"The world did beat a path to our door," says Elizabeth McLuhan.
That door was the entry to 3 Wychwood Park in Toronto, where Marshall McLuhan convened with politicians, intellectuals and luminaries from around the world. The celebrated University of Toronto professor was also a family man who lived with daughter Elizabeth and her five brothers and sister in the large, white house overlooking Taddle Creek pond.
Her parents bought the property in 1968 and it was Mr. McLuhan's home until he died in 1980, at the age of 69. His widow, Corinne Lewis McLuhan, lived in the home until her death last month at the age of 95.
Now the landmark home that provided both shelter and inspiration for one of Canada's most celebrated academic and visionary thinkers is for sale.
"The house itself is full of thoughts," says Ms. McLuhan. "It really was an inspiration - the house itself."
No. 3 is set deep in Wychwood Park, a pastoral nine hectares (22 acres) in central Toronto which was conceived as an artists' colony in the early 1900s.
"Dad preferred to do his work at home," recalls Ms. McLuhan. Inevitably, colleagues, students and visitors made their way to Wychwood Park.
Mr. McLuhan was friend to Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and feted by such writers as Tom Wolfe and W.H. Auden. He is such a reference point in popular culture that he appeared as himself in the classic Woody Allen film Annie Hall.
And while his seminal works such as Understanding Media and The Gutenberg Galaxy introduced such axioms as "the medium is the message" and the phrase "the global village" to the world, the leading prophet of the information age preferred to work in the bucolic setting of the park.
"He called it Walden II," says Ms. McLuhan, who adds that her father was never much of a "high-tech guy".
He also never drove a car. "Mother drove him around," she says.
Ms. McLuhan is not inclined to drop the names of famous visitors. But she says the house was a wonderful place to entertain and her father loved to socialize.
"So many things really did occur over the dining room table."
Great discussions took place and naturally just moved outside to the lovely stone terrace, she adds. After dinner, the family and guests would walk around the entire park.
"Anybody who came to visit had a tour of the park," says Ms. McLuhan. "Nobody left without a walk around."
Her father was born in Edmonton in 1911 and educated at Cambridge University. He taught at universities in the United States before returning to Canada. The family moved to Wychwood Park in 1968.
The house at No. 3 was designed by prominent architect Eden Smith, who built his own home at No.5.
Many of the private and public buildings rising in Toronto in the opening years of the last century were the work of Eden Smith & Sons Architects. The Beaches, High Park and Wychwood public library branches are all the work of Mr. Smith.
He often designed houses to take full advantage of the grounds and garden, in keeping with the arts and crafts school led by Briton William Morris.
"The whole park was meant to look like a painting - a 19th century painting," says Ms. McLuhan.
Today the neighbourhood is protected as a heritage conservation district. Because no fences separate the properties or clutter the view, the beauty of the landscape is maintained, she points out.
Ms. McLuhan, who is director of Regina's Dunlop Art Gallery, figures her affinity for the arts stemmed from the influence of Wychwood Park and the artists who congregate there, including her father's friend York Wilson, who lived nearby.
Today the park is privately owned in trust and the people who live there contribute financially to its upkeep. In turn, residents share tennis courts and arrange lessons for the neighbourhood children.
No. 3 is listed for sale with Janet Lindsay of Chestnut Park Real Estate Ltd. The asking price is $2.5-million.
Many of the original elements of the McLuhan house remain untouched. The original hardware still latches the windows, for example, and the wood in the oak-panelled living room and adjoining alcove have never been painted.
Ms. Lindsay notes that new owners will need to be sensitive to the house's history because the enclave is a heritage district. Future owners, she says, may want to update or reconfigure the interior ("I think somebody would love to expand the kitchen").
"The city is doing a good job of preserving the character of some of these neighbourhoods rather than have them turn into something completely new," Ms. Lindsay says.
She adds that the views from the home's upstairs windows makes it feel like you are "living in a forest."
Ms. McLuhan says she and her siblings were entering young adulthood by the time her parents bought the house, but each had their own bedroom when they were there. "Every window has a different view," she says. "We all had our favourite windows."
She recalls that her father was a famous early riser who enjoyed the peacefulness of the half-acre of grounds and the surrounding park. "There was such a stillness."
Her father, she adds, loved the wood-panelled living room. But he spread out throughout the house.
"It was such a ... warm place. It was if everywhere he worked, he turned into his study," she says. "Mother used to lament the fact that he used to do his work lying on the sofa with all of his papers around him."
In summer months, Wychwood Park stayed cooler than other parts of the city because of all the trees and gardens. It was unthinkable to have a cottage given that setting, says Ms. McLuhan. And although her father travelled around the world in his career, he preferred to spend his time at home.
"Dad never wanted to go away," she says. "Nobody could imagine wanting to go anywhere else. It's so conducive to a sense of well-being."