When I arrived at Spadina Museum: Historic House & Garden several months ago to interview for a position at the site, I was blown away by the beauty of the gracious old mansion just a stone’s throw from Casa Loma. Such elegance! Such artistry! Every room was filled with antiques and artefacts. So this is how the other half lived. I was thrilled at the prospect of possibly coming to work each day in a building with such a storied past and luxurious sensibility. The good news is I got the job. The bad news? Just as I entered the building to begin my tenure, the art and furnishings made their exit. Spadina, as the house was originally named, is being restored to reflect how it would have looked during the inter-war period with a primary focus on the 1920s.
Many of the furnishings had stood in place for more than a century as the interiors evolved over generations. Family patriarch James Austin purchased the house in 1866 and his descendants lived there until 1982 when the mansion and virtually all of its contents were donated to the city and province to become a museum.
I, however, would be working in a much more sparse Spadina. As I traversed the halls and staircases – really just trying to find my way back to my office from the basement kitchen – I realized that I was seeing the house in a way the Austins never did. Without the furnishings and artwork to focus on, I saw the rooms as they are, their architectural and decorative merits in sharp relief. I wonder how many modern homes could deliver such a tangible sense of the lives and tastes of their original inhabitants if they were similarly emptied?
I remembered visiting houses as a child with my dad, who was a real estate agent, and having a lot more fun exploring the old, empty houses rather than the newer houses he was selling. The newer houses were kind of like neighbours – friendly, open, but a little blank, while the older homes were like family – strangely familiar and a little cranky, and ready to tell you stories if you took the time to listen.
Spadina’s collections will return from storage once the restoration is complete in fall 2010, along with lots of artefacts that have never been seen by the public. New wallpapers and carpets – meticulous reproductions – will find their way into the space and once it’s finished, Spadina will be the only Toronto house museum to represent the early 20th century.
I imagine others might also enjoy seeing the house this way so I’ve been working with the Spadina team to create events and programming during the restoration period that will engage the public and provide a sneak a peek at what’s going on behind the scenes.
Our first event takes place this Saturday (January 30): Putting on the Ritz with Spadina Museum is a celebration of 1920s fabulousness, complete with professional flappers, jazz-age music and delicious food. We’ve partnered with great Toronto sponsors like The Roosevelt Room Supper Club, MirvishProductions, Hog Town Swing and Prohibition Gastro House and Oyster Bar to give prizes for Best Individual Costume, Best Couple and Best Celebrity Impression. This event is already sold out! Team Twenties (as I now refer to my esteemed Spadina colleagues) and I are pretty excited to plan more restoration-related events in the future. We’re coordinating a 1920s Talk and Tour on February 21st and if Saturday’s party is a hit, we hope to follow it with another one in early spring!
To keep up to date with restoration news and programming, visit the Spadina website regularly; I’m also working on a Spadina blog to be up and running soon. For a virtual tour of Spadina as it was before this transformation visit styleNorth.ca.
Although I look forward to the completion of the 1920s restoration and to all the great cultural programming that will follow, I know I’m extremely fortunate to be at Spadina Museum today, where the hallways and rooms may be empty but mystery and majesty still abound.
Shannon Boeckner is a communications and events specialist currently residing in the West End of Toronto. Shannon is looking forward to Spadina’s Roaring Re-opening in the fall of 2010 and says in the meantime, she’d really like to buy a dog.
Flapper images courtesy of The Flapper Girl.
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This is one of the reasons I would troop all over Vermont, checking out old, abandoned homes.
There was always something romantically haunting, exploring these sometimes empty, sometimes cluttered rooms.
The walls and water stains often felt like they were speaking to me, recounting tales of times long past.