Historic home damaged in fire to be demolished in Brampton

A historic Brampton home that was badly damaged in a fire will be demolished.

A fire broke out at the home at 12 Rosegarden Dr. in the early morning hours of June 26, 2023, according to a post on social media.

The home was listed as a cultural heritage resource in Brampton in 2016, for its design/physical value, historical/associative value and contextual value, according to a report to the Sept. 17 Brampton Heritage Board. But it was not yet designated as a heritage property.

The owner had plans to build a new custom home on the property in 2021, which prompted a heritage report.

The one-and-a-half-storey home was a late Victorian version of Gothic Revival style farmhouse. It had several significant heritage attributes.

The home was destroyed by fire in June 2023.

Owned for 124 years by five generations of the Shaw family, it had high historical and associative value, the report says.

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In the early 1800s, the area that is now Brampton was a wilderness consisting of low-lying swamps and thick forests. While other parts of Ontario were being settled by Europeans who arrived from the early 1700s onwards, Brampton remained part of the Mississaugas of the Credit territory, the report says.

It was used as hunting and fishing grounds until late October 1818 when the Crown purchased the land from the Mississaugas. Settlers began to arrive in 1820.

The earliest recorded ownership of the property at 12 Rosegarden Dr. was Reverend John Strachan. A 200-acre lot was granted to him in 1828 from the government. Strachan was the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto in 1839.

Strachan sold the property in 1840 to Thomas Burrell but there is no record of Burrell living on the property.

Burrell sold the east half of the lot, an area of 100 acres, to Robert Shaw in 1844. But reports indicate Shaw and his family had been living on the property since 1830, renting the land from both Strachan and Burrell, before purchasing the east half in 1844 and the western half in 1853.

The Shaw family lived in log cabins before building the brick home.

In the 1851 census, Robert Shaw and his family are listed as living in a one-storey log home on the property. The cabin was built in 1838. Robert Shaw divided the 200-acre property in half between his two eldest sons James Shaw and Samuel Shaw and in the 1861 census, three households (including Robert Shaw) were living in log cabins on the property.

The estimated construction date of the brick home was between 1861 and 1877 but a former resident who grew up in the home believed it was built in the late 1880s, the report states.

The home is seen in the 1960s.

The Shaw family contributed to the municipal government, local religious organizations, and the farming community. They were one of the first farmers to introduce alfalfa to Peel County in the early 1900s.

“It is remarkable that the farm remained in possession of the family for 124 years,” the report states.

James and Jane Shaw and their children in the 1800s.

The home stayed in the Shaw family until 1977 when it was sold to Bonry Farms Limited. The former farm along with other neighbouring farms were developed into residential subdivisions surrounding 12 Rosegarden Dr.

The report, completed before the fire, confirmed the home met three of the minimum criteria for a heritage designation.

The fire, however, damaged the home to such an extent that it is irreparable.

The report states it is “impossible to salvage or restore the remainder of the house” and so it must be demolished.

Staff recommend erecting a commemoration plaque on the history of the home in a nearby park.

For more information, see the Brampton Heritage Board meeting here.