They created the only Depression-era artist colony in Canada, on a spectacular 16-hectare (40-acre) lakeside property perched on the Scarborough Bluffs, just east of Toronto’s boundaries.
It was 1932 and Rosa and Spencer Clark were newlyweds with a common interest in the arts and social democracy. They had exchanged their vows at the 32-room country manor house (201 Guildwood Pkwy.) built in 1914 by Col. Harold Child Bickford, a Toronto-born decorated veteran of the Boer War and First World War. Bickford sold the property in 1921 to a missionary group, and decamped to Buffalo.
A widow with four children, Rosa bought the house shortly before her second marriage, when she was still Rosa Breithaupt Hewetson, the heiress to the Brampton-based Hewetson shoe company. Rosa and Spencer had met while working with a philanthropic group that promoted “ideas of social concerns,” according to a collection of papers donated to the University of Waterloo in 1988 by the Clark family. A cousin of Group of Seven artist A.Y. Jackson, Rosa’s interest in art had started early — she had been a gold medallist in art as a young woman at the Ontario Ladies’ College.
For their honeymoon, the Clarks chose an unconventional location: a New York state artists colony called Roycroft, where more than 500 artists lived and worked. It also featured an inn for visitors, and it would prove a lasting inspiration.
The couple returned with the idea of creating a similar crafts co-operative and renamed their property the Guild of All Arts. The former Bickford house would eventually become known as the Guild Inn. They combined some of the outbuildings on the estate and turned them into a studio building for the “production and display of crafts,” according to a research report prepared in 2014 by the city of Toronto’s heritage preservation services. Other buildings on the site, including an 1850s-era log cabin (which still exists) were revamped into more work and living spaces.
Artists and craftspeople were invited to come and stay; in return for room and board, they would share their skills, create works and interact with visitors. The Guild oversaw training in “weaving, woodworking, wrought iron, ceramics, leathering tooling and batik,” according to the city report. Many crafts produced were used to furnish the original Bickford house.
In 1933, “the Clarks established a paid membership program for the Guild,” offering the public access to the grounds, lectures and concerts, light refreshments and dinner, the report states. Guests could stay overnight, and so many came that a kitchen wing was added to the house in 1934, the same year the Clarks moved into a house on an adjoining lot, which they bought. Another addition was made to the Guild Inn in 1937.
The rooms of the inn had handmade furniture made by craftsmen on site with wooden headboards that featured carved Canadian wild animals and bedspreads and curtains created on handmade looms. The Clarks also bought surrounding farms and nearby cottages to protect the setting, until the land included about 200 hectares (500 acres), from Kingston Rd. to the lake, and Livingston to Galloway Rds. Some staff and artists lived in cottages on the property.
A Danish wood sculptor named Aage Madsen built a sculpture studio — a freestanding cabin — in 1940, just before the federal government requisitioned the property and used it as wireless training centre for WRENS (Women’s Royal Naval Service). After the war ended, the government turned the Guild Inn into a rehab centre for soldiers suffering from nervous disorders. Finally, in 1947, the land and buildings were returned to the Clarks.
The Clarks revived the Guild of All Arts, again inviting artists to work on site and offering accommodation to some as well. Over the years, dozens of artists and craftspeople worked at and/or visited the Guild, including the Group of Seven’s A.J. Casson, master cabinetmaker Herman Reidl, sculptors Siggy Puchta, Elizabeth Fraser Williamson, Francis Gage and others. The Clarks also commissioned and acquired sculptures for display on the grounds, including pieces from notable artists like Sorel Etrog, Emmanuel Hahn, Francis Loring, E.B. Cox and Florence Wyle.
In Toronto’s postwar building boom, old downtown buildings were being demolished and Spencer Clark set out to save dozens of the beautiful facades, columns, bas reliefs and carvings from those structures. He paid to have them trucked to the site and repositioned at various spots on the grounds — among them a mantelpiece from the home of Sir Frederick Banting, pieces of the Temple Building from Bay and Richmond Sts. (built in 1895 at nine storeys; a 10th floor was added in 1901, making it the tallest building in the British Empire), some stonework from the 1929 art deco Toronto Star building on King St. W. and a marble façade from the Bank of Toronto, which stood at King and Bay Sts. from 1912 to 1966. The last of these was turned into what’s known as the “Greek Theatre” in 1982 and has being used as a stage for outdoor plays and the backdrop for many photo shoots.
Sculptor and wood carver Dorsey James, 70, created the mythological wood carvings on the face of the sculpture studio in 1979. James worked part-time site at the Guild for about a decade, starting in the early ’70s when he was attending York University’s fine arts honours program. He had met Spencer Clark after Clark bought six sculptures on display at a downtown Toronto gallery. Clark invited him for a tour of the Guild property.
“I thought I’d died and gone to heaven,” James told the Star, after he walked around and Clark explained the Guild’s raison d’être — a place to create and display art for all to enjoy and to encourage artists.
Often Spencer would stop by the sculptor’s cabin when James was working and ask him to go for a walk. “We’d walk around the property and he’d look at a Doric column or a piece of concrete and he’d have all kinds of stories about them,” James recalled.
“I was fascinated by Rosa and Spencer … They had a way of creating within me a sense of the possible, a sense that if you give it all you’ve got, chances are you’re going to succeed,” said James, who continues to sculpt, carve and teach.
The Guild attracted many celebrity visitors and VIPs over the years who stayed over, or came for the famous Sunday brunches or to walk the grounds, including prime minister Lester B. Pearson, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, pianist Glenn Gould, actor Laurence Olivier, and renowned conductor and composer Ernest MacMillan.
In 1953, the Clarks sold 161 hectares, which was developed into Guildwood Village. Spencer Clark wanted the homes to be quality but affordable (prices started at $25,000) and they were built around mature trees whenever possible.
In 1978, the aging couple sold the Guild Inn and its remaining 35 hectares to the Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. Ownership was later transferred to the municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, now the city of Toronto.
Rosa Clark died in 1981 at the age of 91, followed by Spencer Clark’s passing in 1986, at age 82. The Guild Inn closed in 1993, but most of the park and outdoor art collection remains open to the public.
And now a new chapter is underway for the historic property. Dynamic Hospitality & Entertainment Group is restoring the original, 3,400-square-foot Bickford residence portion of the former Guild Inn (it will host a public restaurant called the Bickford Bistro, which will house some artifacts from the Spencer era). In addition, it is building a new 40,000-square-foot addition available for corporate, charity, community and private events. The complex, known as the Guild Inn Estate, has a scheduled completion date of April 2017 and bookings are being accepted for May 2017 onwards.