This $5 million historic home was in danger of having its heritage designation removed after its new owners complained to the City of Toronto that its original owner held racist views. Council later rejected that application but agreed to remove his name from city documents.
City officials in Toronto have reversed course on a controversial decision to remove the name of a prominent early 20th century Toronto businessman from a historic home, in light of new information brought forward by his descendants.This 9,000-square-foot Toronto home was about to have the name of its original owner, Robert Stapleton Caldecott, removed from its heritage designation because of his allegedly racist views on immigration. City council has since changed its mind.
"No way was interested in dividing people by their physical appearance," Lucelle Schmitz told CBC Toronto, from her home in Saskatchewan.City council passed a bylaw in 2018 designating the home at 64 Woodlawn Ave., as a heritage building, based on its association with Caldecott, a well-known philanthropist and businessman who died there in 1907, and because it was designed by prominent architect Eden Smith, who brought unique structural qualities to the building.
When they began investigating the house's history, they found, they say, that the original owner held racist views.A heritage designation limits homeowners' ability to renovate or demolish a home, although Earle has said that's not why they wanted the designation removed. Akladios found Caldecott held "restrictive views" on immigration but, he told CBC Toronto, does not consider him a racist.
"The only people he would have attempted to block from entering the country was the likes of American merchants in order to protect and build the young nation of Canada."Toronto's Yonge-Dundas square is being renamed. Here's what it'll be called — and why"I don't think should have been removed in the first place," he said.
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