November 15, 2005
T.O. History Revisited - The Most Haunted
Corner in Toronto? Sherbourne and Adelaide
By Bruce Bell
Bruce Bell is the history columnist for the Bulletin, Canada’s
largest community newspaper. He sits on the board of the Town of
York Historical Society and is the author of two books ‘Amazing
Tales of St. Lawrence Neighbourhood’ and ‘TORONTO: A
Pictorial Celebration’. He is also the Official Tour Guide
of St Lawrence Market. For more info visit brucebelltours.com
The building on the southeast corner of Sherbourne and Adelaide
exists today because it had the fortitude to adapt to the times.
Or, it was just plain lucky.
At present it’s totally unrecognizable but underneath all
that red paint and patchy brickwork sits a fine Georgian house first
built in 1842 by blacksmith extrordinare, Paul Bishop.
He built his house upon the foundations of one of the most famous
manor homes of old York and consequently it now occupies some of
the most historic land in the city. Paul Bishop’s house went
on to miraculously survive the Great Fire of 1849, the onslaught
of the Industrial Revolution and the horrors of the 1960’s
Urban Renewal. Now thanks to Camrost-Felcorp Developers who have
assured me that this historic house will be restored back to its
early 19th century splendor as part of their new development of
the north east section of King and Sherbourne to be known as Kings
Court.
Paul Bishop's House 1860
In 1793, the year of our European founding, what was to become the
south east corner of Sherbourne and Adelaide was still part of a
great forest. There was a small stream running into Lake Ontario
which then came up as far as Front Street and the only buildings
in the area were a few canvas and wooden huts hastily set up by
the Queens Rangers in preparation of Gov. Simcoe’s arrival.
In 1798 one of those Queens Rangers, William Jarvis, having liked
this corner of the new capital of Upper Canada, now called York,
so much that he built a small villa on what would become the four
corners of Sherbourne and Adelaide and named it Jarvis House after
himself, naturally.
The house built of squared logs was 30 by 41 feet had 2 floors
and was covered with clap-boarding. The only major exterior detailing
being a fanlight over the front door. William, the Provincial Secretary
and Registrar from before Simcoe’s arrival in 1793 until his
death in 1818, decided not to spend too much money on the outside
in case he was forced to sell if the capital was to move to London.
The house sat on 2 acres spread over the entire Sherbourne and Adelaide
area. The estate held 2 barns, a root-house, a stable, a chicken
coup and, like the rest of our well to do founding fathers, had
slave quarters built to house the six people he owned.
After William Jarvis died in 1817 his son cut the house and grounds
into smaller sections. The house itself was taken over by a man
named Lee who turned it into a restaurant and billiard room and
added a small addition. In 1821 James Padfield rented a portion
of the building and started a school.
Paul Bishop's House today
When the school was disbanded in 1824, Isaac Columbus took possession
of the property and converted one part into workshops and the rest
into his home.
Isaac, a native of France, made swords and guns for our side during
the War of 1812 at his forge near Fort York. Described as a ‘real
character’ by 19th century historian Henry Scadding, he remembers
telling Columbus that a specific item must be ready by a particular
hour. Columbus staring him down with a terrifying glare reminded
Scadding that only the King of France can use the term 'must'.
Isaac hated the liberals of early Toronto because he believed that
modern ideas ‘hindered the King from acting as a good father
to his people’. In 1832 Isaac moves out and James Kidd moves
in. It was during this time that the Jarvis House, as it was still
known, became famous for unearthly reasons.
During the Cholera epidemics of the 1830’s several people
died in the house including a few by suicide. Room after room wase
now being sealed shut to prevent its spread. Townsfolk began to
talk. ‘There’s something not right at the old Jarvis
House’.
One dark and stormy night Mr. Kidd hears unnatural noises coming
from Secretary Jarvis office, boarded up ever since it was believed
to be haunted. So with a pistol in one hand, a crow bar in the other
and lightning striking a ghostly silhouette upon the wall, James
Kidd begins to pry open the door, but as he does the noises stop.
