The Good Shepherd

As 2024 is coming to an end, let’s end this year with a special house.

In a way, 224 Wellesley Street East pretty much sums up what this page is about. 224 Wellesley is neither the most extravagant, nor is it the most expensive old house.

It is an architectural juxtaposition that makes Toronto unique while being a commercial space to support a small family business and serve the local community across generations.

Cecilia Llyod, the widow of a reverend moved into the house back in 1877 with her son.

Little did she know, 150 years later, this house would survive all the urban development to be the last Gothic Revival house on the block. Perhaps Cecilia would be delighted to hear her house is now a commercial space, Wellesley Fruit Market.

Some say plants communicate with each other. Sometimes, I imagine, what if old houses could talk to each other just like centuries old sequoia trees in California.

Around the corner on Parliament Street sits New World Laundry (former Casaccio House, see 4 posts ago). Together they are silent witnesses to the dramatic changes in Cabbagetown spanning two centuries.

ACO Toronto website (see link below) has a detailed account of the different businesses 224 Wellesley has supported. Over the years, it has been used a tailor, stationery shop, confectionery shop, corner store, beauty salon, paint & hardware store, and now a fruit & veg market.

https://www.acotoronto.ca/building.php?ID=9459

Throughout the years, every dollar and penny from locals that “shop small, and buy local”, has helped kept these family businesses going, and perhaps leading to the preservation of this old house. In return, 224 Wellesley continues to serve and lookout for the community, just like the mural on its wall.

224 Wellesley Street East, Cabbagetown