Description of Historic Place

Situated on the bank of the Credit River, the former private estate of Riverwood encompasses 150 acres of landscaped and naturally vegetated grounds, two houses, a barn and numerous structures, that relate to its former farming activity. Today, as a public park, it offers four interpretive terraces that relate the history of the property.

Riverwood was designated by City of Mississauga, By-law 505-2004, as a property of heritage significance.

Heritage Value

Riverwood is a 150 acre property nestled on the east bank of the Credit River. Originally a Crown land grant in 1833 to Peter McDougall, the property saw numerous owners, until it was purchased, in 1913, by W. R. Percy and Ida Parker. Parker had a stone cottage built on the ruins of a former building and used it as a summer cottage. In 1919, he commissioned architect A. S. Mathers to design a main house, which he named Riverwood. As a prominent Toronto lawyer and mining executive, Parker moved in high business and social circles and used Riverwood for entertaining influential merchants and politicians. Riverwood's most famous, and frequent, Canadian visitor was Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

Due to financial difficulties resulting from the 1929 stock market crash and Parker's death in 1931, Ida Parker sold her property in three stages: in the late 1930s, her daughter Margaret MacEwan purchased the parcel that contained the stone cottage; in the 1940s, John and Theodosia Zaichuk bought the upper farm parcel; in 1954, Hyliard Chappell Q.C. (M.P. for Peel South, 1968-1972) and his wife Grace acquired the Riverwood parcel.

In the 1990s, it was re-assembled into a single property when the City of Mississauga purchased all three parcels. Partnering with the Credit Valley Conservation Authority and the Mississauga Garden Council, the City turned Riverwood into a public garden park, dividing it into four interpretive terraces, each named for the most recent owners: Bird Terrace, MacEwan Terrace, Zaichuk Terrace and Chappell Terrace.

The Bird and Zaichuk terraces are significant for historical reasons, as they offer examples of agricultural practices, farming techniques and rural living along the Credit River in the mid-19th century. MacEwan House is architecturally significant as a good example of a modest single-storey vernacular stone cottage. It was built by the Parkers c. 1914 on the ruins of an earlier structure, using local shale and featuring a pitched roof and multi-paned casement windows. The house was enlarged in the 1950s with an addition on the east being constructed in a similar style. The basement floor is made of concrete and horseshoes from a prize-winning horse have been embedded into it. The MacEwan barn is one-and-a-half storeys and dates from around 1865. Constructed of heavy hewn timber and clad in vertical boards throughout, it has a pitched roof and three-over-three paned windows.

The Chappell House is constructed of Credit Valley stone collected on the property. It was designed by architect A. S. Mathers in the Arts and Crafts style to blend in with the natural surroundings. It is U-shaped, with two wings extending from the dominant central portion. The steeply pitched cross-hip roof, which is covered in wood shingles, and the external chimney located in the front façade, are the dominant features. This chimney contains a stone shield with a hand-carved inscription. Two dormers break the roofline on either side of this chimney while two internal chimneys protrude above the roof.

The property is particularly valued as an important cultural landscape. Its context within the Credit River corridor has played a role in its use for farming. Its terrain and topography permitted landscape architects William Harries, Alfred Hall and Arthur Kruse to take advantage of the natural beauty in creating spectacular landscaping. The original design is still intact, with formal gardens near the main house and naturalistic plantings further afield. Other features that contribute to the landscaping include a courtyard with circular drive around a central lily pond, flagstone walkways that lead from the house to the gardens, a woodland pool and remnants of walls and fence lines. Riverwood is currently a public park and home to Visual Arts Mississauga and the Mississauga Garden Council.

Source: Mississauga By-law 505-2004.

Character-Defining Elements

Character defining elements that reflect the heritage value of Riverwood include its:
- spatial layout which reflects on the early development of Mississauga
- size and location along the Credit river where early agricultural practices, farming techniques and rural living were once prominent
- Arts and Crafts style of the Parker/Chappell House and its construction in Credit Valley stone, its design by A. S. Mathers, the U-shaped floor plan, cross-hip roof, wood shingles, external chimney
- vernacular style of the MacEwan House, with its stone construction, pitched roof and concrete basement floor
- location on the bank of the Credit River
- landscaping continuum, from formal to natural, including man-made structures of courtyard, driveway, pond, walkways, nature trails and woodland pool
- one-and-a-half storey MacEwan barn with heavy hewn timber and clad in vertical boards, pitched roof and three-over-three paned windows
- remnants of walls and fence lines