I just came upon your website by doing a Google search on the word Tooraweenah ... I had an expectation that I may find an article or quote referring to Tooraweenah, but I never thought that it would have its own website!!!!!

My family and I live in a house in Toronto named Tooraweenah and we have lived here for 10 years ... The house was built in 1930 by a gentleman named Thomas McGillivray who was the President of Yardleys in North America. He named the house Tooraweenah because as a child his parents had read him a story and in that story was a mystical place named Tooraweenah. When he built his dream home he decided to name it Tooraweenah.

A few years later he had a pen and ink sketch done of the house and that Christmas he sent cards saying Seasons Greetings from Tooraweenah to his colleagues around the world. A few months after that he received a letter from the Trade Minister of Australia telling him that there was an actual town named Tooraweenah. On the next state visit to Canada in 1935 Prime Minister Stevens and many of the Trade Ministers from all over the world came to his home and had a dedication ceremony and put the name over the front door.

When he sold the home in 1942 to the Grant family he took the name with him. The Grants owned the home until we bought it in 1994.

Shortly after we moved in we had a visit from Tom's daughters, Jane and Kay and they related the history of the home to us. My wife Stevi suggested that a house of this stature should have a name and Jane and Kay told us the story. They then sugggested that we could put the name back on the house, which we were delighted to do. We had a rededication ceremony and had the whole McGillivray clan attend. They presented us with the leather bound book that Mr Stevens had given to their father and which we still have.

Just to give you some perspective Tooraweenah is a Mediterranian style house, has 32 rooms, is located in the west end of Toronto in an area called Baby Point, and is situated on 2 acres of property overlooking the Humber River.

The property and locale is full of historical significance. Hundreds of years ago (1500-1700) it was a First Nations village (Seneca Iroquois tribe) and in the surrounding village they had over 3000 inhabitants! As a matter of fact, when we were doing some renovations we discovered an indian burial site on our front lawn and did a complete archeological dig and recovered the skeleton and many historical artifacts. It is also alleged that Etienne Brule, the first white man to see the Great Lakes, did so from our backyard. Needless to say this is a very 'spiritual' place and a place of historical 'community'.

I could go on at much greater length and would be happy to do so, including pictures etc.

Congrats on a great website, we feel that we know the people of Tooraweenah and have very much enjoyed exploring the town by way of your pictures ...

If you would like more info please let us know ... all the best ... isn't the internet great!!!!