distinctly different than their 1950s neighbours to the south. The river valley was now in the hands of the municipal government. This latter change preserved a spectacular piece of the Johnstons’ original farmland. Now known as the East Don Parkland, the trail through the river valley offers the twenty-first-century visitor a tantalizing chance to escape the hustle and bustle of the surrounding tableland. This farm will be revisited in the somewhat bizarre tale of oilman Donald Springer and the massive barn that he converted into a house on former Johnston farmland in the 1940s.
In 1955, Robert Wesley Johnston sold the farm his family had farmed for four generations and retired to a house in Willowdale. The farm on the southeast corner of today’s Leslie Street and McNicoll Avenue had been started by Robert’s great-grandfather, Thomas, in 1853. That was the year that Thomas, who had emigrated from Ireland some years earlier, was granted the northwest fifty acres of the lot — Lot 23-3E. Eleven years later the family would add another fifty acres to the farm when they purchased the southwest corner of the lot. The Johnstons now owned the western half of the lot, while the James Bell family of Spruce Lane Farm owned the eastern half.
The Johnston farm was handed down through the years as each new generation took the reins. Thomas Johnston Junior took over from his father, who died in 1869, two years after confederation. Following Thomas Junior was his son, Robert James Johnston, who helped build the Zion schoolhouse on Johnston family farmland in 1869. In 1902, Robert Wesley Johnston was born on the family farm. As he grew up, the Zion School would loom large in his life. He attended the school as a boy and later served as a school trustee. He even met his wife there, the former Agnes Euphemia McDougall, who taught at the school. They would work together on the farm, raising three daughters — Mary, Roberta, and Audrey — along the way, surrounded by countless relatives on the neighbouring Johnston farms. Robert Johnston’s farm included pigs, chickens, a dairy herd, and acres of grain. The family turned part of their front yard into a vegetable patch to supply their own larder and also grew raspberries, strawberries, apples, and pears. Robert travelled into the city on a regular basis, selling hay to Toronto delivery companies who depended on horse-drawn wagons to deliver milk, bread, ice, and many other commodities well into the 1950s.
Robert Wesley Johnston, the last Johnston to farm in North York, is pictured here circa 1910 as a determined looking young lad with his sister, Zelma May (Mrs. John Johnston), and their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert James Johnston.
Photographer unknown, North York Historical Society, NYHS 1242.
Thomas Johnston’s house is shown in 1964 after subsequent additions and renovations.
Photo by Dorothy Milne, North York Historical Society, NYHS 861.
By the 1950s, property taxes in North York were spiralling out of control as the demand for postwar housing reached a fever pitch. When 1955 rolled around, Robert, though not an old man, was old enough to read the writing on the wall. When he started farming in the 1920s, the population of the newly created Township of North York was somewhere in the region of 7,000 people. By 1955, that figure had exceeded 150,000 and was increasing rapidly. By 1963 there would be over 300,000 people in North York. These people all needed somewhere to live and Robert decided that his farm would be as good a place as any, so, in 1955, he sold it to developers who were planning a subdivision that they called Hillcrest Village.
Photos from 1964 show the family home still standing in a livable condition, but by year’s end it was gone. It wouldn’t be until the late 1960s that the new subdivision was completed, however. This was not an unusual situation as much of the farmland in North York was bought on speculation, before any rezoning, financing, blueprints, or permits had been finalized. In addition, North York would have had to agree to the construction of new roads, sewers, and other essential infrastructure. These steps often took years. In the interim, developers would rent the land to any farmers still working in the area and then use the farmhouses as sales offices for the new subdivisions. The houses were usually the last physical traces of the farms that once surrounded them. When the subdivisions were sold out, the farmhouses, no longer needed as sales offices, would be demolished. Other Johnston farmhouses in the area also survived into the 1960s, but not beyond.
Robert Wesley Johnston died at Branson Hospital on December 20, 1966, survived by his wife, daughters, sister, and three grandchildren. He had not yet reached official retirement age, but he had enjoyed his own eleven-year retirement that was spent gardening, restoring antique furniture, and involving himself with the Willowdale United Church. His pallbearers included fellow North York farmers Robert McDougall, Worts Gooderham, and Alfred Trimble, as well as newly retired district police chief and former farmer, John Harrison.
What remarkable thread ran through this family that would see farms passed seamlessly down through the generations for nearly 150 years? What would they think of their farms now? What would they think of us?
{Chapter Sixteen}
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
