Barber House

Barber House. . , The Barber family emigrated from Ireland to Canada in 1822. In 1837 the four brothers set up a mill complex in Georgetown. In 1844, William (1808-1887) and Robert (1819-1890) Barber purchased William Comfort's Streetsville area saw and grist mill and additional lands on the Credit River. The Barbers, with brother-in-law Bennett Franklin, constructed a mill town called "Barberton" that included a foundry, dye house, saw mill, carpenter's shop, wool house and multiple private residences by 1856. They boasted ninety employees in the first decade. The Toronto Woollen mills, as they were called, named for the area Toronto Township, were very successful in the 1860s and 1870s but business declined in the 1880s due to the rise of synthetic textiles. The business closed in 1885. The mill was converted to produce flour during the First World War and still operates today (2020). , In the 1860s the brothers built large houses for themselves as part of a substantial reconstruction endeavor after a fire in 1862. William's house, which survives today, was a two storey red brick house (now painted white) in the vernacular Regular Villa style. Robert's house, to the east, was a wood frame Second Empire house, which burned down at the turn of the 20th century. William's house was likely built from a pattern book and is credited to local builder Robert Leslie. Leslie also built Benares (Clarkson Road) and the Hammond House (Erindale area). The house had extensive gardens, and with its varying projections, sought to blend into this landscape for a picturesque aesthetic. A remnant outbuilding has been relocated and repurposed as a bike shed., Subsequent owners of the house include Barbara Riches, as of 1919, who likely lived there with her family including her father Lt. Col. Charles Henry Reid Riches (1869-1934); Riches was a prominent attorney who established one of the country's first patent law practices in Toronto in 1887. He was instrumental in patenting the anti-diabetic product insulin discovered by Banting and Best. Later the house was a private home for the Townsend family. The City designated the property under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1982. After a tenure as the Old Barber House Restaurant, the house is now returning to its original residential use and its exterior has been restored to an original 1870s appearance.,