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Doris McCarthy’s Fool’s Paradise will inspire future generations of artists

Doris McCarthy at Fool’s Paradise, May 2005 (Photo: David Lee)

Photo: Doris McCarthy at Fool’s Paradise, May 2005 (Photo: David Lee)

By

Catrina Colme

Women's heritage, Buildings and architecture, Arts and creativity, Adaptive reuse

Published Date: Jan 28, 2011

With the passing of Doris McCarthy on November 25, 2010, the country lost a revered and talented artist, best known for her landscape paintings. McCarthy’s artworks showcase her love of travel, depicting scenery from across the world, particularly Canada’s Arctic. Another part of her remarkable legacy is Fool’s Paradise – the Scarborough property where she lived – which McCarthy generously donated to the Ontario Heritage Trust before her death.

Born in Calgary in 1910, McCarthy came to Toronto at the age of three. Originally, she planned to be a writer, but after enrolling in an art course at the Ontario College of Art in her teens, she was awarded a full-time scholarship. While there, several members of the Group of Seven were among her mentors and teachers.

In 1939, McCarthy bought a picturesque 12-acre (4.9-hectare) property on the Scarborough Bluffs overlooking Lake Ontario. She paid $1,250 for it, which her mother viewed as an extravagance, referring to “that fool’s paradise of yours.” The name Fool’s Paradise stuck. She designed the house and its additions, and eventually made it her full-time home.

Fool’s Paradise is also an important natural heritage site. The property is perched on a narrow plateau of the ecologically sensitive and geologically significant Scarborough Bluffs. The bluffs and the adjoining Bellamy Ravine – the watershed for a large part of Scarborough – contain deep-stream forested gullies providing habitat for regionally rare plant species, shore birds and small animals.

To help conserve the property, McCarthy donated seven acres (2.8 hectares) to the Metropolitan Toronto Region Conservation Authority under an Erosion Control Agreement in 1986. In her honour, the nature trail running through Bellamy Ravine on the east of the property was officially named the Doris McCarthy Trail by the City of Toronto in 2001.

In 1998, McCarthy donated the remainder of Fool’s Paradise to the Ontario Heritage Trust, along with a charitable remainder trust to maintain the property in perpetuity. She retained a life tenancy, with the intent that after her death it would become a retreat for artists, musicians and writers, and a setting for heritage activities.

“She was a remarkable woman who took great care in planning her estate,” said Richard Moorhouse, the Trust’s Executive Director, who negotiated the agreement with McCarthy. “She has created a legacy for many to enjoy in the future.”

As family, friends and fans mourn her passing, it is also a time to celebrate McCarthy’s life and achievements. In the coming year, the Trust will be planning the retreat McCarthy envisioned – giving other artists the opportunity to be inspired by Fool’s Paradise, just as she was herself. When information about the retreat is available, it will be posted at www.heritagetrust.on.ca.

“In giving her property to the Ontario Heritage Trust, my great-aunt Doris wanted not only to preserve the land and buildings – which she built herself – but also to help preserve the importance of art and culture in Ontario and Canada. This retreat will provide an inspirational facility for artists and their creative work. Our family and Doris’s many friends are so pleased that the property will be retained and used for future generations.” Beth McCarthy, Doris McCarthy’s great-niece

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Places of worship in Ontario’s rural cultural landscape

The cultural landscapes of rural southern Ontario contain a variety of heritage resources – land patterns and uses, built forms and natural features. Within these...

Ste-Anne-des-Pins, Sudbury

Churches of “New Ontario”

In the middle of the 19th century, northern Ontario remained much as it had been under the French regime – a region of Catholic missions...

Interior of Assumption Church, Windsor

Ontario’s rich religious heritage

From the First People who for thousands of years conducted religious and cultural ceremonies at places they believed held spiritual significance, to subsequent arrivals who...

Christ Church Anglican, Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory

Christ Church and the Queen Anne Silver

Located in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on the Bay of Quinte, Christ Church houses a silver communion service dating to 1712. This remarkable service represents an...

Thoughtful details in the fence around St. George’s Anglican Cathedral (Kingston) make it an important part of the church’s landscape

Sacred landscapes in Ontario’s communities

While places of worship are a visible aspect of Ontario’s heritage, they are part of wider cultural landscapes that can include supporting structures, burial places...

