The house was the home of Dr. Malcolm W. Sparrow and of British Home Child, Stanley Herbert Maxted.  It was designed by prominent Canadian-American architect James Hartley Galloway (1881-1961) in 1905.  It served as a residence and dental practice for the Sparrow family from 1905 to 1948.  After Mrs. Sparrow died, the house was bought by Dr. Mark Stein and the property became Sunnyside Private Hospital until 1983.  It remains one of the most prominent examples of Edwardian Classical residential (house form) architecture on Queen Street West, Toronto.

One of Canada's earliest radio show hosts on CBC Radio, tenor, Stanley Herbert Maxted, lived with the Sparrows after emigrating from England. He was an 11-year old British Home Child who went on to be a top scholar at Parkdale Collegiate Institute, a First World War veteran (Eaton Motor Machine Gun Battery/C.F.A.),  soldier and Canada’s best-loved voices on Canadian Pacific Railway tours.   On the battle fields of Europe, he served as an on-loan war correspondent to the BBC during the Second World War. Later, Maxted became an actor in several war films. The Sparrow family took him in like their own son. 
 
Dr Sparrow was a great contributor to the church, dental and music communities of his day, and he frequently wrote letters to the editor and poetry published in the Globe and Mail. He and his wife Bessie raised two sons, one of whom is the father of the Honorable Barbara Sparrow.
 
We officially object the demolition of such a historic house with significant and deep ties to Toronto's and Canada’s past. We need physical reminders in our everyday spaces that these lives were lived and their stories told, stories which shaped our nation as they unfolded.

Sign this petition to express your desire to object to the demolition of 1437 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON.  City counsellors need to hear from citizens who care about history and sharing it with the community at large in order to know and learn about the people who helped build Toronto and Canada.  With modern buildings replacing century-plus-old ones at break-neck speed, so little architectural history and culture is retained in order for us to know anything of the past.  If walls could speak...SIGN AND SHARE