Area Description

Lorne Park is a suburban residential neighbourhood located in southwestern Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, that first started as a resort.

Lorne Park Estates is a 31 ha (77 acres) community, south of Lorne Park, located within the City of Mississauga. It is bordered by Lake Ontario on the south, Lakeshore Road on the north, Jack Darling Park on the west and Richard's Memorial Park on the East. Lorne park, is the closest commercial service area for residents of Lorne Park Estates.

LPEA Homeowners are responsible for municipal taxes and upkeep of the LPEA lands, and are also co-operatively responsible for the maintenance, insurance and taxes on their 15 ha (37 acres) reserve; including their roads, forests, walking trails, a cottage, a private park and amenities area (the Commons) and their 0.8 km (0.5 mi) of private beaches with riparian rights.

There are only 2 roads into Lorne Park Estates and they are clearly marked as "private" as they are dually privately maintained and privately owned by the Lorne Park Estates Association. These private roads are for the exclusive use of only the residents within the estates, and their invited guests. These privately maintained roads in the community are narrow, uncurbed and with no sidewalks as this is the common preference of their exclusive community.

Lorne Park Estates was saved from being consumed by the greater general area and overdevelopment through the foresight of Mary Louise Clarke who deliberately preserved the park via her generous community land purchases between WW1 and on through the Great Depression. After her death, her estate passed the deeds for the lands to the homeowners the Lorne Park Estates Association in a transaction that is detailed in the book "A Village Within a City - a Story of Lorne Park Estates" (1980).

The Lorne Park is named after John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, better known by the courtesy title Marquess of Lorne. Historically the community, and the parklands have seen many changes. The land, first occupied by the Mississaugas, was transferred with larger land portion through Treaty No. 13 to Governor John Graves Simcoe in 1805. The land, which housed a significant stand of pines, was slated to be used for its wood as resources for the British Empire. However, this was not required and the land remained intact and became a subject of interest. First by individuals of the British military who wished to settle, and then by sundry businessmen and investors. Its legal ownership started 1832, ultimately resulting in the owners admirably taking charge of their community. Currently, Lorne Park Estate owners have Canada Postal Service, garbage and water service alliance with the City of Mississauga, homes were electrically heated still into the 1980s, when a gas line deal was brokered with Union Gas. Roads, parks and sewage are handled by the Lorne Park Estates Association and the individual homeowners within the estates.

In a survey of 1888 the Toronto and Lorne Park Summer Resort Company assumed cottage lots, a hotel, wharf, walking trails and common grounds from the formerly named Toronto Park Association. The hotel in the amusement park at that time was called the Lorne Park Hotel. The newly revamped community was designed by Edmund Burke of Langley and Burke architects, including many of the original cottages and a Burke designed renovation to the existing Hotel and it was renamed the Hotel Louise as a clever marketing twist (for the wife of the Duke of Argyll - the Marquis of Lorne, the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria). The park was officially re-opened in May 1889 with the Duke and Marquis in attendance. Trains, carriage and steamers left Toronto on a regular basis to ferry visitors to the wharf, picnic areas, dining pavilion and eating establishment. Most of the names of the original investors are reflected in the street names Roper, Stockwell, and Henderson, however, the streets proposed at that time did not all survive as entertained, the Toronto and Lorne Park summer Resort Company did not thrive past 1903, when the wharf collapsed and 300 people were tossed into Lake Ontario. Without a wharf for steamers to ferry people to Lorne Park, the enterprise floundered, and it became an exclusively owned private summer retreat for the wealthy temperate Toronto elite who owned it. The hotel and common lands were purchased by investors keen to re-invent the park as a motor club: and the hotel was renamed the Lakeshore Country club, which failed, because an attempt to procure a liquor license was thwarted by the resident homeowner shareholders within the park, and the LCC was foreclosed upon by the Farmers Bank in 1911. In 1914 Toronto investor developer Sydney Small purchased the common lands and hotel for the amount of $46,000 with plans to develop the forest into a subdivision. Development was thwarted by the residents with a Supreme Court of Canada ruling. This coincided with the WW1 real estate market downturn and actually was a fortuitous turn of events for Mr Small who was saved further losses by his non-development as houses did not start selling again until after WW2. In 1919, prominent resident Mary Louise Boustead Clarke charitably purchased the lands and Hotel for $20,000 to prevent further outsiders from developing the parklands and ultimately her estate bequeathed the lands to the Lorne Park Estates Association in 1948. The hotel was irreparably damaged by fire in 1920.

Another survey of 1922, shows slight changes to the lot configuration under the auspices of Lorne Park Estates Limited. Few of the lots were bought with the intention of building small cottages. According to "A Village Within a City - a Story of Lorne Park Estates" (1980), some people were purchasing two to four lots in order to create larger properties of up to 0.4 ha (0.99 acre). However, the forests, walking paths, Commons area and beach area continued to be collectively owned and managed. Orient Avenue and North Crescent became Orient Marsh. Lugsdin Avenue became Lugsdin Creek. Campbell, McIntyre, Neville, Venn, Hill Dale and Moore avenues never became developed but most notably Boustead Terrace, the grand lakefront promenade feature of the park disappeared through the errosive effects of the lake and also for the need to grow a protective erosion barrier to preserve the parklands and cottages. Sections of Boustead Terrace still remain today.

Of the summer homes that were initially built, a number were designed by Edmund Burke in the English Arts and Crafts style as two-stories with deep verandas and sleeping balconies to catch the breeze of Lake Ontario.