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Friends of the Cawthra Bush & Greater Mississauga Area
• where my videos are posted Pages of Special Interest; • • Other Table of Contents; |
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A
scanned copy. Done on a non-word processor, called a typewriter, I believe.
Some of the spelling is original, even if it appears wrong. The name Elliott
has one t, even though it often seen in this text with two tt's. The figures
are left out at his time but as this is a City document a copy is in the
Central library, in the Canadiana Reading Room 615-3524 - code 971.3535.PHI
By Ken Phipps, LACAC student, September 1989 THE ESTATE UNDER CITY OWNERSHIP On October 22, 1974, at 96 years of age, Grace Millicent Kennaway Cawthra-Elliott died. She left no will and no one to pay succession duties amounting to one and a half million dollars; consequently, Cassels and Brock (her law firm--now Cassels, Brock and Blackwell) negotiated the sale of the Cawthra-Elliott estate to the City for 2.6 million dollars. Since that time, many options have arisen, and some have been considered; but the fate of the estate remains undecided. In fact, since Mrs. Cawthra-Elliot's death, the estate has existed in a kind of tenant-occupied limbo. Soon after she died, the Smouters, who had lived in the gatehouse since 1966, taking care of the grounds and, later, of Grace as well, moved into the main house; after they moved out, in 1978 [1], the Porters moved in, having spent about two years in the gatehouse. In 1981 the Porters moved out and the Arbuckles moved in [2]. Today a portion of the house is unoccupied, and vines are creeping in through broken panes and the cracks around them. The wilderness has reclaimed most of the grounds, few traces now being visible of the original landscaping. A rumour has circulated that the ghost of Grace haunts the attic and, since the Arbuckles have lived there, the house has played host to at least seven film crews, including those of a movie called "After the Food of the Gods", an episode of "Katts and Dog" and recently a Canadian production with Rip Torn as Walt Whitman entitled "Beautiful Dreamers." The house, once a prime example of classic Loyalist architecture, is now a decaying casualty of progress. That progress has not entirely erased the estate is due mainly to a concerned Mississauga. Four months after Grace died a concerned citizen's opinion appeared in the Mississauga Times protesting the rumoured development of high-rise apartments and townhouses on the Cawthra-Elliott estate [3]. No high-rises appeared, but this may have been a result of general indecision rather than public opinion. Two months after this published opinion, in April of 1975, a letter was sent to Tony Cassels from Servicemaster of Mississauga Ltd., Professional Cleaning/Maintenance Services, regarding a request by the Smouters to estimate cleaning at the Cawthra house [4]. Basic cleaning amounted to $5040, owing to the years of neglect the house had suffered at the hands of its recently-interred and eccentric owner. In August of 1975, when Councillor Ron Searle and then-Mayor Martin Dobkin were negotiating a purchase price with the state trustees, Councillor Searle was quoted as saying it would be 'tragic' if the 27-acre estate slipped out of the City's hands, not only because of the significance of the house as an example of a particular architectural style, but because of the value of the accompanying virgin woodlot as a botanists' paradise. He expressed concern that the estate might be purchased by developers, and praised the Cawthra-Elliott family for not succumbing to the temptation to sell to such eager buyers and thereby make untold millions. He said at that point that the City had a month "to express its firm intent to preserve" the estate and so it did--by buying the property [5]. Anthony (Tony) Adamson, a descendant of the Cawthras and former resident and owner of the Adamson estate, upon hearing the results of the negotiations, said "if the city wants to pay 2.6 million dollars for a swamp, let it" [6]; the city paid, hoping it would soon be much more than a swamp. In March of 1976 Recreation Commissioner Ed Halliday told the press that the City and various historical societies would be cooperating to develop a long-term restoration program for the estate [7]. It was almost two years later that the Cawthra-Elliott issue surfaced again--but by then it had definite direction. It was January of 1978 and the City's Park and Recreation Committee had given approval in principle for Visual Arts Mississauga to convert the estate into a cultural centre. City-Council still had to ratify the approval, but the Visual Arts people thought they had enough support to get the federal and provincial grants needed to reconstruct the building. They were also going to recommend that a curator be hired to get the project underway and to protect the place from vandals. Al Smouter, the policeman who had been living in the house and maintaining the property, was leaving with his family on January 28, and the City was looking for a tenant to save about $3000 a month in 24 hour security services. Parts of the overall plan, such as what specific grants could be obtained, where parking would be located, and what exactly the cost of operation would be, still had to be worked out; but it looked like the estate would not remain