HISTORY
Wychwood Park was founded by Marmaduke Matthews, a landscape painter who purchased
land here in the 1870's with the hope of establishing an artist colony at Wychwood
Park. Matthews named Wychwood Park after Wychwood Forest, located near his childhood
home in Oxfordshire, England.
In
1874, Matthews built the first house in the community, at number
six Wychwood Park. The second Wychwood Park house, at number twenty
two Wychwood Park, was built in 1877, by Matthews' friend Alexander
Jardine.
Matthews
and Jardine jointly bought the land that abutted their estates and
in 1891, registered a plan of subdivision for what is now the Wychwood
Park neighbourhood.
Wychwood Park
is historically significant for the architecture of its homes, and for being one
of Toronto's earliest planned communities. The Wychwood Park neighbourhood was
designated as an Ontario Heritage Conservation district in 1985.
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