I love Casa Loma: We’d be a much poorer city without Sir Henry Pellatt’s magnum opus on the hill.
There, I’ve said it. Now I can admit that there was always a vague feeling of disappointment when I visited as a kid. It always felt too big, too empty and too surreal, which made it too difficult to imagine everyday life.
Not so at Oshawa’s Parkwood Estate. Here, it’s as if Sam and Adelaide McLaughlin just went out to for a drive (in a Buick, of course) since each room—and there are 55 of them—is filled with original furniture, lighting, artwork and even the smallest of personal effects, from framed photographs to gifts given to Mr. McLaughlin by loyal employees. Some items are exquisite, of course, but others quite worthless, but even these contribute to the narrative of this amazing family.
And it is amazing. The son of carriage and sleigh manufacturer Robert McLaughlin, young Sam convinced his father and older brother, George, to start a “horseless carriage” division, of which he became president in 1908. Ten years later, the McLaughlin Motor Car Company was sold to General Motors and became GM of Canada. Sam stayed on as president until 1945, then as Chairman of the Board until his death in 1972. The house, Parkwood, was designed and built during the First World War by Toronto firm Darling & Pearson, fresh from their success as designers of the new Royal Ontario Museum.
Colonel Samuel McLaughlin would raise his family there, entertain dignitaries, broker big deals and entertain spies taking a break from training at Camp X a few kilometres away. “It gives us a long time period to really mine and understand and interpret,” said Brian Malcolm, Executive Director of Parkwood for the past 18 years, as he gave me a tour a few weeks ago.
When Col. McLaughlin passed away, the estate was willed to the Oshawa General Hospital so it could bulldoze it for an expansion. “Some very strange things have saved Parkwood over the years, it’s not been a planned, thoughtful thing,” continued Mr. Malcolm. Since the hospital had just completed a new wing a few years earlier, the home was kept standing for a while; since the McLaughlin’s five daughters didn’t need the furniture, it was left untouched. A few folks began to conduct informal tours; one thing led to another and, finally, it became a going concern as a tourist attraction and a National Historic Site in 1989.
Thank goodness, because it’s breathtaking: From the sculptural, cantilevered stair in the front hall, the billiards room with its secret butler door (so drinks could appear with a minimum of fuss) and murals of the family sailing beside the Scarborough Bluffs, to the drawing room’s painted Steinway piano (purchased at Eaton’s then-new flagship College St. store) and, upstairs, the art deco masterpiece that is Col. McLaughlin’s bedroom and bath designed by architect John Lyle in 1940, it’s a smorgasbord for the senses.
Also noteworthy are the few pieces of furniture in the drawing room that came from Casa Loma: “When Sir Henry had his big yard sale in the twenties,” explained Mr. Malcolm with a wry smile, “a lot of the wealthier folks bought pieces.” While these certainly contribute to a certain fussiness about the place, the fact that there were a series of major renovations completed in 1941 helps to temper and soften the place for contemporary eyes: “Parkwood is very old world inspired, but it’s very twentieth century,” said Mr. Malcolm.
Even though I toured during March and was unable to see the spectacular landscaped grounds and fountains, the greenhouses with a tearoom and Japanese garden by modernist landscape architect George Tanaka (1963) almost made up for it.
Equally interesting are the back of house areas, where the 40-strong staff worked to keep the home humming, and Mr. Malcolm has a themed tour in the works that will zero in on servant life at the estate: “There were more people working here than people being served—it was like a factory for high living—so what was that life about?” I’ll be back to find out, that’s for sure, since this is one national treasure I’m glad is only a 45-minute drive away.
To complete my McLaughlin-themed day, I stopped in at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Named after Sam’s father, the art gallery was established in 1967 and benefited from a 1987 expansion by Canada’s own “starchitect” Arthur Erickson. Standing under the long, vaulted skylight awash in natural light, it was easy to forget the building holds the largest collection of Painters Eleven works in the country.
And there is a direct McLaughlin family connection: As chief executive officer Gabrielle Peacock points out, Clarence Ewart McLaughlin, Sam’s nephew, was married to Margaret Alexandra Luke, a P11 member, and much of the original funding for the gallery came from the family.
“The McLaughlin is pretty special,” finishes Ms. Peacock, “it really has an amazing collection.” For lovers of modern and abstract Canadian paintings such as myself, this gallery, like Parkwood, is also a national treasure.
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For more information, contact www.parkwoodestate.com and www.rmg.on.ca. Lunch at the gallery’s Studio Restaurant between stops is highly recommended.
