across from Yonge Street at what is now Glebe Road.
“Little is recorded of the early period of John’s pioneering days. These must have been days of hard work and loneliness for a young English farmer, but he apparently prospered through his toil as the area became known for its high productivity. There are stories that at one time negro slaves escaping from the United States took up residence in the area. It is possible they assisted with land clearing, and were, for the most part, employed as farm help.”7
John Sr. died in 1854 at the age of 81 years.8 His wife, Mary Hutchison, had predeceased him in 1846, at the age of 55 years. They are buried in the cemetery of St. John’s Anglican Church, York Mills. Upon his death, the farm was divided and each son received about 100 acres of land. The brick home and one hundred and ten acres (this included the house, orchard and all the out-buildings) were left to his son, John Jr.
John Jr. had married Sarah Charles, daughter of James Charles, a well-known Toronto dry goods businessman. Their daughter, Mary, and son, James, were born there. In its final years, this brick house was left vacant and subsequently burnt down about 1912.9
Plan of the William Lea house. Sketched as the late Estella M. Lamb (daughter of Charles Lea) remembered it. She was born in this house and she approved the final drawing as being correct. From The Town of Leaside by J.I. Rempel, 1982.
John Sr. had left ninety acres of the old homestead, part of Lot 13, Concession 3 to his eldest son William. In 1841, he bought additional land, 130 acres, just to the south of his father’s farm. When William Lea founded the Village of Leaside, somewhere between 1851 and 1854, he built an odd-looking house with eight gables that reminded one of the old toll house. This strange-looking octagonal structure, two storeys high with an additional much smaller storey added on top, he named “Leaside.”10
Octagonal houses had been a trend in the United States. The book which may have inspired William Lea was A Home For All, or the Gravel Wall and Octagon Mode of Building by Orson S. Fowler. In 1973, Fowler’s book was republished under the title The Octagon House, a home for all.11 During this period, it was also the trend for many churches, barns and schools to be built in an octagonal style. Lea’s house, the first octagonal home in the Toronto area, and perhaps in Ontario, was located close to where Leaside Memorial Gardens now stands. The octagonal home, “Leaside,” is pictured on the front cover of this book.
William justified his choice of the octagonal shape as he said, “… like a bee’s cell, it enclosed the greatest amount of space within the least amount of wall.”12 The house doubled as a court house, the only court house east of Yonge Street, once William became a Magistrate for the County of York. In fact, not only was his octagonal house distinctive, it also served as a residence, a post office and a town hall, as well as a court house.
Considered an eccentric by many, William’s long beard seemed to symbolize his unique appearance and range of interests. In his career, he demonstrated his intelligence, along with a home-grown scientific curiosity. In religion, he was Anglican and in his politics, a Conservative. A poet who loved nature and tried to preserve it, William was an early environmentalist. “He was also a painter and an antiquitarian.”13 An historian, William wrote extensively on the Don River. His historical address on the early settlement of the Don River delivered to the Canadian Institute was published in the Toronto Evening Telegram of January 17, 1881 and February 4, 1881.14
Residence of Orson S. Fowler of Fishkill, New York. This designer of octagonal homes influenced William Lea in his decision to build “Leaside.” Taken from The Octagonal House, a home for all by Orson Fowler, 1973.
Much of William’s land was planted as an apple orchard, extending over what would later become the Gatineau Power Station property and the Thorncliffe Racetrack. “Other early farms had extensive orchards and there is a story that the Murrays (on the farm just south of William Lea) grew apples for export and experimented with a yellow crabapple which, owing to its colour did not market well.”15 As tomatoes also proved to be a profitable crop, William built a tomato cannery beside his home, and became the supplier of tomatoes for the old Queen’s Hotel (located where the Royal York is today). His tomato crops stretched to the part of the property which later became the “Leaside Aerodrome” (at Wicksteed). Over the years, William carried on farming, fruit growing and farm gardening with his sons.
A laneway called William Lea’s Lane connected the house to Yonge Street, the main thoroughfare. In 1881, William sold a parcel of land to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as a place for the railway to build a train station. As well, he generously gave a half-acre of land to the Anglican Church of England, for the purpose of building the original wooden St. Cuthbert’s on the Government Road (as Bayview was called then). The Leas of Leaside quite frequently had attended St. Barnabas Church, across the Don River around Danforth and Broadview (near f the Playter Estate). The Playter and Lea families were closely associated by marriage, Mary Margaret having married John Playter.
William Lea (1814–1893), son of John Lea Sr., donated land for the original St. Cuthbert’s Church in 1890. The octagonal house, “Leaside” was William Lea’s home. S. Walter Stewart Nibrary, Elmore Gray collection.
“William Lea had been educated at boarding school in York.”16. In 1841, William married Mary Ann Taylor, the first of what would become three wives. Mary Anne was the second daughter of James Taylor who had emigrated from Tadington, Derbyshire, England and settled on the east side of the Don River. William and Mary had two daughters, both of whom died in infancy. Their mother soon followed, dying within three years of her marriage.
In 1848, William married Elizabeth Davids, eldest daughter of Charles Kendrick Davids from Dartford, Kent. They had seven children (three sons and four daughters): Joseph, Charles, James David, Lillian, Mary Alice, Jessie and Fannie. Elizabeth died in 1867, at the age of 52 years. Three years later, William married his third wife Sophia Blogg. She was the sister of Elizabeth Davids and the widow of John L. Blogg, remembered by many Torontonians of the time as the fashionable bootmaker. Blogg’s shop was on King Street.
William died in 1893, at 78 years of age. Both William and his second wife, Elizabeth, are buried at St. John’s Anglican Church, York Mills, with William’s parents. Sophia Blogg died in 1903.
Lea Lane with tomato cannery on right. Date of photograph is unknown. S. Walter Stewart Library, Elmore Gray collection.
Two years after his second marriage, William Lea was elected to the office of Township Councillor and would hold office for seven years. During Lord Elgin’s period of government, William was appointed a Justice of the Peace, a prestigious position, possibly a political reward for his support of the Conservative party.
William increased his original land holdings of 90 acres, left to him by his father. Over the years he purchased additional land until he had a total of 250 acres. This land, along with the adjoining farm of his brother John Jr., the Murray farm to the south and the Elgie and Beatty farms to the north, ultimately became the Town of Leaside.
Upon William’s death in 1893, his eldest son Joseph, took over the tomato cannery and lived in the octagonal home until 1903. In 1913 the house, having been abandoned for ten years, was demolished by
