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The Somewhat Bizarre Tale of Donald Springer

Donald Matheson Springer died in Charlottesville, Virginia, on February 19, 1952. The barn that Donald converted to a house in 1947 stood on Allview Crescent, near the corner of Leslie and Finch, until it was demolished on May 6, 2003, roughly 120 years after it had been built.

Donald Springer was born in Lisbon, Ohio, on June 13, 1898. He lived a solitary, successful life, much of it in Canada, and left us this remarkable structure, which in the end proved unworthy of our respect — unfortunately far too typical, though still sad. Imagine how much more welcoming and attractive North York would be today if even a fraction of our destructive tendencies had been redirected to preservation?

Donald Springer interrupted his studies at the University of Michigan to serve in the United States Navy during the First World War. Following the war, he completed his studies, graduating with a bachelor of science in chemical engineering in 1919. He put his degree to immediate use when he joined the Standard Oil Company of New York and was posted overseas as a manager in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and India. He remained there for a remarkably long time, not returning to North America until 1930. When he came back, he settled in Toronto where he formed Toronto Fuels Limited. Other companies under his umbrella included Liquid Fuels Limited, Fueloil Sales Limited, Fueloil and Equipment Limited, and General Oil Heating Limited — perfectly tapping into this city’s changeover from coal to oil as the preferred method of heating. If he wasn’t wealthy when he returned from India, he certainly would be before long.

Though Donald never married, he was an active member of local society. He belonged to the Ontario Jockey Club, the Rosedale Golf and Country Club, the Toronto Hunt Club, the Eglinton Hunt Club, the University Club, the American Mens’ Club, the Advertising and Sales Club, and the Granite Club, where he lived for a time at 63 St. Clair Avenue West. In addition, he belonged to the Board of Trade and was a member of the Opera Festival Board. In Virginia, he belonged to the Farmington Country Club. He was always interested in helping young people get ahead and established a number of scholarships at the University of Toronto and his alma mater, the University of Michigan, while an officer of the Advertising and Sales Club.

The beautiful home that Donald Springer created from an existing barn on his property in 1947 is shown here as it appeared in 1967. It would stand until being demolished on May 6, 2003.

Photo by Lorna Gardner, North York Historical Society, NYHS 1169.

Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Donald Springer bought a beautiful corner of one of the former Johnston farms on the southwest corner of Leslie and Finch, part of Lot 20-2E. The property included the right-of-way for the Canadian National Railway line, the tableland between Leslie Street and the East Don Valley, and part of the valley lands as well. When Donald took possession, a house, stables, garage, and large barn were already standing on the property. It would be his conversion of the Johnson family barn into a magnificent home and the longevity of the house that would alert people to his existence many years later.

Donald’s new property proved a boon to his fellow hunt-club members who were being hounded by the burgeoning city to find new places to pursue the inedible, since development was rapidly claiming their old haunts. They were welcomed at Donald’s, however, and must have enjoyed the area, since several years later the Eglinton Hunt Club bought the former Samuel Kennedy farm, directly to the north, from R.Y. Eaton, to serve as their new headquarters.

Donald was also a charter member of the first North York Planning Board, which was established on September 25, 1946, to oversee the development of North York. He, like his fellow board member Earl Bales, would also serve as chairman of the board. While in that role in 1950 and 1951, he ruled that septic tanks would not be permitted in any new subdivisions, a very drastic change to what was then common practice, and one of many signs that North York’s days as a farming community were coming to an end.

When Donald died in 1952, he left an estate in the neighbourhood of $600,000. He had no heirs or survivors, other than his mother in Ohio, so his will directed that his estate be divided among a number of his favourite causes. The University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario were beneficiaries of his generosity, but the bulk of his fortune went to funds he had set up to see to the care and education of needy children and to provide financial assistance to young adults who would otherwise not be able to attend college or university.

After his death, the little farm was bought by a Reginald Hall. The farmland was subdivided in 1960, and a subdivision centred on Alamosa Drive and Appian Drive was constructed. Mr. Hall continued to live in the converted barn until 1973, when it was sold to another family. The house continued to be inhabited until 2001 when the children, who inherited it, put it up for sale, hoping someone would want to restore it.

After a year passed and no one wanted the barn as a home, it was sold to Bayfin Homes. The developer bought it in February of 2003 and demolished it on May 6 of the same year. Jonathan Winberg, project coordinator for Bayfin, went the extra mile when he donated some of the 120-year-old timbers to Black Creek Pioneer Village. Two new rather ordinary-looking homes were then built on the site of Donald Springer’s converted barn. It seems unlikely that anyone will be writing their story in the twenty-second century.