Commemoration
A rare surviving example of the grand estates of the inter-war years, Parkwood consists of a richly decorated house set in 12 acres of grounds. The house, originally constructed in 1916-1917 to the designs of the Toronto from of Darling and Pearson, was the home of Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin, President of General Motors of Canada. His wife, Adelaide, took a particular interest in the gardens designed by H. B. And L. A. Dunnington-Grubb in the 1920s and in the magnificent formal garden constructed in 1935-1936 to the design of John Lyle.
Background
As can be seen from this house and its owner, by the end of the First World War, Ontario was becoming a hub for manufacturing. It had become quite prosperous where a century earlier there had been farms hewn out of the forest. Canada was becoming a significant component of the world economy rather than a backwater of the British Empire.