Guild Inn

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Guild Inn is an historic hotel in Guildwood, a neighbourhood of Scarborough, Ontario. Built in 1914 as Ranelagh Park for Colonel Harold Child Bickford. The Georgian-style home has 33 rooms.

In 1921, the home was sold to the Foreign Missionary Society of the Roman Catholic Church and renamed China Mission College. It was soon abandoned and remained so until 1932, when it was purchased by Rosa Breithaupt Hewetson of the Hewetson Shoes Company fame. Ms. Hewetson married Herbert Spencer Clark and continued to reside in home and added status as a museum. During World War II, it became The Guild of All Arts.

Additions were added in 1941 to 1942, then it was ceded to the federal government as a military hospital and renamed HMCS Bytown II by the Women's Royal Naval Service or WRENS.

After the war, it remained as a hospital for nervous disorders and renamed as Scarborough Hall.

By 1947, the federal government returned the home to the Clarks and re-established as the Guild of All Arts. But the Clarks' stay was short and they sold the home to the municipal government of Metro Toronto in 1953.

A 6 storey 100 room east wing was added in 1965 and other renovations completed in 1968. A minor ownership change saw the inn handed over to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority in 1978.

In 1993, control over the run down property returned back to the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The park and the property was used for private functions, namely for wedding photo shoots.

By 2001, the run down property was abandoned, but Guildwood Park remains open to the public. Plans to revive the Inn[1], have collapsed, but input from the community is now being sought to make new plans.[2]

In 2006, Artscape, a non-profit enterprise that builds creative communities and expands knowledge about the dynamics of creative places, worked on a strategy for a cultural precinct for the Guild Inn site. The entire site will soon be redeveloped as a resort/spa and public park. The City of Toronto has expressed interest in having Artscape develop and manage the cultural precinct portion of the site.

Unfortunately, the Artscape web site contains no obvious reference to Artscape having worked on the Guild Inn project, nor do any of the other relevant web sites.