The former studio and home of two of Canada’s best-known sculptors is on the market for a cool $4.8-million. Built in the 1850’s as a schoolhouse for Deer Park United Church, 110 Glenrose Avenue in Moore Park, was home to FRANCES LORING and FLORENCE WYLE, a lesbian couple whose profession was typically closed to women in the 1900’s. They lived here until the late 1960’s.  <INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR PHOTOS – MLS, Royal LePage>

Nicknamed “The Girls”, the two women lived, worked and entertained in the old wooden schoolhouse. The studio building was the site of frequent salons and gatherings for friends, supporters, art students and established artists, including A. Y. Jackson and Arther Lismer – a little ‘Montparnasse’ in mid-town TORONTO.  Their works can be found in the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, Toronto General Hospital, in towns and cities across the country, on Toronto streets and in its parks.  American-born, both died within three weeks of each other.  Loring and Wyle Parkette, established in 1984, is dedicated to the art and memory of these two famous women.  It’s a block north of their studio, at the corner of St. Clair Avenue East and Mount Pleasant Road.

“The Girls” were founding members of the Sculptors’ Society of Canada, 1928.  <PHOTO of Frances Loring (1887-1968) and Florence Wyle (1881-1968), is by Robert Flaherty, 1914>