An Office Location with Significant History

History of The Donald A. Wilson House

The Donald A. Wilson House was built in 1928 and is one of the finest brick houses of the period in Whitby. It was custom-built for a wealthy gentleman who played an important part in the modern history of Whitby, and although it was used years later by commercial development, it has been well preserved and carefully maintained.

The house stands on less than an acre of land in township lot No. 25, Concession 1.Whitby. The 200-acre lot was patented on December 30, 1840 to Sophia Kent, and over the next 149 years it was divided up into many small parcels of land under different ownerships. At one time the land on which the Donald A. Wilson House stands, it was owned by James Holden (1828-1881), who had a large brick house called “The Gable’s”, east of the Wilson House site. James Holden was managing director of the Whitby and Port Perry Railway in 1873, a founder of the Dominion Bank in 1871, and a founder of the Ontario Ladies’ College (now Trafalgar Castle School) in 1874. His widow, Orillia Holden sold the land on which The Wilson House now stands, on April 12, 1894 to Thomas Deverell, a local building contractor.

There were several changes of ownership in the following years until the property was sold on September 8, 1924 to Pearl L. Millner. On March 10, 1928, she sold the land to Donald A. Wilson. 

Donald Alexander Wilson (1891-1987) was one of the most influential people in Whitby in a life that spanned 95 years. Born at Whitby in June 23, 1891, he was the son of David Wilson, a painter and decorator, and Harriett Jane Pringle.

In his youth, Donald was a member of a Junior Hockey team from 1908 to 1910 which won the Ontario championship in 1909. He was first employed as a clerk in Arthur T. Lawler’s grocery store on Brock Street south. From 1910 to 1927 Mr Wilson was in the rubber and logging business in Nicaragua, Central America, rising to the position of general manager of Mahogany Lumber Company. Having made a considerable amount of money in this business, he returned to Whitby in 1927 and became a partner in Whitby Motors Ltd with William Davidson. He retired in 1963 as a Secretary-treasurer of the company, which was located where the Toronto Dominion Bank is currently located by the cenotaph.

Mr Wilson took an active role in community life in Whitby. He was a member of the Whitby Board of Education for more than 25 years, and was chairman of the board from 1940 to 1943. He was the first chairman of the Whitby District High School Board when it was formed in 1949 and served as such until 1950. He was chairman of the building committee of the Whitby District High School which built the present Henry Street High School in 1953-54 and an addition to that building in 1957. He was a long-term member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Ladies’ College (Trafalgar Castle School), serving many years as secretary-treasurer.

Mr Wilson was a charter member of the Whitby Rotary Club when it was formed and served as club president from 1940 to 1941. In 1976 he was named a Paul Harris Fellow, the highest honour in Rotary. He was also a founding member of the Whitby Chamber of Commerce in 1928.

For nearly 40 years, Mr Wilson was a member of the Session and an elder at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, and assisted in laying the corner stone for the new church on Cochrane Street in 1967. He was president of the Whitby Boy Scouts Association and a member of the Scouts’ Provincial Council in the 1950s.

Mr Wilson was one of the prime movers in the construction of the Whitby Community Arena in 1953-54, raising funds and acting as secretary-treasurer of the Whitby Community Arena Board.

He was also director of the Whitby Dunlops Senior A Hockey Club in the 1950s and went to Oslo, Norway to watch the team win the World Hockey Championship in 1958.

For his many services to the Town of Whitby, Mr. Wilson was named as the first recipient of the Peter Perry Award as Whitby’s outstanding citizen—1955. In 1984, he was a recipient of the Ontario Bicentennial Medal.

Donald Wilson was married to Madge Agnes Dorsey on July 16, 1932, at Edmonton, AB. She was president of the Whitby branch of the Victorian Order of Nurses in 1940-42 and was active in other community groups. They had two sons—Donald, an engineer and Neil, a high school vice-principal in Toronto. 

Donald A. Wilson died at Whitby on March 30, 1987, at the age of 95. His wife died two weeks later, on April 14, 1987—at the Oshawa General Hospital.

The residence itself was built at an estimated cost of $10,000 and was considered one of the finest homes in Whitby from an architectural standpoint. The home was an English styling with a long sloping roof facing the street with two gables projecting outward. With two floors beside the basement below, the ground floor consists of a long hall, a large kitchen with pantry, dining room, living room with fireplace and sunroom. The second floor included three large bedrooms and a bath. The finishing throughout consisted of mahogany wood. According to their son Neil Wilson, a sunroom and upstairs bedroom were added to the house before he was born in 1939.