Heaps Estrin's Blog

Storied Homes | The Bain House 

A historic residential landmark in our city that speaks to a quiet reverence for Toronto’s past.

Words by Alex Corey,  Heaps Estrin Real Estate Agent and Architectural Historian

Riverdale, perched above the Don River, has been a bustling residential neighbourhood almost since its annexation in 1889. One of Toronto’s early streetcar suburbs, its streets are now lined by brick bay-and-gables and single-family houses, leaving few traces of its earlier rural past, thus making the home at 14 Dingwall Ave. a truly special property.

Dubbed the Bain House, it is a rare remaining example of a Georgian Revival farmhouse, constructed around 1860 for Robert Sargant, a dry goods merchant. The house was sold in 1869 to Neil Bain, a feed and flour merchant who immigrated from Dingwall, Scotland, and whose name and hometown are commemorated in surrounding streets. The impressive abode remained in the Bain family until 1966, during which time the surrounding 200-acre farm fields, worked by Neil and his sons, were gradually (and then rapidly) transformed, cut through by roads that followed the rises and falls of the landscape, and populated by families attracted to the growing Riverdale community.

When 14 Dingwall was sold by the Bain family, it was in much the same condition as it had been a century earlier: no electricity, heated by fires in the deep-set hearths and illuminated by dappled sun through original six-over-six windows. The house briefly served as the Withrow Park Day Nursery, providing child care for impoverished and immigrant mothers, before becoming a rooming house. In 1997, the nine-bedroom property was purchased by the late designer and jewelry maker Holly Dyment, who undertook a multi-year labour of love restoration.

The house is a fantastic example of the Georgian Revival style, popular throughout southern Ontario and along the shores of the St. Lawrence River during the first half of the 19th century. The style has strong ties to Britain, although following the Revolutionary War, Americans adapted it with more delicate features and renamed it “Federal.” 

The Bain House showcases many hallmarks of the Georgian Revival: a symmetrical five-bay façade, a side-gable roof punctuated by tall brick chimneys, a central entrance with sidelights set within a pedimented portico, and six-over-six hung windows. Most impressive is the raised first floor, featuring dramatic stairs up to the entrance, a design element that would have provided sweeping views of the surrounding fields and hills from the primary entertaining rooms when the house was built, as well as cool and well-ventilated service, storage and sleeping quarters on the lower level.

The remarkable preservation of an original farmhouse in the city is a testament to the Bain family’s care for nearly a century and the vision of owners like Holly Dyment, who saw the potential and intrinsic beauty in old architecture. Added to the Toronto Heritage Register in 1988, the property speaks to both the rural origins of Riverdale and the nature of change in our city’s neighbourhoods. It’s a quiet reminder that even as a city grows, its storied past can still be found amid the treasures that line its streets.