Description of Historic Place

Lislehurst, located at 3359 Mississauga Road, is at the end of Principal's Road in the University of Toronto at Mississauga campus. The property consists of a two-and-a-half-storey stone house that was constructed in 1885.

The property was designated by the City of Mississauga in 1985 for its heritage value under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act (By-law 879-85).

Heritage Value

Lislehurst is located on the University of Toronto at Mississauga campus, at 3359 Mississauga Road.

Lislehurst is associated with the Schreiber family. It was originally part of a Crown Grant belonging to the brothers of Sir Isaac Brock and was given to the Schreiber family as a gift in trust in 1869. They built three houses: Lislehurst, Woodham and Iverholm. When the Schreiber family sold 50 acres to Reginald Watkins, a wealthy business man from Hamilton in 1928, the land included Lislehurst and Woodham. Under Watkins' eye, Lislehurst underwent extensive renovations and Woodham was demolished. Woodham's materials were reused in Lislehurst's renovation.

The library of Lislehurst is named the Schreiber Room in honour of the family who built the house and of Canadian artist Charlotte Mount Brock Schreiber (1824-1922). Charlotte was one of the founders of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and its first female member. Charlotte's painting, “The Croppy Boy” can be found at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. Charlotte's importance to early Canadian art is also noted on an Ontario Heritage Trust plaque on the property.

Lislehurst reflects the popular movement circa 1920 to renovate older buildings to resemble Tudor houses. Built circa 1885, Lislehurst currently looks nothing like the original house. The renovations of 1928 involved the removal of the gingerbread decoration and an application of an exposed timber and stucco finish. Watkins also added a west wing and reversed the front, oriented to the Credit River, to the back of the house making the original rear elevation the new front entry and facade.

Source: City of Mississauga By-Law 879-85.

Character-Defining Elements

Character defining elements that contribute to the heritage value of Lislehurst include its:
- prominent location on the University of Toronto Mississauga campus
- two-and-a-half-storey Credit Valley stone exterior
- gable roof
- exposed timber and stucco
- seven stone chimneys