Monday, June 10, 2019

Buildings and Peoples - York University Glendon Campus Toronto Canada

Historical highlights

Glendon occupies the former country estate of Edward Rogers Wood, a prominent Toronto financier and philanthropist of the early 1900s Member of Parliament in the Parliament of England. The estate was built in 1924 and is located at the intersection of Bayview and Lawrence Ave. between the neighbourhoods of Lawrence Park and Bridle Path. The estate was the original York University campus when it was bequeathed by the University of Toronto, and it remained a liberal arts college when York's Keele campus was inaugurated in 1966.

Originally a suburban, country estate with a landmark manor house and 84 acres of breathtaking gardens, parklands and natural areas, the now Glendon College, continues to stand tall, despite serving a different purpose. Edward Rogers Wood (1866-1941) and Agnes Euphemia Smart (1868-1950) spent thirty-five years in Toronto before moving to Glendon Hall. 

Beginning in 1920, the Wood family underwent a four-year process of acquiring, laying out, building and eventually moving into Glendon Hall. 

It was only after Agnes Euphemia had passed away in 1950, that it was discovered that she and her husband had surpassed their long record of generosity and support to a host of institutions with a final grand gesture -- leaving their estate to the University of Toronto. 

The college is formally one of York's 9 colleges and 11 faculties, and is considered semi-autonomous within York University. Glendon's founder and first principal was Canadian diplomat Escott Reid who foresaw the institution's key mandate to educate future leaders of Canada in both official languages.

Historically, the manor served as a temporary home for the Ontario College of Art in 1952, and the Faculty of Law of the University of Toronto in 1956. Moreover, the natural landscape of the 85-acre estate was used as an arboretum by the botany and forestry department at the University of Toronto.

 Edward Rogers Wood, financier (b at Peterborough, Canada W 14 May 1866; d at Toronto 16 June 1941). Originally a telegraph operator, Wood joined the Central Canada Loan and Savings Company in 1884. He later became managing director and vice-president, and was elected president in 1914.

Edward Rogers Wood

Edward Rogers Wood, financier (b at Peterborough, Canada W 14 May 1866; d at Toronto 16 June 1941). Originally a telegraph operator, Wood joined the Central Canada Loan and Savings Company in 1884. He later became managing director and vice-president, and was elected president in 1914. Out of Central Canada came Dominion Securities Corp, one of the largest investment houses in Canada, incorporated in 1901 by Senator George A. COX, Henry PELLATT and Wood, who eventually became its president. He was also a vice-president of National Trust; Brazilian Traction, Light and Power; Canada Life Assurance; and the Canadian Bank of Commerce; and a director of Massey-Harris; Mexican Light and Power; Canadian Barcelona Traction, Light and Power; International Paper; Toronto Savings and Loan; and Canada Northern Power Corp.


He was notable for his role in the development of the Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Company Limited (later Brascan Limited, then amalgamated into Brookfield Asset Management) and for his links with the "Peterborough Methodist Mafia" of George Albertus Cox.  

Wood was born in Peterborough, Ontario, to a Northern Irish father (John W. Wood) and a Scottish mother (Jane Porter). He married Agnes Euphemia Smart in Toronto on July 18, 1891. They had a son, William (nicknamed Wy - died at six months) and a daughter, Mildred.
In his early teens, Wood joined the Great North Western Telegraph Company owned by Peterborough's mayor, George Albertus Cox (later a member of the Senate of Canada).

After completing school, Wood joined Cox's financial firm, the Central Canada Loan & Savings Company. In 1898, both men incorporated the National Trust Company in Toronto. National Trust became part of the Bank of Nova Scotia as Scotia Trust in 1997. 

In 1901, Cox and Wood formed Dominion Securities (now part of the Royal Bank of Canada) with the purpose of underwriting and retailing provincial, municipal, and utility bonds. In 1902, Wood shifted Dominion Securities into industrial finance by financing Dominion Iron & Steel and Dominion Coal. In 1910, he formed Dominion Steel Corporation, where his younger brother Frank Porter Wood was a President. 

He was at that time a leading financier and also became active in philanthropy, as well as in volunteer endeavours for the University of Toronto, Toronto General Hospital, Art Gallery of Ontario and the YMCA.

