By Deborah Sacrob, NYHS Board member

 

The Cricket Club area was originally settled by a Scotsman named Andrew McGlashan who settled here with his family in the early 1800’s. The McGlashan’s operated a tannery on the south-west corner of Yonge Street and York Mills Road up until the 1860’s.

In 1876 the McGlashan property was purchased by Andrew Bathgate. Bathgate’s heirs sold the family homestead in 1907 to William George Gooderham the owner of the Gooderham and Worts distillery.

Gooderham fortuitously discovered a spring of fresh water on the Yonge Street hillside of his property where the York Mills Gardens apartments are now located. He then set up Mineral Springs Ltd., which bottled and sold this water around the world up until the 1920’s.

Gooderham played a key role in the residential subdivision of this neighbourhood during the early 1900’s. He also helped form the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club which opened in 1925 and has been a neighbourhood landmark ever since.

Club House of the Toronto Cricket Club, North Toronto, Toronto Public Library Digital Archive