Windfields Stone House

The house known as the Windfields Stone House is located at 2370 Simcoe Street North. It was built in the 1850s in the Gothic Revival style, by James and Sophia Shand, who first settled in the area in the 1830s. Shand would later purchase 25 acres from his son-in-law, just south of this house, and additional land on Lot 13 in the 7th and 8th Concession. A sketch of the home appeared in the 1877 County of Ontario Atlas. In his unpublished manuscript, Samuel Pedlar wrote the following: “Mr. Shand’s substantial stone residence gives the passer by an impression that the owner is a prosperous resident. In this instance such a conclusion would be a correct one.”

In 1928, ownership was passed to Col. R. S. McLaughlin, although he never lived in the home, instead purchasing it so to move his stables away from his house, Parkwood.

In 1950, McLaughlin sold the property to championship race horse breeder E. P. Taylor, and two years later, Taylor hired architect Earle Morgan who redesigned the house. Morgan transformed the house from Gothic Revival to Colonial Revival. With Morgan’s design, the roofline was changed, dormers were added, there was a new front portico and entranceway door, and he added a transom and sidelights. The land surrounding the house became Windfields Farm, home to Canada’s leading thoroughbred stallions.

In 2014, the City of Oshawa designated the house under the Ontario Heritage Act as a property of cultural heritage value or interest.

With information from:

City of Oshawa Register of Properties of Cultural Heritage Value or Interest, Updated June 2025; accessed via: https://www.oshawa.ca/media/tkcg45tp/heritage-properties_register.pdf

Reka Szekely, “Historic north Oshawa Windfields Farm stone house preserved,” Oshawa This Week, September 12, 2014; accessed via: https://www.durhamregion.com/news/historic-north-oshawa-windfields-farm-stone-house-preserved/article_3c2a3357-6a0a-557a-9e79-7208a153774b.html

By-law 108-2014 of The Corporation of the City of Oshawa, accessed via: https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/oha/details/file?id=7261

Samuel Pedlar, Samuel Pedlar Manuscript (unpublished manuscript, 1904), Frame 249.