13,000 years ago the glacier that contained ice age Lake Iroquois melted. A body of water larger than Lake Ontario drained away to expose the land on which Toronto is built beneath an ancient shoreline marked by the Spadina escarpment below St Clair Avenue, and the Scarborough Bluffs.

In 2015 ACO Toronto supported lawyer Michael Vaughan in his opposing construction of Charbonnel Homes (named for the Bishop of Toronto who invited the Christian Brothers to found De La Salle College). Project would obscure views from south and west of a heritage landscape that is the only part of the Lake Iroquois shoreline clearly visible from a major road in Toronto.

In 2017, project approved by City of Toronto, provided ERA Architects’ conservation plan implemented for Stone Gates, and Gatekeeper’s Cottage (Darling & Pearson, Architects, 1908).

2021, construction complete, cottage and gates preserved, views of the escarpment from Avenue Road and Farnham Avenue, completely obscured.