Tuesday, March 30, 2021

William H. Shaw House - 34 Lake Crescent

34 Lake Crescent

Built for William H. Shaw in 1934 this house is so large it had to be sited on the lot sideways.  

William Henry Shaw was born on February 3, 1893 in Oro Township, Simcoe County to Albert Henry Shaw, a farmer and his wife Maggie Febe Crook.

In the 1901 and 1911 census William was living on the farm with his family in Oro Township.

He attended Orillia Collegiate Institute and then enrolled at the University of Toronto, University College in 1914.  It must have been a difficult year for him as two of his sisters died of diphtheria within days of each other.  Lila died on November 25 at the age of seven years and two months, and Violet died on December 1 at the age of two years and eight months.  

Back at university Shaw seems to have taken a year off in 1918 and didn't graduate with a Bachelor of Arts until 1919.  (Did he take a year off school because of the 1918 pandemic?)  Upon graduation he seems to have immediately found a job with Canadian Industries Limited (CIL) (a subsidiary of du Pont), working as a chemist at their research facility in Beloeil, Quebec. 

On October 15, 1919 William Shaw returned to Ontario to marry Virginia Taylor at the Methodist Church in Parry Sound. 




Parry Sound North Star
October 16, 1919

By 1921 the Shaws had moved to Mimico living at 45 Church Street (present-day Royal York Road) and William was working at the CIL plant nearby in New Toronto.



  Canadian Industries Limited, New Toronto 1963
Celebrating Our Golden Jubilee - New Toronto and New Toronto Hydro - 50 Years of Industrial Progress 1913-1963

William and Virginia Shaw bought the house from John A Scott and John W Gibson (who built the house in 1919) on June 30, 1920 for $5,500.  John A Scott, Builder of the Town of Mimico, took back a mortgage of $1,075 which was discharged by Shaw on November 26, 1924.  The Shaws retained ownership of the house even after they moved to their new house on Lake Crescent.  It was not till February  3, 1945 that they sold it to Robert Frizell and his wife Ella Mae.  The Shaws took back a mortgage of $3,500 which Robert Frizell paid off on November 5, 1948.

Living on the edge of the Crescent Point subdivision they no doubt were familiar with the area with its curved streets and grassy boulevards and noticed a certain vacant lot on Lake Crescent next to the impressive Fred P Toms House.  

William and Virginia Shaw bought the vacant lot (Lot 103, Plan M76) where they would build this magnificent house, from Annie and Mary Ollman on September 15, 1928 for $2,000.   The Ollman sisters took back a mortgage of $1,500 which Shaw would pay off on July 12, 1939.  

The Shaws engaged Horwood & White, Architects to design their new Mimico home.  John Charles Batstone Horwood was one of the premier architects in Toronto at this time and his designs grace many of Toronto's most prominent neighbourhoods.   Horwood lived in Toronto but had a summer estate on the Mimico waterfront. 

As can be seen from the architectural plans preserved in the Horwood Collection at the Archives of Ontario, the architects designed a spacious and exquisite six bedroom house.  

From the outside it is a flawless beautiful box.  The house was built with red brick accented by quoins on all four corners, with a cornice and dentils wrapping around the entire building.  The roof is pierced by dormers to provide light to the bedrooms on the upper floor.  The south facing facade of the main floor features a large bay window (with dentils above to reflect the dentils the wrap around the building on the second floor) to provide amble light to the living room.  It is balanced by a covered verandah and balcony on the north side of the house.     

As noted above, due to the narrowness of the lot the house is sited sideways.  The main entrance is on the east side.  The main facade is asymmetrical with one bay of windows on the south side of the entrance and two on the north.  A dual stairway with a wrought iron banister topped with bronze finials leads to the front door framed by pilasters and topped by a pediment.  The six paneled door is topped by a rectangular leaded window covered by a decorative wrought iron screen.  The well executed and artful exterior was only a hint of the beauty inside.

When the Shaws walked into their new house in late 1935 (they first appear living here in the 1936 Toronto City Directory for which the information was gathered in late 1935) they would have stepped through the front door into a black travertine marble-floored vestibule and then into the stair hall. 

Once inside they would have cast their eyes on the paneled staircase which projects from the basement to the upper floor and provides organization to the house.  On the first floor they would have seen a large living room, with a fireplace, on the south side balanced by a dining room, kitchen and pantry on the north side.  Built in closets were provided adjacent to the main entrance for coats as well as the rear entrance. They would have admired the Sienna marble fireplace surround with bronze edging under a wooden mantle in the living room.  

Proceeding down the stairs to the basement the Shaws would have seen the large games room, laundry, fruit cellar, toilet and boiler room with adjacent coal room (indicating that this house was originally heated with coal).  They would have noticed that the architect even tucked the gas and water meters in a niche on the front facade wall.

Climbing the stairs to the second floor the family would have seen the den opposite the stairs.  Stepping inside they would have seen  the fireplace with built-in book shelves and cupboards on either side.  They would have noticed that the fireplace surround was identical to the one in the living room with Sienna marble surround and bronze edging.  On the south of the staircase Mr and Mrs Shaw would have walked into their spacious master bedroom with adjacent dressing room complete with built-in wardrobes next to their ensuite bathroom.  On the north side of the staircase, on the balance of the floor, they would have seen two more bedrooms, also with built-in closets, for the children.  They would have noticed that one of them had access to a balcony over the porch on the north side.  Adjacent to the two bedrooms they would have noticed the additional bathroom for the children.

Climbing the stairs up to the third floor they would have seen three additional bedrooms, all with built-in closets, as well as a storage room, and adjacent full bathroom on the same floor. 

In 1934, the same year the house was under construction, William Shaw filed a US patent for a paper container, which both he and his co-designer John J. Moriarity assigned to du Pont Corporation.  He filed a second patent in 1936 for a tobacco pouch, looking strikingly similar to the paper container, and also assigned it to du Pont Corporation.

The Shaws would live in the house for the rest of their lives.  William Shaw died in 1979 and his wife Virginia Taylor died in 1991.  They are buried together at Saint Mark's Anglican Cemetery in Oro, Ontario with other members of the Shaw family.

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