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The Plank Road Building has sat vacant and boarded up since at least 2000. In the intervening years, city councillor Frances Nunziata and the Weston Historical Society have made several unsuccessful attempts to acquire the building from the plaza owners and restore it as an educational centre. The building has been designated under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act since 1983.
The Plank Road Building is the oldest known building in the former village of Weston. It was built in 1841 by the Plank Road Company. At the time, its owners had constructed and maintained a plank road along the stretch of present-day Weston Road between Albion Road and Dundas Street.
2371 Weston Road is one of only a few dozen surviving examples of Georgian architecture in the Greater Toronto Area. Although George IV died in 1830, building designers in Upper Canada and Canada West continued to embrace restained Georgian aesthetics for a further few decades as a sign of fealty to Britain in contrast with the newly republican United States.
In 2022, this 181-year-old structure is enclosed by a neighbouring plaza and the narrow St. Phillips Road intersection. City councillor Frances Nunziata and the Weston Historical Society have made several unsuccessful attempts over the past decade to acquire the building from the plaza owners and restore it as an educational centre.
York City Council designated the building under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act in 1983. It survived a moderate fire in 2019.
(Research and text by Alessandro Tersigni.)
