Guild Inn
| Guild Inn | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| General information | |
| Address | 201 Guildwood Parkway |
| Town or city | Toronto |
| Country | Canada |
| Opened | 1914 |
| Closed | 2001 |
| Owner | City of Toronto |
The Guild Inn, or simply The Guild was a historic hotel in the Guildwood neighbourhood of Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario and was once an artists colony. The surrounding Guild Park and Gardens is notable for a sculpture garden consisting of the rescued facades and ruins of various demolished downtown Toronto buildings such as bank buildings, the old Toronto Star building and the Granite Club. The park is situated on the Scarborough Bluffs with views of Lake Ontario. Guild Park remains open while the Guild Inn building is being refurbished into a facility for social events.
In 1914, the property (40 acres (16 ha) at that time) was known as Ranelagh Park, owned by Colonel Harold Bickford. Bickford built Bickford House, a 33-room, Arts and Crafts-style manor house on the property. In 1921, the property was sold to the Roman Catholic Church's Foreign Mission Society and renamed the China Mission College. In 1923, it was purchased by Richard Veech Look, who lived with his family at the mansion until 1927, when he was transferred to Quebec.
The property was vacant until 1932 when it was purchased by Rosa Breithaupt Hewetson. In August of that year, Hewetson married Herbert Spencer Clark in a ceremony on the estate. For a honeymoon, the couple chose to go on a motor trip to the United States to "visit co-operative organizations similar to the type in which they are both keenly interested." Both were directors of the Robert Owen Foundation, which was founded that year, an organization that supported the development of co-operative organizations.
The couple chose to reside in the mansion, and there fostered the arts, turning the property into an artist colony, modelled after Roycroft in East Aurora, New York, a centre of the Arts and Crafts movement. By the time of the Second World War it had become The Guild of All Arts. Across their property, the Clarks built homes and workshops for artists, such as The Studio, which was assembled out of a garage and a stable from different parts of the grounds; it accommodated those practising batik, woodworking, weaving, and metalworking. The Clarks also began collecting architectural elements from demolished buildings and erecting them in the gardens of the Guild as follies.
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