 |
| Todmorden's Cottage, 1953, TRL collection, S1 - 1261. |
What do we know about this building?
We know it's designed in a Regency style, and rather grand for a little cottage in the woods, don't you think? Powered by four fireplaces (or more) and exuding a rather stately presence, Todmorden's cottage has the design of building from the early 1800s, but portions of its foundation, according to archeologists from Historic Horizons, Inc. date only from 1850. The photo here suggests serious digging going on in the 1950s. See what look like shovels leaning against the wall? And piles of debris around it?
Records in the Toronto Archives say that this building originally stood farther upriver, near Beechwood Drive, and was later moved to this location at Todmorden Mills.
The Skinner saw mill was the first one operating in the Don Valley, producing floorboards, rafters and siding when only logs and stones were available. The original Skinner camp was probably nothing more than a tent, followed quickly by a log cabin, but as soon as the mill was up and running the Skinners would have Boards Galore, and easily could have built a clapboard house. Did Rhoda Skinner live in this house, while her father, brothers and first husband sorted out their business affairs?
I like to think that Todmorden's regal little cottage is one of the Skinners' 'model homes' built in style in the Valley to show off the many kinds of lumber the mill produced. It would have been erected near the saw mill, which was probably a little up river from the cottage's present location, closer to the dam. With a steady supply of lumber from their own mill, it makes sense that the Skinners would build themselves a comfortable frame house, originally heated with a stove purchased at Abner Miles's store!
No comments:
Post a Comment