Trust Researcher Erin Semande (left) and planner Laura Hatcher conducting fieldwork for Ontario’s Places of Worship Inventory.

Launching the Places of Worship Inventory

Survey, documentation and research – these are the first steps in the conservation process. How can decisions be made about our heritage without first acquiring...

Light of the World depicted in stained glass at the St. John the Evangelist in South Cayuga

Adventures in light and colour

Light is a fundamental aspect of all architecture, especially places of worship. Light has always been considered a manifestation of the spirit, providing guidance, comfort...

Ste Bernadette Church, Bonfield

The challenge of change in the Catholic Diocese of Pembroke

In May 2006, the Catholic parish of Ste Bernadette in the small northern Ontario community of Bonfield celebrated the 100th anniversary of its church. A...

The vacant former St. Joachim Roman Catholic Church, Lakeshore

The challenges of ownership

Historic places of worship may possess cultural heritage values that engender public support for their preservation, but these values sometimes differ from the spiritual and...

Demolition of the Palmer Livery Building, Cambridge, March 27, 2007 (Photo courtesy of Ken Hoyle)

Subsidizing demolition

In nature, there is no such thing as waste. Nature operates in an endless web of interconnected cycles of use, transformation and reuse. The concept...

The heart of the Ruthven estate is this two-and-a-half-storey limestone Greek Revival-style mansion

Heritage in harmony: The integration of natural and cultural landscapes

Approximately 11,000 years of human culture are recorded in Ontario’s landscapes. Most existing natural landscapes in Ontario today have intrinsic cultural heritage meaning and significance...

The Huron Historic Gaol (1839-42) is designated a National Historic Site

The sustainability of place

Located on the Lake Huron shore at the mouth of the Maitland River, Goderich is known as “Canada’s Prettiest Town.” It is situated in what...

Wychwood Barns (Photo courtesy of du Toit Architects Limited)

Rebirth of the Wychwood Barns

The Artscape Wychwood Barns – near St. Clair Avenue West and Bathurst Street in Toronto – were created when five historic streetcar maintenance barns were...

Smallwood calculated that saving the Wallis House (shown here) diverted the equivalent of 500,000 blue boxes of debris from entering landfill

Discarding the past

When an old building is torn down, we lose more than just the structure. We lose a bit of our past. The foundation walls and...

The Fairfield White House, Bath

Heritage off the 401

Highway 401, stretching from Windsor to the Quebec border, is one of the busiest highways in North America. Anyone who has journeyed east of Toronto...

The dining room at Fulford Place in Brockville

Building on the past

Eastern Ontario offers an array of impressive historic houses. Some of these houses – owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust – are featured...

L’église catholique St. Brigid, Ottawa

La nouvelle St. Brigid

L’église catholique St. Brigid d’Ottawa est entrée dans une nouvelle ère. Depuis presque 120 ans, elle se dresse au cœur d’un quartier divers et dynamique...

Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, Almonte (Photo courtesy of John T. Fowler, Photography for Education)

From mill to museum

The big oak door of the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte in eastern Ontario swings silently open as it has done for over 10...

Statue of Samuel de Champlain, Ottawa (Photo © Ontario Tourism, 2009)

Ontario's eastern treasures

Inhabited by Aboriginal Peoples for 7,000 years, present-day eastern Ontario is rich with heritage. The area gradually transformed as French and later United Empire Loyalists...

Rockwood Villa (Photo © Ontario Realty Corporation, 2009)

The Rockwood story

Behind the stately façade of Kingston’s Rockwood Villa lies the history of mental health services in Ontario. Built in 1842 as a residence for local...

Gun port in the basement crypt of the Bank

The character of adaptive reuse

In his 1947 essay titled “The Past in the Future,” architectural historian John Summerson (1904-92) offered this description of an old building. He was speaking...

One noteworthy example of a successful adaptive reuse project was the conversion of this former post office into 91 market-rate units

Second chances for Peterborough’s priceless heritage

One of the greatest challenges to creating a healthy downtown is getting people to live there. While Peterborough’s historic centre is full of beautiful heritage...

