A wealthy couple in Toronto is battling the city to remove the heritage designation from their multimillion-dollar home over their claims that the original owner was a racist. They’ve hired a lawyer and threatened to take their case to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal if the city does not give in to their demand, which they will present at a city council meeting at the end of May.
The house in question, a 9,000 square foot Woodlawn Avenue property, was built in 1906. In 2018, the city designated it a heritage site due to the fact it had been designed by Eden Smith, a notable Toronto architect and artist who designed dozens of prominent churches and buildings in the city.
But, for a few short months after its construction, it was owned by Stephen Pitt Caldecott, who was once a Toronto Board of Trade member. The current owners are now claiming Caldecott was a racist, presenting minimal evidence to back up their accusations.
The home was purchased in 2022 by Arnold Mahesan, a fertility doctor, and Roxanne Earle, a former Real Housewives of Toronto actor, who paid $5 million CAD for the property. The couple says they did not know it was a heritage home until recently, when they wanted to make changes to the exterior and had to obtain permission from the city.
After the couple discovered the heritage designation on their home, they approached York University professor and historian Michael Akladios and hired him to dig up dirt on the original owners and write a “report” on the house.
While his report referred to Caldecott as pro-assimilation and having had “restrictive views on immigration,” Akladios told Canadian media that he never referred to Caldecott as racist. He also stated that he tried to persuade the couple to approach the city about the heritage designation on architectural merits, and not with complaints about the original owner’s views.
Speaking at a meeting of the Toronto Preservation Board last month, Mahesan claimed that “Caldecott would’ve been appalled by us living in the house he commissioned.” Speaking to media, the couple has said that they “identify as interracial,” with Mahesan being of Sri Lankan heritage and Earle of Pakistani descent.
The city of Toronto initially responded to the couple by removing Caldecott’s name from city documents. But the couple was not satisfied.
“I’ve done great work in this city and yet still have to be racialized by living in a house that is celebrating something so anti-everything that my husband and I are,” Earle told media.
But while Mahesan and Earle are claiming they want the designation removed for their mental well-being, many suspect the motivation is largely due to the fact that Mahesan and Earle have already expressed they want to renovate the property.
Designated heritage properties give Toronto City Council the legal authority to refuse any application for renovations that would adversely affect the property’s heritage attributes.
These properties are protected by the Ontario Heritage Act, and those who violate the Act by completing work without a permit may be on the hook for a fine up to $1 million or even jail time.
