Dr. HH Moorhouse, Mansion
Spadina & Dundas (then St. Patrick) NE corner
BACKGROUND
This Story Map is an updated redo of the original Kensington Market: Hidden Histories Project, undertaken with student research for the course CDN355 Digital Media, Digital Makers in Fall 2016. Findings from this initial research contributed to an early ArcGIS geolocative map and an augmented reality iOS app, Kensington Market: Hidden Histories, no longer available (built by No Campfire Required).
Shout outs and thanks to the research assistants who built and edited the new story maps, Diego Rupolo and Bruce Li, and to the original student researcher, Natalie Simonian.
This Story Map is marked as deprecated as links & sources may need updating.
HIDDEN HISTORY
If you stand at the intersection of Spadina and Dundas today, on the north east corner you will see a tall square yellow brick building. You wouldn’t know to look at it, that it has a storied history stretching back to the early 1920s, when it opened as the Standard Jewish Theatre.
What you would never guess is that before that building, this corner was dominated by an imposing Victorian mansion, built for Dr. Henry Hollingsworth Moorhouse and his family. Not much is known about Dr. Moorhouse except that he was a family doctor, whose name appears in medical records as the ‘accoucheur’ on birth registrations. City records show that he lived here with the family entrance on Spadina, and the entrance to the medical practice off St. Patrick Street, now Dundas. This one photo in the City of Toronto Archives is the only visual record we have of that house. Look at the size of it and try to imagine the lives of the Moorhouse family, who no doubt lived a life of comfort and privilege with visitors, and servants to help with the upkeep of a very large home.
Located on the same corner now occupied by the Standard Theatre building was once an imposing Victorian mansion, built for Dr. Henry Hollingsworth Moorhouse and his family. Not much is known about Dr. Moorhouse except that he was a family doctor, whose name appears in medical records as the ‘accoucheur’ on birth registrations.
City records show that he lived here with the family entrance on Spadina, and the entrance to the medical practice off St. Patrick Street, now Dundas. This one photo in the City of Toronto Archives is the only visual record we have of that house.
Moorhouse Mansion in 1921 (City of Toronto Archives). NE corner.
Look at the size of it and try to imagine the lives of the Moorhouse family, who no doubt lived a life of comfort and privilege with visitors, and servants to help with the upkeep of a very large home.
The Moorhouse family lived in this extraordinary mansion for almost 30 years and the City Directory has the earliest trace of the Dr. at this address. The 1883 property listing gives his address as 128 St Patrick and his home as Spadina Ave.
Prior to the 1883 record, the 1868 City Directory lists very few properties on Spadina East Side, between Queen St and Bloor St.
The earliest visual record of this mansion appears in the 1884 Goad’s Fire Insurance map, which shows the outline of the brick house.
The Goads maps were vital for firefighters, so they would know what material structures were made of in case of fires, and for insurance. The Goads map colours brick buildings red, stone blue, and wooden yellow, and a fire starting in mostly wooden or yellow stretch of buildings would have escalated much faster than a series of brick buildings.
You can see the detail of the outline of this imposing mansion with the Doctor’s name written across what are two lots, and the name Moor House recorded underneath on what was then St. Patrick Street. In the 1880s, the Moorhouses would have had a horse-drawn street railway pass by their home, before the electric railway line was introduced in the early 1890s, so living at this corner gave them easy access to transit.
You can see from the surrounding buildings on the Goads map that it was much bigger and likely towered over its smaller 2-story neighbours.
The 1891 Census provides small clues as to their background. Both the Dr. and his wife Sydney emigrated from England although it’s noted she was born in Ireland, and their son, Ashley, was born in Ontario.
Given their ages noted in the census, when the house was first built, he was 41, Sydney 31, and their son, an infant who might have been born in this house, as women had their children at home. Like many English immigrants of that period, they were Protestant, as their faith is recorded as Church of England. Living at this intersection, they would have seen new buildings and businesses appear as the city took shape over time.
The entries over the following years shift details slightly, and the 1891 record only notes ‘private grounds’ even though years following continue to record his medical practice.
We can guess that he must have been financially well off, with a thriving practice, as the cost of building this home must have been substantial.
To date, no pictures of the family have been discovered. More digging in archives would likely find the Doctor’s name recorded on more birth certificates at the very least.
The only remaining physical trace we have of this family is their tombstone in the St. James Cemetery & Crematorium in Cabbagetown. From the inscription, it seems their son, Ashleigh, died tragically drowning in Lake Ontario in 1906. As he was only 24 and their only child, you can imagine that over the next decade, his parents would have taken the railway across town along what is now Dundas to visit their son’s grave.
Sydney died in 1917, aged 65. Henry Hollingsworth Moorhouse lived another 6 years in what must have felt like an enormous and empty home, dying in December 1922. Given the dates, the property was likely sold to the Standard Theatres Ltd. before his death as The Standard Jewish Theatre opened in August 1922. Today, when you pass through this intersection, you would have no idea that this building once stood here, home of the Moorhouses for three decades.
CODA
On Oct. 4 2018, club empresario Ronny Hitti gave me a tour of the soon to be gutted interior of the Standard / Victory / Golden Harvest Theatre and I was able to take these panoramas. The original seating had just been removed.
Screen caps from the original app.
The Hidden History of this location continues with the Standard Yiddish Theatre.
