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Gray Mill and Donalda Cattle Barn

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted October, 2011

At a former mill on the lands of the Donalda Golf and Country Club, off Bushbury Drive, east and south of the intersection of Don Mills Road and York Mills Road, is this 2010 Heritage Toronto plaque. Here's what it says:

Coordinates: 43.75006 -79.34335

Click here for a larger map

This building is a rare 1830s gristmill. Though it has long since been converted into a barn, it remains the most intact mill of its kind still standing on its original site in Toronto. The mill was built by William Gray who lived with his family in the two 19th-century residences across the laneway. The Grays ground their "Wee MacGregor" brand of flour here until just before the property was sold in 1916. The new owners, David A. Dunlap and Jessie Donalda Dunlap, built a model dairy farm here to showcase their progressive ideas about farm management and sanitary animal husbandry. The adjacent Tudor-style barn, designed by architects Wickson & Gregg, incorporated what remained of the original mill building and was equipped with every comfort for the cattle, including steam heat, fresh air ventilation, and soft radio music. This innovative cattle barn was featured in the Journal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1928.

Another plaque at this location
Donalda Farm

Related Toronto plaque
Don Mills

Other Toronto plaques about mills
Early Don Mills
Early Mill Site
Highland Creek Mills
The King's Mill
The Lost Village of Milton Mills
The Old Mill
Silverthorn Family and Mill Farm
This Millstone
Todmorden Mills
York Mills

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