Situated on a 4-acre parcel of land that contains one of the most scenic grounds in the City of Vaughan, the J.E.H. MacDonald House and its surrounding garden have been preserved by the Municipality.

James Edward Hervey MacDonald was an original member of the first distinct nationalistic art movement in Ontario - the Group of Seven painters. Like most of the Group's members, MacDonald was best known for his depiction of the natural and unspoiled Canadian landscape. One of MacDonald's most well known paintings, Tangled Garden (1916), illustrates the grounds at his Thornhill home.

Born in Durham, England in 1873, to a British mother (Margaret Usher) and Canadian father (William Henry), James Edward Hervey MacDonald came to Canada as a young boy of 14 in 1887 and settled with his family in Hamilton, Ontario. Following his arrival, he apprenticed at a lithographing company while attending evening classes at the Hamilton School of Art.

At age 17 (1890), MacDonald moved to Toronto where he worked for the Toronto Lithographing Company before transferring to Grip Limited, a professional firm of designers and engravers. His career in commercial art led to an interest in painting, and at age twenty-five enrolled in Saturday classes at the Central Ontario School of Art and Design (later known as the Ontario College of Art). He later associated himself with Toronto-based art groups such as the Toronto art Students League (1890's) and the Arts and Letters Club (1911), providing him with an opportunity to meet other artists and display his work through group-sponsored exhibitions.

Painting remained a part-time pursuit for MacDonald, as his financial responsibilities increased with his marriage to Harriet Joan Lavis on his twenty-sixth birthday, May 12, 1899. Joan MacDonald (1876-1962) was a primary school teacher and a graduate of McMaster University.The couple's first and only child, Thoreau, was born at Toronto General Hospital in 1901. MacDonald lived in the High Park Area of Toronto until moving to London, England (1903-1907), with his family to work for the Carlton Studio Designers and Illustrators on Fleet Street. Returning from London, MacDonald rejoined his previous place of employment, Grip Limited, as head designer. By 1911, three other members of the original Group of Seven worked for Grip Limited – Tom Thompson, Arther Lismer and Franklin Carmichael.

Tangled Garden

In 1912, MacDonald left Grip Limited to begin painting on a full-time basis. In 1913, deciding to leave Toronto, MacDonald moved his family to Thornhill and a year later purchased the 121 Centre Street property. The property then, as it does now, contained trees of maple, spruce and elm, a running stream and various species of plant life. MacDonald called his new home Four Elms and invited many of his artist friends to Thornhill. Among the artists that lived in Thornhill around this period were Arther Lismer, Fred Varley, Franz Johnston and Franklin Carmichael. In 1916, the grounds at Four Elms became the subject matter for Tangled Garden, described by some as MacDonald's most famous and accomplished work.

MacDonald leased out his Thornhill property in 1917 and moved his family to a small cottage in York Mills. His studio, at this time, was at the Studio Building in Toronto (25 Severn Street, near the intersections of Bloor and Yonge Streets). Developed with he financial support of artist Lawren Harris and art patron Dr. James MacCallum, the Studio Building, which opened in 1914, housed most of the Group of Seven's original members and became known as the home for Canadian art and artists.

The original members of the Group of Seven (Tom Thompson's paintings were presented posthumously due to his death in 1917) held their first exhibition in May 1920 at the Art Gallery of Toronto (later becoming the Art Gallery of Ontario). The eighth and last showing by the artists as the Group of Seven was in 1932. By 1933, a new group calling themselves the Canadian Group of Painters was formed with a membership of over 40 artists. This group succeeded the Group of Seven as an influential movement in Canadian art.

To supplement his income, MacDonald accepted a teaching position at Ontario College of Art in 1921. From 1929, until his death in 1932, he held the position of principal at the College.

MacDonald suffered a stroke in November 1931. On November 22, 1932, MacDonald had a second and fatal stroke, dying several days later at this Toronto home on November 26, 1932.

MacDonald's paintings were influenced by many landscapes: the rural setting of his Thornhill home; the Georgian Bay area; Algoma and northern shores of Lake Superior, and as far away as the Rocky Mountains. His more recognized works include, The Elements, The Solemn Land, Mountain Snowfall, Lake Oesa and Tangled Garden.

Thoreau MacDonald

J.E.H.'s, son, Thoreau MacDonald, succeeded his father as an artist and admirer of the Canadian countryside. Thoreau, a book designer, worked predominately for Ryerson Press in Toronto until his retirement in 1960. His work ranges from oil paintings, watercolours, sculpture, and black and white sketches. Thoreau's black and white drawings of Vaughan's rural landscape and early buildings remain a valuable record of Ontario's country life and architecture.

In 1957, Thoreau was granted the property at 121 Centre Street from his father's estate. He occupied a studio at the Studio Building from 1922 to 1949 for his design work.In 1949, Thoreau moved to Thornhill and made the house and its grounds his permanent studio.

The house on the property at 121 Centre Street is believed to have been built in the later half of the 19^th century. J.E.H. MacDonald purchased the property form William and Jessie Norman on March 20, 1914 for $6,500. Two additions south of the main structure are thought to have been built in the early part of the 20^th century, prior to MacDonald's purchase of the property. The MacDonald family essentially used the house as a summer and holiday retreat until Thoreau MacDonald made the house his home in 1949.

The 1-1\2-storey structure at 121 Centre Street has a clapboard exterior and decorative bargeboard at the center gable of the façade (west elevation). The original portion of the house (northern portion) was built as a 19^th century Ontario House, having Gothic Revival features (center gable on façade) in its design.

In 1974, Thoreau donated the MacDonald house and its grounds to the Municipality. The property was designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1983 and the house was subsequently restored. Thoreau lived in the house until 1980 and died on May 30, 1989 at the age of 88.

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