Horace B. Smith House

355 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto, Ontario

Built in 1913 for the widowed Mrs Elizabeth Robinson (1857-1927). It was a replica of her home for the last thirty-four years, Beverley House, that had lost the battle to urbanisation after having been in her late husband's family for an hundred years. She salvaged many of the original features from the old house and retrofitted them into the new: the walnut panelling, bookshelves, three gilded chandeliers, and the fireplaces from the drawing room. In 1921, Mrs Robinson downsized to 62 Bernard Avenue and sold the house to Horace B. Smith (1864-1939), a Director of Canada Steamship Lines and President of the Collingwood Shipbuilding Co. etc. That year, the house was the scene of the wedding reception of Horace's only surviving daughter, Jean, on the occasion of her marriage to the most decorated war hero in Canadian history, World War One fighter ace and recipient of the Victoria Cross, Lt.-Colonel Billy Barker....

This house is best associated with...

Elizabeth Street Plumb

Mrs Elizabeth Street (Plumb) Robinson

1857-1927

Horace Bruce Smith

Horace B. Smith, of Toronto; President of the Collingwood Shipbuilding Company

1864-1939

Helen Maud Kilbourn

Mrs Helen (Kilbourn) Smith

1870-1930

Jean (Smith) Barker

Mrs Jean Bruce Kilbourn (Smith) Barker

1896-1983

William George Barker

Lt.-Colonel "Billy" Barker, V.C., D.S.O. M.C., Canadian World War I Fighter Ace

1894-1930

Billy and Jean took up residence with her parents, and it was here that their only child was born, the future Mrs Jean Mackenzie. Sadly, just nine years after Billy's wedding reception was held here, so too was his burial service after he was killed testing a plane. It was a double tragedy for the family as Horace's wife, Helen Kilbourn, also died in the same year. Horace lived here for a further nine years until his death in 1939 and the house then became the Ursulines School, as it is seen in the main photograph below taken in 1952. The house has since been demolished and replaced by a high-rise apartment block.

Styles

Image Courtesy of the Toronto Public Library; For Valour: Canadians and the Victoria Cross in the Great War (2015) Series Editor Gerald Gliddon

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