Spadina House is a historic mansion adjacent to Casa Loma that belonged to the wealthy Baldwin and Austin families in the 19th and 20th century. The present building was constructed in 1866 and four generations of the Austin family lived here. In 1982, they donated the house and its furnishing to the city. It is now restored in the style of the 1920s and 30s.
The mansion opens to the public on weekends from 12 to 5 P.M. One can visit is through a guided tour only. On this unusually snowy day, I was the only visitor for the first round and thus enjoyed an exclusive tour.
The house and its settings take you back to the
Downton Abbey kind of era. A time period when electricity, landline telephone, and personal vehicles were the privileges, reserved to a select few. When butlers, valets, footmen, gardeners, cooks and other house servants literally worked downstairs and sometimes used trapdoors to come and go. When upper-class young woman's first appearance in fashionable society was through a
'debutante ball'. When aristocratic families were dependent on estates instead of doing any kind of real work. It is hard to believe how much the world has changed since that time.
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