Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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The Ashbridge Estate

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted April, 2004

For 203 years, this home was occupied by one family! Amazing! This Ontario Heritage Trust plaque in front of the home at 1444 Queen Street East has this to say:

Coordinates: 43.665116 -79.322673

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This property was home to one family for two centuries. Sarah Ashbridge and her family moved here from Pennsylvania and began clearing land in 1794. Two years later they were granted 243 ha between Ashbridge's Bay and present day Danforth Avenue. The Ashbridges prospered as farmers until Toronto suburbs began surrounding their land in the 1880s. They sold all but this part of their original farm by the 1920s. Donated to the Ontario Heritage Trust in 1972, it was the family estate until 1997. As they changed from pioneers to farmers to professionals over 200 years on this property, the Ashbridges personified Ontario's development from agricultural frontier to urban industrial society.

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Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

> Posted September 21, 2017
Wow! I'm amazed that I discovered this website. As a child I lived at 8 Connaught Avenue with the streetcar barns in the back of us. I remember this house especially at Halloween. My father used to stand on Queen Street at the end of the pathway and make me walk up to the house (on what seemed to be a very long pathway at the time) to get my Halloween goodies! It was really scary for a 5 year old. But in the daytime I used to think that this was the grandest house that I had ever seen.
Thank you for sharing.
Donna Barr Krolewski, Mississauga [email protected]

> Posted May 30, 2012
My mother (she died 3 years ago) always loved this house. As a child in the 1950's she would dream of living in it. Very lovely photos. Thanks for sharing.

> Posted July 23, 2010
I'm actually the great grand daughter of Betty Ashbridge. :) She and my great grandfather Carmen Burton adopted my papa. I love the photos of the house. I was just showing my boyfriend the place and telling him different stories about the Ashbridges'. I really wish people could see the inside as well as the backyard. I haven't been back to the house since I was four. Thanks for the pics. It was nice to see the house again!

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