| Cawthra House | |
| Coordinates: | 43.6492°N -79.3794°W |
| Map Type: | Canada Toronto |
Cawthra House are the name for two of three homes associated with the Cawthra family in the Greater Toronto Area.
The first Cawthra house was a mansion completed in 1853 for businessman William Cawthra by Joseph Sheard and William Irving. It is a now site of the Scotia Plaza office tower in Toronto.
The Toronto residence was one of several properties of influential Cawthra family in Toronto, became a branch of Molsons Bank in 1885, then as Sterling Bank from 1908 and finally as home to Canada Life Assurance Company from 1926 until 1929.[1]
Attempts to preserve the house failed and by 1949 it was demolished to make way for the Bank of Nova Scotia Building, now part of Scotia Plaza.[2]
The second house was built for John Cawthra (1789–1851) in 1830 as a home and retail store. It is still standing at 262 Main Street North in Newmarket, Ontario.[3]
Another Cawthra house exists on land once part of Joseph Cawthra’s land holdings is Cawthra-Elliot Estate in the Cawthra Park area in the City of Mississauga to the west.
The Cawthra-Elliot Estate is a Georgian Revivalist home built by W. L. Somerville for Grace Cawthra, daughter of Henry Cawthra and granddaughter of John Cawthra, in 1925-1926.[4] The estate lands were once part of Joseph Cawthra’s 200 acres Crown grant in 1808.[5] Following the death of Grace Cawthra-Elliot the home is now owned by the City of Mississauga.
Bricks from Joseph Cawthra House was repurposed for garden wall.