THE LISTING 120 Inglewood Dr.., Toronto
ASKING PRICE $16.8-million
TAXES $68,614.67 (2015)
LOT SIZE 155 by 247 feet
AGENTS Elise Kalles and Aaron Gonsenhauser (Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd.)
The Back Story
Edmonton-born Kim and Patricia Ward were living near London when they decided to make the move back to Canada about 16 years ago.
“We were living in a big, old country house,” says Ms. Ward, so the couple and their three children had become accustomed to having a bit of land and some lovely gardens.
Mr. Ward made a visit to Canada and saw the stone manor house originally named Glendoveer. He put in an offer the same night with a condition: Ms. Ward had to approve.
“I knew right away,” she says of seeing the photos. At the time, the house belonged to the Loeb family and the walls were hung with one of the country’s foremost Canadian art collections. The Wards completed the deal and began packing up their life in England.
The house at 120 Inglewood, built in 1908 on a ravine near Mount Pleasant Road and St. Clair Avenue East, originally sat on a larger swath of land. Today, the home’s regal front entrance is turned towards an expanse of lawn, while the side faces the curved driveway and a low stone wall bordering Inglewood Drive.
“This would have been a grand estate,” Ms. Ward says.
A walk down the escarpment shows there was a winding path that brought horses and people from the creek below to the grand house above, with stables located partway up the sloping hillside.
The exterior stone came from Toronto’s Benvenuto Hotel, which was demolished in the 1890s, says real estate agent Elise Kalles, of Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd.
The focal point of the home is a two-storey great room with a vaulted and beamed ceiling that stretches 18 feet high. The imposing bay window has three tiers of original leaded and stained glass set into casement windows. The wood-burning fireplace is surrounded by a carved limestone mantle.
The house was built with a separate apartment which may have provided quarters for a caretaker or staff members at one time, says Ms. Ward. During the war years, she believes, the house was divided into apartments.
Later owners restored it to a single-family home with seven bedrooms and 13 bathrooms. The apartment with a private entrance still serves as a large suite for guests.
The house sits on a little over one acre of land, with extensive gardens, stone terraces, a gazebo and trails meandering down the cliffside. David A. Balfour Park sits below.
The House Today
Guests arrive to a covered front porch lined with Corinthian columns. Inside, there’s a gracious foyer and a wide staircase curving to the second floor. A formal sitting room and dining room each have wood-burning fireplaces.
The Ward family entertains often and sometimes holds charity events for up to 300 people, Ms. Ward says.
Kim Ward is the son of Canadian aviation pioneer Max Ward. The elder Mr. Ward was a bush pilot who founded Edmonton-based Wardair in the 1950s and turned the airline into an international carrier.
The younger Mr. Ward also became a bush pilot and, when he and Ms. Ward married in 1977, the couple moved to Yellowknife. He went on to work as a pilot for Wardair and then moved through the executive ranks before the company was sold to Canadian Airlines in 1989.
After the sale of Wardair, Kim Ward founded an asset management firm. The family lived abroad for eight years before their return to Toronto.
Ms. Ward says they’ve held functions at the house ranging from family weddings in the garden to fund-raisers for distress centres.
The house can accommodate a cozy dinner for four in the eating area of the large kitchen, she says, or a buffet for 200 guests.
“The back patio is magical for dinner.”
Upstairs, the house has a large master suite with a dressing room and marble-clad bathroom. French doors lead to a private covered terrace. The view extends to the downtown city skyline.
There’s also a library with panelled walls overlooking the great room. One of the panels hides a secret passageway that leads downstairs to the outside or upstairs to the third-floor apartment. For guests who don’t find the hidden passage, there’s an elevator that travels between the three floors.
That apartment has a large living room and dining room, a kitchen, three bedrooms and three bathrooms. It’s the place Mr. Ward’s parents like to settle into when they’re in town.
Throughout the home’s principal rooms, the home’s original woodwork and elaborate plaster mouldings and medallions are still in place.
Ms. Ward says the family took care to preserve the original elements as they modernized the interior of the house.
“It’s part of the history,” she says of such details as the stained glass in the windows and the crest above the dining room fireplace. But they did install new wide plank oak floors throughout the main part of the house.
They also outfitted the gym on the lower level and created a recreation room for their teenaged kids. The lower level also has a home theatre room, a wine cellar with capacity for 5,000 bottles, a gift-wrapping room and a housekeeper’s suite with an additional two bedrooms.
Outside, the couple had the lawns restored and the trees trimmed. They also added new landscaping and garden beds.
“Fresh from England, we wanted that wild English garden look,” Ms. Ward says.
The Best Feature
Ms. Ward says the balcony off of the master bedroom is a favourite spot for the couple. Because it’s covered, they can spend time outdoors even in the rain. They sometimes have an al fresco dinner out there when it’s just the two of them.
“That is like living in a treehouse,” Ms. Ward says. “It’s the most magical place to sit because you are removed from Toronto.”