Senator O’Connor College School was founded in 1963 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Daughters of Wisdom. Senator O’Connor was the first Catholic Secondary School in Toronto intended for both boys and girls.
The school is named in honour of the late Senator Frank O’Connor who donated the O’Connor family home which still stands in the middle of the campus.
Kearns Mancini was originally retained by the TCDSB to conduct a comprehensive feasibility study that would provide a development strategy for replacing the existing Senator O’Connor High School. After finishing the feasibility study, Kearns Mancini was again retained to design plans for the new school. The resulting project was a multi-year, 23 million dollar complex with phased construction. The facility was designed to be capable of accommodating and adapting to the changing needs of the students, the educators and the local community. The new school was completed in 2005, cost $23.4 Million, and is 150,000 sq. ft.
On the property is also the O'Connor House, and it was retained by the Brothers until 2002 when it was sold to the TCDSB to make way for the building of the new school. The property comprises approximately 10,000 s.f. in three buildings, House, Coach-house and Storehouse. These three buildings are arranged around a landscaped courtyard at the main entrance to the new Senator O’Connor College High School.The Senator O’Connor Estate, known as Maryvale Farm, was constructed in 1933 and is an attractive example of Colonial Revival architecture. There is beauty and balance in both the exterior design and the inner workings of the buildings.