The Jami Mosque in Toronto was formerly a Presbyterian church, converted in 1969

The heritage of faith – Ontario’s places of worship

In 2006, the Ontario Heritage Trust began compiling an inventory of significant pre-1982 purpose-built places of worship located throughout the province. These remarkable cultural treasures...

A study is being conducted that will hopefully result in the establishment of the Old Sydenham Heritage Area (representing approximately 550 properties) as a heritage conservation district

Kingston’s heritage: Time and again

The City of Kingston sits at a strategic location, halfway between Montreal and Toronto, where Lake Ontario meets the western end of the St. Lawrence...

Alma College, 1891 (Photo courtesy of Elgin County Archives)

Alma College remembered

By mid-afternoon on Wednesday, May 28, 2008, Alma College in St. Thomas was reduced to a smouldering ruin. The loss of this significant site to...

The former Bank of Montreal in Hamilton was converted for use as the Gowlings Law Office

Understanding adaptive reuse

In our efforts to conserve heritage properties, finding a use can be our greatest challenge and our greatest opportunity. An unused, vacant heritage building is...

Thunder Bay’s Tourist Pagoda

A renaissance of northern heritage

After railway development connected this once-isolated area to the rest of the province at the end of the 19th century, the abundant natural resources attracted...

Sir Harry Oakes Chateau, Kirkland Lake

Adventurous workers wanted for remote locations – Housing provided

The exploration, settlement and development of northern Ontario were motivated by the exploitation of the region’s natural resources – primarily fur, timber, gold and silver...

McIntyre Mine Headframe, Timmins

Northern icons

The towering McIntyre Mine Headframe in Timmins. The Clergue Block House and Powder Magazine in Sault Ste Marie. St. Francis of Assisi Anglican Church in...

1907 Right of Way Mine with growing community in background

The historical Cobalt Mining District – A community resource

At the turn of the 20th century, Cobalt was a small and isolated lumber camp. In August 1903, two lumbermen – James McKinley and Ernest...

Volunteers play an important role at the Niagara Apothecary

Friends of the Trust

Throughout its 40 years, the Ontario Heritage Trust has developed strong partnerships with local communities. Among these partnerships are those with the groups whose efforts...

The Winter Garden Theatre, George Pelekis

Raising the curtain: How the Winter Garden Theatre was rediscovered

In December 1913, Loew’s Yonge Street Theatre – the Canadian flagship of the mighty Loew’s empire – opened in Toronto. Two months later, the opulent...

Fort York, Toronto. © Ontario Tourism 2008

The past empowered

The buildings, structures and landscapes that comprise our cultural heritage are products of the intricate interplay between people and place over time. What is preserved...

The Sir Aemilius Irving House, Hamilton

Have you seen this building?

In November 2007, the Sir Aemilius Irving House in Hamilton was demolished by its owner to make way for a new building. Unfortunately, local heritage...

Enoch Turner Schoolhouse

Enoch Turner Schoolhouse – a citizen’s legacy

When the province of Ontario introduced the 1847 Common Schools Act, municipalities were given the power to introduce taxes to fund public education. Toronto city...

St. Raphael’s Ruins

Counting our blessings

Built in Glengarry in 1821, St. Raphael’s Church was one of Ontario’s earliest Roman Catholic churches. Constructed under the supervision of Alexander Macdonell – Upper...

Traditional building materials (McMartin House, Perth)

Building assets

Which is more sustainable – an artificial or live Christmas tree? This is an environmentalist’s conundrum, and it illustrates the paradox of “sustainable” building materials...

Repairs to the Gordon Block, Stratford (2007)

The guiding principles of sustainable architecture

In the late 1990s, the Ontario Ministry of Culture introduced Eight Guiding Principles in the Conservation of Built Heritage Properties, which are in common use...

Sheppard’s Bush, main house

Inside Sheppard’s Bush

Charles Sheppard (1876-1967) moved to the Town of Aurora in 1921, after making his fortune in the Simcoe County lumber industry. Brooklands, his modest estate...

