Parkwood Estate

Parkwood's architectural, landscape, and interior designs are based in the 1920s and 1930s. The National Council for Historic Sites and Monuments describes Parkwood as "a rare surviving example of the type of estate created in Canada during the interwar years, and even less so in its substantially untouched state, furnished to demonstrate how they lived in it."

Parkwood was the McLaughlin family home from 1917 to 1972. The federal government declared it a National Historic Landmark in 1989, and it was open to the public. R.S. McLaughlin in the same year was declared a National Historical Person.

Interior

Parkwood's interiors are a design of the early 20th century and contain household items, books, photographs and memorabilia, works of art and trophies, all items are in their original appearance. Murals include works by Canadian artists Frederick Challener and Frederick Haines. Decorations include carved wood and plaster architectural elements, as well as innovations such as hidden panels and stairs.

The 55-room mansion has 15,000 sq. Ft. (1,400 m2) of floor space, including basement and office space on the third floor.

The McLaughlin family showed great interest in gardening and landscape design, as evidenced by their eleven greenhouses and a staff of 24 gardeners. To create the many gardens of his estate, McLaughlin hired the best talents, Harris and Hall in the 1910s, spouse designers Howard and Laurie Düntington-Grubb in the 1920s, and the award-winning architect John Lyle in the 1930s .

Parkwood Gardens have references to the great gardens of England and Europe, but with a 20th-century spirit. In the early decades of the 20th century, Parkwood Gardens developed following the gardening tradition of the English "arts and crafts", which relied on symmetrical flowerbeds around the house and looser, less regular shapes in the distance, including large lawn spaces. Visitors through the gate were surrounded by flower beds bordered by thuja fences.

The perimeters included denser forest borders and the use of cedar fences to divide the landscape into regular garden spaces, recreation areas and agricultural land for the production of cut flowers, fruits and vegetables. Hedgerows served to prevent viewing the entire landscape at once and were supplemented by garden gates, enticing visitors to go through a sequence of garden views and gain experience. Mature trees generously obscure the spreading lawns, and throughout the territory you will see sculptures of the duo Francis Loring and Florence Wile, the leading sculptors of that time. Wile and Loring stood at the origins of the Canadian Society of Sculptors. They became known as The Girls. The duo created many monuments and sculptures that adorn the streets of Canada’s largest cities and galleries. "Girls", who were crazy about each other, died almost simultaneously - in 1968. They bequeathed their entire fortune to the support of young sculptors.

In 1917, the family settled in the residence, and soon landscape designers Harris and Hall began to develop a suitable setting for the mansion. The first landscape designers of Parkwood associated each significant room of the house with an adjacent plot of the garden, and around the park there was a park interspersed with a forest. Spectacular outdoor garden areas, including the Italian Garden, the Sundial Garden, the Summerhouse and the Lower Terrace Garden (Sunken Garden) were created by a second design team. The site was finalized in the early 1920s by a married couple of designers H. B. and L. A. Dunnington-Grabb Landscape. They also upgraded the South Terrace and designed a sophisticated trellis fence for the tennis court and Italian garden. Dunnington-Grubbs had a great influence on the development of their profession, they were the founders of the Society of landscape architects, as well as Sheridan nurseries. Sheridan Nurseries today thrive and remain generous sponsors of the Parkwood Foundation.

The latest and perhaps most significant update was undertaken by architect John Lyle, who created the Formal Garden in the mid-1930s. Lyle was awarded a bronze medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada for design. The garden is 2 acres in Art Nouveau style. ^[3]

Then and now the gardens are connected by theme and function with the Parkwood greenhouse complex. Three greenhouses have palm trees, orchid and tropical plants, they also sheltered the Japanese Garden and the Greenhouse Tea Room. And still used to supply seasonal and special plant materials.

Having become a historical heritage, Parkwood Gardens bear the imprint, at the same time, of the breadth of life between the wars of the 20th century and of the personal style of the person in whose head the idea of ​​this garden was born. Parkwood's restored gardens today show what they looked like in the 1930s. ^[four]

Parkwood's beauty and history provides the backdrop for film work and professional photography. ^[5] The estate regularly appears as the backdrop for fashion photography and magazine advertisements, and it is one of the most popular filming locations in Ontario by Ontario Media Development Corporation. ^{[6] [7]}

Actors such as Adrien Brody , Brendan Fraser , Drew Barrymore , Tom Cruise , Brad Pitt , Kathleen Turner , Adam Sandler , Hugh Laurie , Ben Affleck , Lucy Liu , Tony Shalub , Alan Alda , Maureen Stapleton , Peter Gallagher , Diane Lane , James Garner , Peter O'Toole , Jeremy Irons , Angela Lansbury , Bob Hoskins , Jane Seymour , Shirley MacLane , Richard Gere , Hilary Swank , Ewan McGregor , Jackie Chan , Peter Fonda , Julianne Moore , Woody Harrel Dern , Kat Dennings , Anton Yelchin and actually Canadians Christopher Plummer , Paul Gross , Ann M When Macdonald, Colm Feore , Mike Myers , Yannick Bisson , Dave Foley , and others. ^[8]

• Canada Parks Page - Parkwood
• Parkwood - Canadian Register of Historic Places
• Oshawa's Legacy - Parkwood