In an age when Frankenstein-the novel was a huge hit stories like
this had a life all their own. A few days later a man by the name
of Baxter arrives to spend the night at Jarvis house. Mr. Kidd hoping
to solve the mystery assigned Baxter the haunted room.
During the night, it is recorded that ‘sounds of fury and
noises never heard on this earth’ emanated from the haunted
room. The next morning a haggard Mr. Baxter appears at breakfast
with suitcase in hand telling all present “I will never pass
another night in that room, let alone this house, Good day”.
Some believed the apparition might have been that of John Ridout
who was shot and killed in a duel by Samuel Jarvis, son of William,
in 1817. To this day many believe his spirit, whose family had an
estate next door, still floats about the Sherbourne and Adelaide
area in search of his grave. Oh yea I forgot to tell you, both families
had private burial grounds in their back yards.
In 1842 James Kidd sells the house to Paul Bishop on the condition
that he be allowed to live there until he dies. He dies a year later
and in 1848 Paul Bishop tears down the old Jarvis house and builds
upon the foundations the structure that still stands, in part, today.
Bishop, a French Canadian whose real name L’Eveque meaning
‘the Bishop’ was Anglicized upon his arrival in Upper
Canada, established himself as a 1st class blacksmith, locksmith
and wheel maker, was also the son in law of previous owner Isaac
Columbus. Before taking ownership Bishop had his workshop across
the street on the northeast corner (today the site of the Jazz giant
Montreal Bistro) where in 1837 something truly historic happen.
A few years before in 1834, the year of incorporation, Thornton
Blackburn came from the United States and found employment working
as a waiter in Osgoode Hall. In 1837 and always the inventive sort,
Mr. Blackburn took a pattern of a horse drawn taxicab known then
only to Montreal and London UK to Paul Bishops workshop. It was
there in his shed that Mr. Bishop built for Mr. Blackburn the first
horse drawn taxicab in Upper Canada. At a time when the United States,
the land of the free-home of the brave, were still torturing and
enslaving a tenth of their population, we here in Toronto had as
our first taxicab owner a run-away American slave. The foundations
of the house that Thornton and his wife Lucie lived in for over
50 years on Eastern Ave near Cherry street which served as a stop
on the Underground railroad have been recently been found and preserved.
In 1860 Paul Bishop, having built the house he lived in for almost
30 years, left town and disappeared from our history books. The
house then came under the possession of Thomas Dennie Harris. In
his time he was one of leading merchants of the city, chief engineer
of the fire brigade from 1838 to 1841 and harbour master from 1870
to 1872. Between 1841 and 1864 he was a warden of St. James’
Church. Harris owned a hardware store since 1829 around the corner
at 124 King east, but it was destroyed during the Great Fire of
1849. Harris died in 1872 and with the encroachment of the Industrial
Revolution upon this end of town the end was near for his home too.
The small yard and fence that surrounded the house were torn up,
as were the trees. Ironic because as warden of St. James one of
Mr. Harris’s duties was to protect the poplar trees that surrounded
the church at the time.
The great estates of the neighbourhood like the massive Moss Park
(a story unto itself) up the street, the Ridout homestead next door
and Russell Abbey down the street were being divided up and eventually
demolished.
The area once part of a great forest was to become for the next
100 years a polluted industrialized zone. The historic house at
Sherbourne and Adelaide was stripped bare of its interior ornamentation,
it’s windows bricked up, new doors were smashed through, its
chimneys the very essence of its Georgian appeal though still standing
were built upon and the grand memories of its former days just faded
away. For the next 10 decades it became everything from a machine
shop to a garage to a flophouse. But it still stands and unlike
its neighbours will return from the ashes to remind us all of our
glorious past.
Useful Books:
Here is Bruce's brand-new book about Toronto
Related Articles:
Here's my story about Bruce Bell's St.
Lawrence Market Tour
Bruce's historic account of the Gooderham
and Warts Distillery
Bruce's history of Toronto Island
- Part I
Bruce's history of Toronto Island
- Part II
Bruce's history of Toronto's St.
James Cathedral
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