View of the Don Valley Brick Works site, looking south (Photo courtesy of Evergreen)

Evergreen Brick Works: Rethinking space

Evergreen – a national charity – builds the relationship between nature, culture and community in urban spaces. With its revitalization of Toronto’s Don Valley Brick...

A 1930s view of the town site taken from the north, looking towards the mill (Photo courtesy of The Ron Morel Memorial Museum, Kapuskasing)

Discovering the City Beautiful

On July 25, 2007, the Ontario Heritage Trust and the Town of Kapuskasing unveiled a provincial plaque to commemorate the town plan that helped shape...

401 Richmond Street, Toronto – an example of a green roof

Fact or fiction: Demystifying the myths around going green – Moving toward a more sustainable architecture

Sustainable: able to be maintained at a certain rate or level . . . conserving an ecological balance by avoiding a depletion of natural resources...

Tip Top Lofts, Toronto (Photo: Context Development)

Sustainability for old buildings: A developer’s perspective

Adaptive reuse provides a sound and sustainable approach to the renewal of our urban fabric, as illustrated by the conversion of three Toronto buildings to...

Casement windows of the Oval Boardroom

In praise of older windows

Façade: a word of double-edged meaning. Architecturally, it refers to the face of a building. In literature, more often than not, it connotes a front...

Fraserfield, South Glengarry

Building on our successes

The Ontario Heritage Trust’s heritage conservation easements conserve some of Ontario’s most significant heritage sites. Good stewardship of easement properties includes regular maintenance and periodic...

Barnum House

The story of Barnum House

Barnum House, on the north side of Highway 2 (Danforth Road), west of Grafton is historically significant for its association with the Barnum family. It...

$29 million restoration of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre by the Trust in 1987-89 (Photo: George Pelekis)

The R’s of conservation

An earlier generation spoke of the three R’s as “Reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic.” They were the fundamentals of education in the 19th century and considered...

Battlefield House

Battlefield House Museum and Park – A pioneer in the history of preservation

Nestled under the Niagara Escarpment and situated in a park connected to the Bruce Trail, Battlefield House Museum National Historic Site in Stoney Creek is...

The Mason-Girardot House – a Victorian Italianate house built c. 1879 in the former town of Sandwich – is one of the properties participating in Windsor’s heritage property tax relief program

Leading the way in municipal heritage planning

What’s happening in your community? With significant amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act in April 2005 and a strengthening of the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS)...

Clark-McCleary House, rear elevation

Exploring Country Heritage Park

In March 2006, the Ontario Heritage Trust acquired a cultural conservation easement on Country Heritage Park. Located in Milton, this designed heritage attraction was created...

Fulford Place

Heritage conservation at our front door

The term “porte-cochère” has continental flair, though humble origins. In French, it means “carriage door” and originally referred to a covered entryway into a courtyard...

Homewood Museum in Maitland

Heritage by numbers

Ontario’s heritage is an immense and complex jigsaw puzzle. Every individual element of heritage creates a whole . . . a sort of heritage by...

Parading into the Spencerville Mill grounds is the Glengarry Pipe Band (Photo: The Spencerville Mill Foundation)

Saving the Spencerville Mill – Preserving community heritage

The Spencerville Mill, a fine cut-stone flour and grist mill, is located on the bank of the South Nation River in the small rural village...

This 1958 provincial plaque unveiling to commemorate Catharine Parr Traill was attended by Mrs. Anne Atwood and Miss Anne Traill, the author’s granddaughters. Also in attendance (shown here second from left) was the then-editor of the Peterborough Examiner – Robertson Davies – who, in time, became a literary giant in his own right.

Literary giants

Catharine Parr Traill is one of Canada’s literary luminaries. Her life story spans most of the 19th century, crossing oceans, battling cholera and journeying through...

Today, the Ashbridge Estate is widely known in Toronto’s east end for its lush gardens. The Estate is owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust. Its extensive collection of artifacts and archaeological discoveries celebrate the evolution of the Ashbridge family.

The biography of a house: If these walls could speak

Researching family history is a popular pastime for many who want to uncover their family’s unique past and discover how they contributed to Ontario’s growth...

Peterborough's Market Hall, before

Winning the battle

There are countless examples across the province of successful restorations of Ontario’s treasured heritage sites. Although the challenges are great – funding being the primary...

