Berry House
A home office in the Kingsway--70 years before computers
by Katharine Williams

Sketch by Dagmar Motycka in Sidelights of History
(J Shiels and M Appleby, Etobicoke Historical Board, 1975)

There are numerous houses still in use today in Etobicoke
which were built over a century ago.
They may have electricity, phones, cable TV, and computers now,
but they have always been the centre of family life, and, as I discovered,
working from home is hardly a modern idea.

In 1960, my parents were looking for a house to raise their young,
growing family.  A house at 125 Kingsway Crescent in Etobicoke
caught their attention. They knew it was an old farmhouse
approximately 100 years old, called the "Berry House."
That house was to become our home for the next few years. Many years later, my research has given me a fascinating glimpse into life and times of one of its early owners.

The Berry House was built in 1853, on a large acreage south of Dundas Street and just slightly west of the Humber River, during a time
of rapid growth and settlement in the area.
The Humber River Valley had become known as Canada's "Garden of Eden".

Maps and atlases of the time show an effort to extend Dundas Street
to an area known as "King's Mills".
A plan of Etobicoke, dated 1811, shows a road to York
opened by the government, with Concessions 2 and 3 appearing as
 "the Rangers' old improvement." Along the 4th Concession, running
northerly, is "Old Road to York", while at the north of the plan is marked
"New Improvements." (The Rangers' Old Road here was a portion of Dundas Street.)

Part of the plan for the settlement of the new province of Upper Canada
was to create an area of industry and employment along the west
bank of the Humber River. This area was to include sawmills to
make lumber out of the logs neighbouring farmers hauled in, gristmills
to supply the settlement with coarse whole-wheat flour, and various
inns. Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe wrote a letter in May
1793, after visiting Toronto (which he later renamed York), about the
King's Mill:
(Humber Valley Archives,Baldwin Room, Toronto Reference Library)

"....there flows into the Harbour a River, the banks of which are covered
with excellent Timber. Upon this River, I propose to construct as
soon as possible a Saw Mill, principally for the benefit of the Settlement
but which I have no doubt will at the cheapest rate supply every
material that may be wanted for His Majesty's Service in the various
Posts on Lake Ontario.

" The Historical Atlas of York County, 1878 reveals:

"Among the Acts passed in 1798, was one "for the better division of
the Province." According to this act, the "Townships of Whitby, Pickering,
Scarborough, York (including its peninsula), and Etobicoke, shall
constitute and form the East Riding of York".

It continues on under the heading "The Original Land Owner":
"The territory comprising Upper Canada, now Ontario, was all
duly purchased from time to time by the Government from the aborigines
in possession. At first numerous and extensive Indian reserves
have been surrendered to the Government by mutual agreement. On
the 6th September, 1806, 85,000 acres, commencing on the east
bank of the Etobicoke river, brought them £1,000, 5s".

Thomas Fisher built his first sawmill on the river, and in keeping
with the practice of naming streets after first-generation settlers,
a private road on his large property was called Fisher Lane.
In 1912, the name Fisher Lane was changed to Kingsway Crescent
when Home Smith began developing land in the "glebe" area--part
of the government's "Kingsmill Clergy Reserves", created in 1835.
Later, when Thomas Fisher sold his mill to William Gamble, the
area was known as the "Milton Settlement", a riverside hamlet. In order
to buy grain and trade with passing farmers, Gamble operated
a store and post office called "Etobicoke", located on the west bank
of the Humber River at the Dundas Street bridge. His sawmill, lumberyard
and planing mill, a cooperage, a bonemeal factory, an ashery,
a distillery, the large flour mill, and a cloth factory, capable of producing
600 yards a week, dotted the landscape to the south of the
bridge. So prosperous was this industry, that at any given time, a
hundred men were employed. In a good season, 65,000 barrels of
flour were shipped on schooners from Gamble's wharf near the river's
mouth. Across the river, on the Lambton side, William P. Howland,
a future lieutenant-governor of Ontario, purchased the five-storey
flour mill and distillery, Cooper's Mill, from the government.In the actual title records of 125 Kingsway Crescent (Plan No. 989,
Lots No. 9 and 10), the earliest name on the Registry list is William Reford, who
completed the sale for the sum of $770.00 on 23 July 1889, with the date
of registry listed as January 24, 1890.

John R Berry--for whom the house is named--and his family lived in the
house over a 20-year period, from 1918 until shortly after his retirement from
the Township of Etobicoke on March 15, 1938. Mr. Berry was Etobicoke's
Treasurer from 1918 to 1938. He also served as Collector of Taxes from 1921
until 1931, at which time, a full-time tax collector was appointed. He applied
the "work-from-home" concept, as he conducted his municipal duties in a
room in his home, until offices were made available for him at the Municipal
Hall at 4945 Dundas Street West.

Berry appears in official group photographs of town employees
taken outside those Municipal Offices, commencing in 1925.
(Mr Berry is seen in the centre rear of the photograph here, taken in 1929.)

Mr Berry's home office must have been a busy one, judging from the comments
by Reeve J Armstrong in Council minutes dated December 12, 1938:
"As you are all aware we have installed a new Treasurer in lieu and stead of Mr
J R Berry, who has been retired. In Mr H L Cummings, I believe we have a man
who enjoys the confidence and respect of each member of Council, and my
only hope and trust is that time will prove that we made no mistake in our
selection of him as a worthy successor to Mr Berry, who bore the heat and
burden of the day for over 20 years, and whose shoes his successor will find
hard to fill."

The Berry House reflects the "Gothic Revival" or "Ontario Classic" style of
architecture. This style features two storeys, a centre hall plan, and in
particular, the popular peaked gable.  Originally, an open verandah
was built at the front of the house, but at some point, a cheerful sunroom
was added. Today, the sunroom is gone, and the house has a
verandah again. On the brickwork near the front door hangs an Etobicoke
Century Home plaque. The streets in the area still are narrow.
(Cars and trucks feel strangely out of-place here.)

In December 2003, the current owner very kindly gave me a tour of
this house, revealing some interior changes. The house still, however,
has the feel of the era in which it was built. The sounds of the sawmill and
horses' hooves may have faded into history, but, 150 years after the Berry
House was first occupied, it continues to serve as home, for another
young family.
(Adapted from an article which first appeared in The York Pioneer, 2004,Volume 99)

(My mother, Margaret Williams, in front of 125 Kingsway Crescent (about 1962)