After the 1929 Depression, many wealthy Toronto businessmen were building their large expensive houses overlooking the Don Valley. One of the first was Bay View, the 55-acre east on the east side of Bayview Avenue.
The history of McLean House dates back to 1928 when James Stanley McLean, President and founder of Canada Packers, commissioned architects George Moorhouse and King Associates to design a unique home for his family on 50 acres of rolling land that he had purchased for $92,000.
The result was Bay View, now known as McLean House, one of Ontario's most splendid Georgian-style mansions. The fieldstone manor house was embellished with Palladian windows, classic moldings, a grand staircase, high ceilings, and spacious rooms. The acres of gardens were spectacularly landscaped by Gordon Culham, a landscape architect who worked in the grand English country house tradition.
McLean House remained the home of the McLean family until 1966, when the widow of J.S. McLean moved to a smaller home. In 1967, Edith Flavelle McLean died, leaving Bay View to the Sunnybrook Medical Centre, which used the home and coach house for special events and medical research. The University of Toronto took over the property, and it was converted by Sunnybrook Hospital into a clinical facility.
In 1982 McLean House was renovated and revitalized by the Junior League of Toronto and the Interior Designers of Ontario, who opened it to the public as a Designers’ Showcase home. Following this revitalization, McLean House was opened by Sunnybrook as a venue for social and corporate events, with proceeds going to fund medical research at the hospital.
Finding the Cache
There is no public parking right at McLean House. And the terrace lawn on the hilltop is private property, so avoid walking across it. There is lots of free parking in Sunnybrook Park and additional pay parking on the more distant parts of the hospital campus.
The cache is down in the lower valley, and is available year-round. But some seasons are definitely easier going than others. The direct route from the other nearby caches is a hard approach. Bring boots if you want to try it.
There can be a surprising amount of coordinate bounce here. But your geosenses should tell you that most of the area is unsuitable for hiding a cache. There are only a few oases in this desert.