that survive have all been photographed over a period of several years by Patrick Cummins, a skilled recorder of Toronto’s streetscapes for more than two decades. We provide his pictures here for comparison, and to contribute to the ongoing discussion of how these old and special small houses might be conserved.