Maplelawn
| Maplelawn & Gardens | |
|---|---|
Maplelawn in winter 2006
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| Location | Ontario, Canada |
| Nearest city | Ottawa |
| Built | 1834 |
| Original use | Residence and walled garden |
| Current use | Restaurant |
| Governing body | National Capital Commission |
| Designated | 1989 |
Maplelawn is an historic house and former estate located in Ottawa, Canada. The house was built between 1831 an 1834 as the centre of a farming estate by the Thomson family. In 1877 the Cole family bought the estate and lived there until 1989. The house is now owned by the National Capital Commission and it is a designated national historic site. It is particularly noted for the well preserved and rare walled garden next to the house, The Maplelawn Garden. Since 1999 the Maplelawn has been the location of the Keg Manor restaurant. Today the house is located in Westboro at 529 Richmond Road.
The architecture of the house reflects a taste for British classicism, but some elements, such as the windows, are in a more local style, favoured in Quebec and the Ottawa Valley. The walled garden is a very rare feature for a Canadian farming estate. Although highly prized in Europe, they were never widespread in Canada. It was intended to be both ornamental and useful.
Around 1818 William Thomson, a gentleman of Scottish origin, retired from the British army and settled the 200-acre (0.81 km2) farm on the road leading from Bytown to the village of Richmond. Thomson and his sons focused on the farming operations of their estate, but also invested peripherally in the lumber trade.
In 1877 the Thomsons sold the farm to the Thomas Cole, who had made a fortune in the lumber industry. The Cole family and their descendants retained possession of the house until the death of Frances Rochester, the granddaughter of Thomas Cole in 1989. Frances and her husband, Lloyd Rochester, lived at Maplelawn and raised their children there (the Rochesters were another old Ottawa family). The most important renovation was conducted in 1936, when the original summer kitchen and field hands' dormitory was replaced by a stone addition to the house at the rear. At this same time the garden was redesigned by a horticulturalist from the Central Experimental Farm. The Federal District Commission, forerunner of the NCC, had bought the house in the 1950s to ensure its preservation.
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