William Tyrrell - Applewood's Architect
William Tyrrell was a well-known architect and builder born in Ireland in 1816 who immigrated to the Toronto area in 1836. He designed and supervised construction of many local buildings, particularly in the Weston area, where he lived until his death in 1904. His works included William Gamble's mill on the Humber River (famously known as "The Old Mill"), St. George's On-The-Hill Church, the Lambton House Hotel and many others. Like Peter Shaver, he was prominent in local public affairs and served in a wide variety of civic offices. Much of this information comes from Applewood member Bob Given's book, Etobicoke Remembered (pub. 2007.)
Last summer, one of our members and current President of the Etobicoke Historical Society, Denise Harris, discovered exciting new historical evidence pertaining to Applewood's origins. We already knew from census records in 1851 that Peter Shaver had a one-storey brick house and later the 1861 census showed he had replaced it with a one and one-half storey brick house. So the current structure we see today was built sometime between 1851 and 1861. Diligently searching through the records at U of T's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Room, Denise came across boxes of William Tyrrell's papers.
One reference in Box No. 13 of Tyrrell's papers caught Denise's eye - Tyrrell's handwritten instructions to contractors entitled "Specifications of the Artificers work required to be done in erect[ing] a House for Peter Shaver Esq. in the Township of Etobicoke according to plans drawn up by William Tyrrell". With copies of these specifications, Denise returned to Applewood and was able to measure and match up 24 of these items with no discrepancies. These included specifications for the front door drawback lock, the upstairs hall closet door that is half glass, and a small window that was once between the closet and bedroom in the south-east corner and that still exists between the two current offices upstairs today. Another important document she found at U of T was a small notebook of Tyrrel1's entitled "Accounts-1851". It contained a page entitled "Peter Shaver House" which had calculations about constructions materials and a value conversion into British pounds.
In her report to the Applewood Board in September, Denise concludes that William Tyrrell was the Architect for the Peter Shaver homestead existing today and that the House was constructed 1851-52 - most likely 1852 given that the 1851 census still showed Peter Shaver in his previous one-storey house. Congratulations and sincere appreciation is extended to Denise for all her hard work in discovering these important historical findings about Applewood's early history.
Reprinted from "The Applewood Almanac", Fall Edition, 2011
Last summer, one of our members and current President of the Etobicoke Historical Society, Denise Harris, discovered exciting new historical evidence pertaining to Applewood's origins. We already knew from census records in 1851 that Peter Shaver had a one-storey brick house and later the 1861 census showed he had replaced it with a one and one-half storey brick house. So the current structure we see today was built sometime between 1851 and 1861. Diligently searching through the records at U of T's Thomas Fisher Rare Book Room, Denise came across boxes of William Tyrrell's papers.
One reference in Box No. 13 of Tyrrell's papers caught Denise's eye - Tyrrell's handwritten instructions to contractors entitled "Specifications of the Artificers work required to be done in erect[ing] a House for Peter Shaver Esq. in the Township of Etobicoke according to plans drawn up by William Tyrrell". With copies of these specifications, Denise returned to Applewood and was able to measure and match up 24 of these items with no discrepancies. These included specifications for the front door drawback lock, the upstairs hall closet door that is half glass, and a small window that was once between the closet and bedroom in the south-east corner and that still exists between the two current offices upstairs today. Another important document she found at U of T was a small notebook of Tyrrel1's entitled "Accounts-1851". It contained a page entitled "Peter Shaver House" which had calculations about constructions materials and a value conversion into British pounds.
In her report to the Applewood Board in September, Denise concludes that William Tyrrell was the Architect for the Peter Shaver homestead existing today and that the House was constructed 1851-52 - most likely 1852 given that the 1851 census still showed Peter Shaver in his previous one-storey house. Congratulations and sincere appreciation is extended to Denise for all her hard work in discovering these important historical findings about Applewood's early history.
Reprinted from "The Applewood Almanac", Fall Edition, 2011