When Hugh Graham Gammell and his wife Josephine (Jo) along with their sons, John, age 22, and Robin, age 17, moved into their home at 2103 Primate Road in the early 1950s, they were finally going to have a garden to enjoy.
But little did anyone realize that 17-year old Robin’s interest in theatre was about to bloom into a career that would take him from the stage at the Clarke Hall in Port Credit to stages around the world such as the Stratford Festival, the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Pennsylvania’s Hedgerow Theatre, New York’s Festival Theatre, the Crucible Theatre in the U.K and the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles. Later in his career he would take his skills to television studios and the silver screens of major motion picture studios. Robin Gammell made his mark and continues to do so to this day.
But before Robin went on to an outstanding theatrical career and before John went on to become a Provincial Court Judge, Family Division, living in Applewood was a very exciting era. Just a few years after WW11 Canadians were enjoying this new phenomenon of subdivisions. People were excited about the fact they could purchase a home on larger lots, do landscaping and plantings, fencing and grass seeding or sod laying.
Hugh was a banker, employed by the Bank of Canada. They had lived in Montreal, where their children were born, and later in Ottawa. Hugh had encountered heart problems and was transferred to Toronto, appointed to a posting requiring a little less stress. He was to become the Bank of Canada’s financial representative to Toronto’s ‘Financial Street’. In his position he knew William Pope, a lawyer in Toronto. Mr. Pope had been the Assistant Regional Supervisor for Ontario with the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation before joining G.S. Shipp and Son as General Manager. It was through his association with Mr. Pope, and also a business associate, a Mr. Lilly, who already had moved into Applewood, that Hugh Gammell became aware of this exciting new subdivision located just west of Toronto.
Because of their father’s heart problem, John and Robin spent a great deal of their time landscaping and building around the house. John said that everyone became ‘domesticated in a subdivision sort of way’. Robin recalled fondly constructing the culverts out of stones located in the nearby Applewood Creek.
While the family was settling into a new lifestyle, Josephine continued to participate in an artistic interest she had started years earlier. She was accomplished in the art of puppetry and became a member of the Toronto Guild of Puppetry. Jo has 10 puppets in the collection at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. While they are not always on display, they can be seen on request during a visit. The puppets came into play at Halloween every year as the Gammell residence was always a favourite ‘haunt’ for the neighbourhood children.