Notice of Intention to Designate

The Corporation of the City of Richmond Hill

Take notice that the Council of the Corporation of the City of Richmond Hill (“Council”) intends to designate the above noted property as a property of cultural heritage value or interest under part IV and pursuant to section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act, R.S.O. 1990,c.0.18.

And take notice that the Council of the Corporation of the City of Richmond Hill stated their intention to designate said property under the Ontario Heritage Act on September 16^th, 2026.

A statement explaining the cultural heritage value or interest of the property and a description of the heritage attributes of the property is set out below.

Notice of Objection:

Any person who objects to the above noted Council’s intention to designate shall, within 30 days after the publication of this notice, serve on the Clerk of the City of Richmond Hill, a Notice of Objection setting out the reason for the objection and all relevant facts. The last day to submit the Notice of Objection is December 4^th, 2026.

Service may be made digitally by email to clerks@richmondhill.ca or by delivery personally to the City Clerk or by Regular Mail at the following address:

Obtaining Additional Information:

Additional information about heritage planning at the City of Richmond Hill may be obtained by contacting Heritage Planning City staff by e-mail at heritage@richmondhill.ca. Take note that a Notice of Objection may only be served to the Clerk of the City of Richmond Hill as stated above.

Dated this 4^th day of November, 2026

Statement of Cultural Heritage Value or Interest

11339 Yonge Street – L’Arche Daybreak

The Subject Property at 11339 Yonge Street is recommended for designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act as a property of cultural heritage value or interest, as described in the following Statement of Significance. The subject property has been found to meet Ontario Regulation 9/06 criteria 1 and 4.

Description of Property

The L’Arche Daybreak property at 11339 Yonge Street is a large institutional property located at the southeast corner of Yonge Street and Devonsleigh Boulevard in the City of Richmond Hill. The Subject Property measures approximately 4.5 hectares and contains a collection of buildings dating from the 1920s to the early 21^st century. Of these buildings, only the Main Residence (built in 1926) and Barn (built in 1937) possess significant cultural heritage value and heritage attributes.

Design and Physical Value

Completed in 1926, the Main Residence at 11339 Yonge Street has design and physical value as a representative example of the Edwardian architectural style applied to an institutional residential building typology. Architectural features of the building contributing to this architectural style and typology include (but are not limited to): the Main Residence’s rectangular plan and 2 ½-storey massing, hipped roof with hip-roofed dormers, smooth dark-red brick cladding, select areas of shingle cladding, the generally balanced south façade, flat-headed window and door openings with brick and stone sills and brick lintels, the large front (south) verandah supported by simple Tuscan columns, and the pedimented portico entrance on the north elevation.

The Barn, constructed in 1937, is also a rare surviving representative example of the ‘bank barn’ building typology in Richmond Hill. Features that reflect this typology include (but are not limited to): the Barn’s rectangular plan and massing, large scale, gambrel roof, the exterior material palette including concrete block, vertical wooden boards, and corrugated steel roofing, the three symmetrically-placed window openings in the east and west gable ends, the ramps granting access to large second floor openings on the north elevation, and the attached cylindrical concrete-block silo with octagonal steel roof and single dormered opening.

Therefore, the subject property meets O. Reg. 9/06 Criterion 1: The property has design value or physical value because it is a rare, unique, representative, or early example of a style, type, expression, material, or construction method.

Historical and Associative Value

The Main Residence and Barn at 11339 Yonge Street have historical and associative value for their direct associations with a succession of significant Roman Catholic-affiliated organizations that have occupied the subject property from the early 20^th century to the present day, including the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Basilian Fathers and L’Arche. The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph was founded in France in 1650, with the mission of performing works of charity, such as teaching, nursing, and assisting disadvantaged members of society. After arriving in Canada in 1851, the Sisters quickly established themselves as an influential community providing essential services to society’s less fortunate, opening a ‘House of Providence’, orphanages, schools, and health care institutions in Toronto and Canada more broadly throughout the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The Sisters of St. Joseph bought the subject property in 1913 as part of a larger working farm to supply food for congregants and the Sisters’ various institutional ministries in and around Toronto. The Sisters also constructed the Main Residence in 1926 as a convalescent home for members of their congregation who had contracted tuberculosis (TB) through their community work. The Sisters owned and used the subject property for agricultural, health care, recreational and spiritual purposes until they sold it to the Basilian Fathers in 1946.