unattended for long [8]. In February 1978 Margaret Lawrence, one of this city's authorities on local history and chairperson at the time of Mississauga LACAC, reported the loss of seven sets of fireplace tools and expressed her concern about the possible loss or ruin of other important historic features. LACAC decided to ask the city property department to take a complete inventory of all items in every city-owned building of historic value to guard against this possibility [9, 10]. Visual Arts Mississauga, however, seemed unaffected by this inaction. The-general assumption in March of that same year, 1978, seemed to be that their proposal would go through, and that Cawthra-Elliott was definitely on its way to becoming a home to 16 local groups of artists and artisans. Fay Sproule, chairperson of VAM, told the press that a feasibility study being conducted at the time was checking such concerns as lighting, the furnace and the layout of the rooms; she said that VAM was applying for federal and provincial grants and that the project needed a volunteer to do publicity and ultimately someone to become a full or part-time curator [11]. Apparently the project moved along with relative confidence through July, when the Mississauga Times featured an extensive multi-part article on the estate and its by now seemingly-unquestioned future. The article talked about the arts centre the estate would become, the preliminary feasibility study that had been done with the help of a Wintario grant, and the plans which would be shown to the City's Park and Recreation department in the first week of August. The architecture would be restored, the plumbing and electricity would be updated, and a new road would be installed to make the estate more accessible; the third floor attic would become a curator's apartment, the main floor would be a public gallery, and the second floor rooms would become teaching areas and artists' studios [12]. In October 1978, however, a report on the project listed some sobering objections. It said that the plan as it was would necessitate the cutting down of a portion of the woodlot for which the property was purchased. It could also undermine the then-current proposal for an art gallery or performing arts centre in the City core or City Centre (which would, it was thought at the time, be built after the Cawthra-Elliott art centre was established). And it was expensive; it would cost at least a million dollars for initial restoration and renovation, and (as projected until 2000 AD) about $14000 a year for maintenance. Finally, the work proposed would convert rather than restore the house, entailing the addition of many facilities not indigenous to the house but indispensable to an art centre; the original character of the house--a major reason for VAM's initial interest in it and the reason the city still considers it valuable as an historic and architectural monument--would almost certainly be lost [13]. Despite the detailed, time-consuming and costly feasibility studies done on the project, the confidence and enthusiasm VAM and those involved exuded, Cawthra-Elliott did not become an art centre. Three years later, in February of 1981, a small article in the Mississauga Times appeared with the headline, "Got $200,000 to spare?" The City had exhausted its search for a community group with the funds to pay for repair work costing approximately that amount and was looking for suitably affluent tenants from the private sector; the article gave Director of Realty Services Robert Johnston's name and phone number [14]. By July 1981 the City was considering a proposal by Little Scooter Day Care to convert the estate into a day care centre for infants and children of up to ten years of age. This proposal seems to have been one of convenience for Little Scooter rather than suitability, and appears not to have been investigated as thoroughly as was the VAM proposal [15]. Late in August 1981 the Mississauga News had a full-page article on the estate featuring a large colour photo, descriptive passages stressing untouched, haunting beauty, and interviews with the Smouters (who had been closest to Grace Cawthra-Elliott when she died) and Senior Property-Officer Craig Mark, who said that $500,000 would be enough to bring the house up to modern standards [16]. Four days later the Globe and Mail carried an ad from the City inviting proposals to use the estate for commercial purposes such as restaurants or professional offices; the ad gave a deadline for submissions of October 31st of that year as well as Craig Mark's name, address, and phone number [17]. The invitation yielded results, of a sort; in December The Star learned that Craig Mark had been contacted by the lawyer of an anonymous investor from Western Canada and speculated that this investor was Vancouver real estate and- sports baron Nelson Skalbania; the investor apparently was about to lease the estate for twenty-five years and spend $500,000 to convert it to a restaurant--this initial sum was going to be applied against the rent payable and so the investor would eventually get it back [18]. Two years later Nelson Skalbania was only a memory; the Real Estate News devoted a page to the estate, retelling the story of the Cawthras in brief and of Grace in particular, and saying that the Toronto company that owned the Teller's Cage was drawing up a proposal to turn the house into a dinner theatre [19]. This was exactly what was happening. By November of the following year, 1984, the City was looking at a proposal for the Mississauga Dinner Theatre. It postulated that by September of 1985 Cawthra-Elliott would be the site of a 600 seat multi-tiered immensely popular dinner theatre. It talked about how the site of the estate was geographically perfect, being within easy reach of a large population base and immediately adjacent to a major traffic artery. It spoke of putting Mississauga on the map with a tourist attraction which could reverse the flow of the QEW, and of providing an establishment which could be used during the theatre's off-hours as a convention centre or as a meeting place for arts and cultural groups. It pointed out the magnetic pull a relaxed rural environment set in the midst of an urban area could have. Given the people involved in the planning stages and potential operation of this project, it might have been quite a success. They were all highly experienced in the food and beverage and entertainment industry, managers and owners involved with Second City, SCTV, the Teller's Cage, and other lucrative ventures; one of these people was a lawyer that specialized in entertainment law, while another was the owner and president of the largest private fund-raising corporation in North America. It seems plausible considering their backgrounds that if they believed they could have made the project a success, they probably could have. Given that the financial aspects of the project were worked out, the architectural and landscaping plans would still have had to be carefully considered. The Cawthra-Elliott house could not contain the 600 patrons the group intended to serve each night, so a second possibly imposing structure would have had to have been erected, thereby altering considerably the original landscaping and effectively dwarfing the original house. Supposing this could have been done without entirely sacrificing the estate's original character, large parking areas would still have had to have been introduced in a relatively unobtrusive way; the group forwarded four or five alternative solutions but these may not have been deemed entirely viable [20]. But even this problem may eventually have been worked out; and, as the group appeared to regard the heritage aspect of the estate as a marketable item, they might actually have cooperated in attempting to retain it, and the compromise inherent in the nature of the project may not have been so great. The City might have sanctioned a final carefully-evolved proposal, but in the end, apparently, the group itself decided to drop the project [21]. Five years later the Arbuckles live in a house that is too big for them--they only use half of it--on a piece of land so large they can hardly even attempt to maintain it. The estate is a direct link with our most distant past. The story of the Cawthras--of strength and avarice, petty jealousy and selfishness, pride and vanity, and elegance and grace--this story of fierce and blind and possibly stupid loyalty to family and to tradition, to a way of life we can't even understand any more--this story is ours, and if we lose the estate, we lose it. Grace Cawthra-Elliott was obsessed with this story because she lived it and because when she did she played a character who felt she only had to wish for something to have it. And because if she left her past behind she might from the viewpoint of the present be forced to see it as it was rather than as she would have liked it to have been. She built the estate. It was part of her and she was part of it. To understand it we need to understand Grace Cawthra-Elliott. ENDNOTES [1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
[20]
[21]
THE CAWTHRA-ELLIOTT ESTATE - List of Figures: 1. North facade (close-up) c. 1970 - p. 19 2. South facade c. 1970 - p. 19 3. South facade including 'My Lake' - p. 20 4. North facade from distance - p. 21 5. Looking north from house c. 1969 - p. 22 6. Walled garden to the east of the house c. 1969 - p. 22 7. Approach to house from west drive, 27 Feb. 1965 - p. 23 8. South facade.- p. 24 9. North facade - p. 24 10. Brick shelter with wooden bench on grounds,- p. 25 11. Gatehouse while still standing--directly west of house beside Cawthra Rd.. - p. 25 12. Grounds as depicted in March 1938 issue of Canadian Homes and Gardens - p. 26 13. House and lawn as shown in April 1937 issue - p. 26 14. Canadian Homes and Gardens June 1930 featured a look at the interior. Here, the living room - p. 27 15, 16. The dining room - p. 28 17, 18. Mrs. Cawthra-Elliott's bedroom - p. 29 19. The Colonial Georgian doors of the main entrance - p. 30 20. A Jacobean four -poster in the 'Rose Bedroom' - p. 30 21. The 'Colonial Bedroom' - p. 30 22. Existing architecture delineated by two-dimensional drawings. Here, the basement - p. 31 23. The first floor"- p. 32 24. The second floor - p. 33 25. A modern rendering of the estate and the position of the house therein p. 34 26. Alternative parking plans for the Dinner Theatre Proposal, Nov. 1984 - p. 35 27. Division of land from the Peel Atlas of 1877 - p. 36 28. Map of unknown origin and date showing alotments of land-original in possession of Mr. A. Smouter - p. 37. PLEEASSE SIGN OUR PETITION It will make a difference! Home page - Main Table of Contents - Back up a page - Back to Top |
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