Ernest Rowe was a member of the rising Canadian establishment in the late 1920s, when he chose to build a new family homestead far outside of the city.

The stone residence was one of the first buildings in the area that is now suburban North York, just north of Highway 401.

The old City of North York's heritage-property evaluation points out that Mr. Rowe – who was born in Paris, Ont., in 1869 – was a pioneer in the drilling of oil wells in Southwestern Ontario.

The house, on the edge of a ravine, was designed by the prominent architect Hugh Allward in the "period revival" style.

Hugh Allward was a founder of the firm of Allward and Gouinlock, which went on to win many more architectural prizes.

Mr. Allward's stone houses can still be found throughout the old cities of Toronto and North York, with notable buildings in Forest Hill, Rosedale and Wychwood Park.

According to the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada, the firm first drew international press in 1948 for its modernist design of the Mechanical Engineering Building at the University of Toronto.

When the house on Sandringham was completed in 1939, the Rowe family dubbed it "Rosewood" as a play on their name.

The family didn't own Rosewood for long, however. Mr. Rowe ran into financial problems and sold the property after nine years.