Peel Heritage Complex, Brampton

Our cultural heritage places: how heritage buildings adapt

Although heritage remains a year-round activity for many of us, Heritage Day is celebrated annually on the third Monday in February. This year’s theme speaks...

George Brown House

Snapshots of the past

A flash of phosphorus. A whiff of smoke. And an image is captured. Photographs have chronicled our lives for over 150 years, remaining one of...

Detail of reproduced George Brown House central hall wallpaper

Historic wallpaper: Finding what’s beneath

Wallpapers first appeared in Canada as early as the mid-17th century. These oldest papers were block-printed, hand-painted or stenciled. Pattern and colour was applied to...

Penetanguishene Centennial Museum and Archives

Small-town museums key to small-town success

For 18 years, my wife and I raised our two sons in the Town of Richmond Hill just north of Toronto. When we moved to...

Upper Canada’s first parliament buildings

Breaking news: Saving our First Parliament

It was announced on December 21, 2005 that the site of Ontario’s first parliament buildings in Toronto has been saved. The Ontario Government, in partnership...

Macdonell-Williamson House

Unearthing the past: Discoveries at Macdonell-Williamson House

Built in 1817, Macdonell-Williamson House in eastern Ontario reflects the ambitions and aspirations of retired fur trader, John Macdonell. His life was fraught with financial...

The earliest brick structure in the City of Hamilton – the Book House, located in Ancaster – was recently lost to a suspected case of arson. (Photo: Sharon Vattay, City of Hamilton)

Moving forward with heritage conservation

Thirty years ago, when the Ontario Heritage Act was new, I was a young planner with about a year’s experience working in London, England and...

This decorative cupola adorns McMartin House, a Foundation property in Perth

The healthy roof: Staying on top of heritage preservation

The following excerpt appears in Well-Preserved: The Ontario Heritage Foundationʼs Manual of Principles and Practice for Architectural Conservation (Third Revised Edition), by Mark Fram (Boston...

Mrs. Greenwood donated this property in the memory of her late husband; it will be known as the John Edward (Ted) Greenwood Sanctuary (Photo: Sylvia Barkman)

New natural heritage easement properties

John Edward (Ted) Greenwood Sanctuary On March 30, 2005, the Ontario Heritage Foundation received – from Mary Greenwood of Nakara, Australia – a 100-acre (40-...

Coldwater Grist Mill – serving the community since 1833; an active part of Doors Open Huronia since 2002

The new Ontario Heritage Act: The evolution of heritage conservation

An important shift has occurred in Ontario’s legislative framework for heritage conservation. On April 28, 2005, the Ontario Heritage Amendment Act (Bill 60) received royal...

Trent University, Peterborough

Trent University under the modernist microscope

Throughout the developed world, attention is being given to the built heritage of the modern era. Organizations such as UNESCO's World Heritage Center, the International...

The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre (Toronto). In 1987, a basement is excavated under the lobby corridor, and the grand staircase is suspended in the air.

Working with superstructures: The framework for Ontario's heritage buildings

Last issue, we discussed the importance of a solid foundation when preserving heritage structures. In this issue, we see how a buildingʼs skeleton holds everything...

Leidra Lodge

Leidra Lodge – A new conservation easement

June Ardiel has been a patron and leader in Ontario's arts community all her life. She has authored a book on the public art of...

Toronto-Dominion Centre (Photo: The Cadillac Fairview Corporation Ltd.)

The changing face of heritage: The International Style – Toronto’s Toronto-Dominion Centre

In the second quarter of the 20th century following the First World War, Europe saw the emergence of a significant movement in architecture. This “modern”...

Homewood Museum in Maitland

The Homewood collection

As you drive east along Highway 2 between Brockville and Prescott, you will find the robust Georgian Homewood Museum deeply set back from the road...

Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site

Inside Uncle Tom's Cabin

At a bend in the Sydenham River near the town of Dresden stands Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site. The museum – built on the site...

The Sharon Temple

The Sharon Temple and the heritage of faith

While most of Canada celebrates Heritage Day on the third Monday in February, Ontario celebrates Heritage Week. The theme developed for Ontario Heritage Week 200...

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