Edward and Euphemia "Pheme" Wood built and lived in Wymilwood (named for their children, Wy and Mildred) at 84 Queen's Park with his family from 1902 to 1924. They donated Wymilwood, an Elizabethan style mansion now called Falconer Hall, to the University of Toronto, and it is now part of the UofT law school.

From 1920 to 1924, they planned, built and moved to Glendon Hall on Bayview Avenue. Wood's 20-year-younger brother, Frank P. Wood, and his wife, Emma, later built an estate nearby that is now used by Crescent School.

In 1950, by then a widow, Pheme Wood died and bequeathed Glendon Hall to the University of Toronto, with the intent that it be used by the Department of Botany for a university (not a public) botanical garden. Following 10 years of mixed academic use, the university turned over the estate in 1961 to its newly created affiliate, York University.

Edward Wood had died in Toronto in 1941. He and his wife are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, adjacent to the grave of George Albertus Cox.

Glendon College (French: Collège universitaire Glendon) is a federated campus of York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. An internationally oriented, bilingual liberal arts college with 84 full-time faculty members and a student population of about 2,700, Glendon is located in midtown Toronto's Lawrence Park neighbourhood. The college was founded as the first permanent establishment of York University when it began academic operation under the mentorship of the University of Toronto in September 1960.

Under the York University Act 1959 legislation, York was once an affiliated institution of the University of Toronto, where the first cohort of faculty and students originally utilized the Falconer Hall building (now part of the Faculty of Law)as a temporary home before relocating north of the St. George campus to Glendon Hall — an estate that was willed by E.R. Wood for post-secondary purposes.

In 1962, a landlot grant was offered by the Province of Ontario to build a new campus, which eventually ceased the bilateral partnership between the two institutions.

York University became an independent institution, however, Glendon refused to transfer to Keele, as the University of Toronto had no interest in reacquiring or maintaining the donated Wood property.Murray G. Ross and diplomat Escott Reid, who mutually proposed a novel plan for the college to educate students for fields in civil service, governance and academia, were appointed president and principal in 1959 and 1965, respectively.

In 1966, the college was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson with the objective for Glendon to become a fully bilingual institution. Formally, Glendon is one of York's 11 faculties. It was modelled on Swarthmore College.

A 2012 report on the state of French-language education in Ontario identified Glendon College as having an important role to play in the proposed future creation of a fully independent French-language university in the province, but noted that the college would need greater independence from York University to facilitate its participation.

1924 – E.R. Wood builds Glendon Hall mansion
1962 – ProTem, Glendon’s bilingual student newspaper, is founded
1966 – Glendon, the founding campus of York University, is inaugurated by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson [Official Opening Address – The Right Honourable L.B. Pearson]
1967 – Hilliard Hall Residence officially opens
1972 – Michael Ondaatje begins teaching with Glendon’s English Studies department
1986 – Jean Chrétien receives honorary degree from Glendon
2003 – Jean Charest, Premier of Quebec, presents his vision of Quebec-Canada relations
2003 – Then Governor General Adrienne Clarkson receives honorary Doctorate at Glendon Convocation
2004 – Glendon Hall selected as Junior League Showhouse and profiled in House and Home magazine
2006 – Former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin speaks at Glendon
2007 – Canada’s first bilingual School of Public and International Affairs officially opens at Glendon
2007 – Glendon launches first bilingual and trilingual international Bachelor of Arts (iBA) degrees in Canada
2008 – Provincial government names Glendon the Centre of Excellence for French-language and Bilingual Post-Secondary Education in Southern Ontario
2009 – York University celebrates its 50th birthday
2009– Glendon appoints Former Clerk of the Privy Council Dr. Alex Himelfarb as Director of the Glendon School of Public and International Affairs
2012 – Glendon celebrates the official opening of the Centre of Excellence building at the front of campus
2016 – Glendon is granted partial designation under French Language Services Act
2016 – Glendon celebrates its 50th birthday

Links
https://prabook.com/web/edward.wood/2407819
http://www.yorku.ca/histpsyc/GlendonHall.htm
http://www.yorku.ca/histpsyc/briefhistory.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Rogers_Wood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glendon_College













































































































 

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