The Lislehurst (or Wilson Pond) Bridge, believed to have been built in the 1920s–30s by Reginald Watkins.
Lislehurst's property along the valley of the Credit River was originally a Crown grant to the brothers of Sir Isaac Brock, who gifted it to the Schreiber family in 1869. The Schreiber family had immigrated to Canada in 1840 from Guernsey Island in the Channel Islands of England, and were descendants of the Brock family. They were devoted members of St. Peter's Anglican Church nearby in Erindale.[1]
The family built three houses on the property: Mount Woodham, home of Weymouth and Charlotte Schreiber; Lislehurst, home of Herbert Harrie Schreiber and family; and Iverholme, home of Weymouth deLisle Schreiber and family. Lislehurst was completed circa 1885.[2] The Schreibers sold 50 acres of the land in 1928 to Reginald Watkins, a businessman from Hamilton. Under Watkins' ownership, Woodham was demolished in 1928 and Lislehurst underwent extensive renovations using materials from with Woodham's demolition.[3][4]
Iverholm, one of the three houses on the Schreiber property, burned down in 1913, leaving only its stone foundation.[5]
In 1963, Watkins' property and nearby farm lots were purchased by the University of Toronto. The land surrounding Lislehurst became the campus of Erindale College, now known as the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), and the mansion has since been used as the residence for its principal.[6][7]
A small house on Principal's Road commissioned in the mid-1800s by Charlotte Schreiber to be her cottage while Lislehurst was being built has been used for various purposes by the university, including the residence of artist David Blackwood during his time at Erindale College. The cottage remains today, and has been used as a forensic anthropology field school dubbed the "Forensic Crime Scene House" since 2013.[8][9] The initial idea behind the field school was to locate where Iverholm and Woodham once stood, however the location of Woodham before it was demolished remains a mystery.[5]
A stone bridge over a pond near Lislehurst is a popular photo spot on the UTM campus. Believed to have been built by Reginald Watkins in the 1920s–30s, it is sometimes referred to as the Lislehurst Bridge or Wilson Pond Bridge.[10]
Lislehurst is two and a half storeys tall and predominantly made of stone obtained from the Credit Valley. It features a gable roof and seven stone chimneys. The building reflects the 1920s movement to renovate older buildings in a Tudor style. It currently looks nothing like the original house as renovations in 1928 involved the removal of the gingerbread decoration and the addition of an exposed stucco and timber and finish. Reginald Watkins added a west wing and reversed the front of the building, making the original rear the new front entry and facade.[4][11]
Legacy
The mansion's library, called the Schreiber Room, was named in honour of Charlotte Mount Brock Schreiber, a painter who was part of the Schreiber family and lived in Mount Woodham. Charlotte's painting, The Croppy Boy can be found at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. Charlotte's role in early Canadian art is noted on an Ontario Heritage Trust plaque on the property.[11]
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