Three generations, over a century, next door to Casa Loma

Spadina Museum

Banker James Austin built his family's estate on the hill overlooking downtown in 1866. Three generations of Austins lived there until 1982 — right next to the castle that came decades later.

Spadina House, the Austin family's Toronto estate — Spadina House, Toronto — Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons licensed

Spadina Museum takes its name from the Anishinaabemowin word ishpadina ("hill" or "high point"). Businessman James Austin — founder of the Dominion Bank and president of Consumers' Gas — purchased the property in 1866, building the core of the current house that year. Three generations of the Austin family lived there for over a century; the last resident lived in the house from 1942 until 1982.

From family home to museum

The house opened to the public as a museum in 1984, and underwent an extensive interior restoration completed in 2010. It sits at 285 Spadina Road, directly adjacent to Casa Loma on the Davenport-area escarpment overlooking downtown Toronto. The site is co-owned and operated jointly by the Ontario Heritage Trust and the City of Toronto, and today includes three floors of period interiors and a restored orchard — a very different programming focus from Casa Loma's castle/tourist-attraction angle next door.

Sources

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