[Images courtesy Ajax]

Ajax to name old farm as cultural heritage site

The Town of Ajax intends to designate the Nicholas Austin Property at 775 Kingston Road East as a property of cultural heritage value or interest.

Objections, if any, can be filed in writing with the Town Clerk, Legislative and Information Services, Town Hall, 65 Harwood Avenue South, Ajax ON L1S 2H9. Any objections must be received on or before April 30, 2021.

The Nicholas Austin Property is a roughly 100-acre evolved farmstead located at 775 Kingston Road East, near the eastern limits of the Town of Ajax. The property includes a two-storey, Georgian dwelling constructed c. 1850 and several historically-significant outbuildings such as a barn, a combined stable and garage, and an early example of an airplane hangar.

The cultural heritage value of the Nicholas Austin Property resides in its historical associations, its architecture and its contextual relationship with other significant heritage properties in the general area.

The property contains one of the oldest remaining dwellings in the town, a collection of interesting agricultural buildings and a rare example of an early airplane hangar.

The Nicholas Austin Property is historically significant for its associations with early Quaker settlement in Pickering Township and the Red Wing Orchards/Stonehaven Farm property. The house on the property was likely built for Nicholas Austin (1792-1863), who purchased the land from his brother-in-law, Eleazer Brooks Orvis (1797-1879) in 1827. Both men emigrated from Vermont to Pickering in June 1821 to buy farms and build log homes. They returned to Vermont in 1822 to gather their families and in February 1822 made a five-and-a-half day voyage back to Pickering in an ox sleigh covered with tin.

Once permanently settled in Pickering, the Austin family was accepted into The Society of Friends at the Yonge Street meeting. They were present for the “Great Separation” in 1828, in which approximately two-thirds of Quakers separated themselves in a group that came to be called the “Hicksite.” Hicksite Quakers emphasized the role of the “Inward Light” in guiding individual faith and conscience, as opposed to Orthodox Quakers who focused more on a Protestant model of biblical authority.

Nicolas Austin took on the role of Clerk for the Pickering Hicksite Quakers and was also employed by the Township as an “assessor.” Although the construction date of the house on this property has not been confirmed, it is estimated to be c. 1850, as a brick residence is noted in the 1851 census records and the existing dwelling is clearly shown in Tremaine’s 1860 Map of the County of Ontario. The house and farm property remained in the Austin family until 1876.


The property became associated with another prominent family in 1935 when it was purchased and merged with the adjacent Red Wing Orchards property on the north side of Kingston Road. Red Wing Orchards was purchased in 1927 by George McLaughlin, son of carriage-building pioneer Robert McLaughlin whose Oshawa-based McLaughlin Carriage and McLaughlin Motor Car companies were purchased by General Motors in 1918.

George McLaughlin purchased Red Wing Orchards as a country residence for his daughter Ethel Kathleen (1905-1984) and son-in-law George Norman Irwin (1903-1983).

In addition to being an orchard operator, Irwin was also a pilot and the owner of a small commercial airline. He purchased the Nicholas Austin Property to expand his agricultural operations and began modifying the existing buildings for his needs, including renovations to the Nicholas Austin House in 1936 for the habitation of two families and the addition of a galvanized airplane hangar.

During the 1920s and 30s, wealthy members of the Toronto Flying Club would fly to Red Wing Orchards, by then known as Stonehaven, for lavish garden parties. The modifications made to the Nicholas Austin House and surrounding agricultural buildings in the 1930s inextricably link the subject property to the Stonehaven property on the opposite side of Kingston Road.

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