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The Spadina House sits quietly in the background of Casa Loma. The experience here was actually much more enjoyable than the Casa Loma tour in some ways. First, the tours run on a schedule and are docented. You don't walk yourself through. Secondly, what makes this house museum special is that all the items inside the house are original to it - no replacement pieces have been brought in. I really enjoy that aspect of the place. Third, the house is really well taken care of, there are floor mats or carpets throughout the walking path so the floors won't be damaged.
We planned to take the tour about the restoration of the house, which is only once per day in this season. The tour started with a short video about the place and its inhabitants. The premise of the house is that is it supposed to be an authentic 1920s-1930s residence. This is a little misleading though. The house was built much earlier, and the furnishings are nearly all Victorian rather than Deco. I understand of course any authentic deco space may include items from the previous fad as well, but it is actually much more Victorian than Deco and this is played down significantly. The tour highlighted some Deco parts of the interiors, like wallpaper, vases, etc, but ignored all the very Victorian items, like furniture, which is a major ingredient to a home.
I did enjoy the example of the original unchanged gas light fixtures in operating order - I have never seen this before, and sunroom with tons of awesome plants and flowers. The kitchen was cool too, and they took care to stock the cupboards with reproductions of the actual items found on the family's shopping lists, very charming. Two taxidermy wolves were also reproduced, yeah a little strange but I guess that's what you do when you have money and like hunting? Things were different 100 years ago.
I wish the tour was a little more focused on the house itself and not so much on the residents, which the tour guide did explain was because there were children on the tour who may get bored easily hearing strictly about "wallpaper and carpets", but damn those kids were brats anyway and should have been ejected from the place for the touching they were doing. This is a very nicely restored and maintained house, and not appropriate for kids who can't keep their hands to themselves.
Tour details are available at http://www.toronto.ca/culture/museums/spadina-tours.htm
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