The subject property has further historical and associative value for its direct associations with the Basilian Fathers. The Basilian Fathers, whose roots can be traced to France in the 1790s, are a Roman Catholic order that first came to Canada in the 1850s. After opening St. Michael’s College in Toronto in 1852, the Basilians established schools and seminaries across North America. The Basilian Fathers owned the subject property from 1946 to 1961, during which time they used the land as a working farm and the Main Residence as a “Novitiate” for young men living in community for a year to decide whether they wanted to take further steps towards the priesthood.

The subject property has further historical and associative value for its direct associations with L’Arche, an organization with local, national and global significance to the disability community. L’Arche was established as a pioneering home for adults with intellectual disabilities in Trosly-Breuil, France in 1964. In 1969, L’Arche established its first North-American community on the subject property in Richmond Hill (known as ‘L’Arche Daybreak’), and the organization has occupied the Subject Property ever since. There are now 150 L’Arche communities established in 38 countries across the world, with Richmond Hill’s L’Arche Daybreak being the oldest and largest in North America.

Therefore, the subject property meets O. Reg. 9/06 Criterion 4: The property has historical value or associative value because it has direct associations with a theme, event, belief, person, activity, organization or institution that is significant to a community.

Description of Heritage Attributes

Design and Physical Value

Main Residence Exterior Attributes

Heritage attributes contributing to the value of the Main Residence as a representative example of the Edwardian architectural style applied to an institutional residential building typology are:

• The scale, form and massing of the 2 ½-storey building with a rectangular plan;
• The shallow-pitched hipped roof with hip-roofed dormers on the north, south, and west slopes;
• The concrete block foundation on the north and west elevations;
• The dark red brick cladding laid in running bond, and brick and stone detailing, including:
• Brick windowsills and lintels on the north, south and east elevations, and lintels only on the west elevation;
• Stone windowsills on the west elevation;
• Soldier-course brick banding around the western pair of entry doorways on the north elevation;
• Select areas of wood shingle cladding, including between the first and second storeys of the canted bay window on the west elevation, and the sides of dormer windows (note that the wood shingle cladding below four converted second storey windows on the south elevation is not original, and not considered a heritage attribute);
• Flat-headed window and door openings on all elevations;
• The generally balanced organization of window and door openings on the south elevation;
• The verandah supported by simple Tuscan columns on the south elevation;
• The pedimented portico covering the western pair of entrances on the north elevation (note that the concrete stairs under the portico are not original, and are not considered heritage attributes); and
• The two-storey canted bay window on the west elevation.

Barn Exterior Attributes

Heritage attributes contributing to the value of the Barn as a rare surviving representative example of the ‘bank barn’ building typology in Richmond Hill are:

• The scale, form and massing of the large two-storey building with a rectangular plan;
• The gambrel roof, finished with corrugated steel roofing and topped with three barn vents with pointed caps at the roof peak;
• The pressed concrete block foundation;
• The vertical wooden board cladding;
• Flat headed barn doors, including:
• Two large barn door openings at second-storey level on the north elevation, accessed by ramps;
• The opening at ground-floor level on the east elevation;
• Two large sliding barn doors at the second storey on the south elevation;
• Three symmetrically arranged shuttered window/vent/hayloft door openings in both the east and west gable ends;
• The silo north of the barn, including:
• The shed-roofed extension linking the barn and the silo;
• The cylindrical form;
• The concrete construction; and
• The octagonal metal roof with a single dormer opening on the north side, and topped with a metal vent with pointed cap.

Historical and Associative Value

Heritage attributes contributing to the value of the Main Residence and Barn for their direct associations with the Sisters of St. Joseph are:

• The siting and orientation of the Main Residence and Barn within the Subject Property, on the east side of Yonge Street;
• The Main Residence’s Edwardian architectural style applied to an institutional residential building typology;
• The Barn’s bank barn building typology.

Note that the Main Residence’s later east additions, the Barn’s modern one-storey west addition, and all other buildings on the Subject Property including the Lilacs, the Craft Studio, the New House, the Meeting Hall, and the Dayspring Chapel are not considered to possess heritage attributes.