Rosetta McClain Garden and a Secret Getaway

Rosetta Mcclain Garden located in Toronto’s Scarborough is small in area but big in special features. The parks features include pergolas that allow creeping plants to create trellises, a water fountain that draws you in, lots of flower beds, some birds eye views of Lake Ontario, green paths and lawns, a rose garden just to name a few. Rosetta McClain Garden is often visited by bird watchers as many species stop over there to rest on their migrations. The park with its profusion of flowers of and landscaped gardens is a particular magnet for many insect species bees and wasps, but it is also a stopover for the magnificent monarch butterflies on their thousands of miles long migration to breeding grounds in Mexico. But most importantly the park has a hidden secret that very few people know about but more on that later or you can watch the video below now to see it yourself if you are impatient to find out.

There is certainly something refreshing about visiting Rosetta McClain Garden. The flower displays change with the season so it always has a change of color. The resident squirrels and chipmunks are really friendly and don’t be surprised if you are accosted by a few looking for food. Hawks frequent this park too. People hold baby showers and wedding photo sessions here also. But perhaps the most interesting fact is what surrounds the park. If you exit the park facing north you turn left going east there’s a tree lined road that leads down to lake Ontario taking you to some hidden beaches, alcoves and some really cool views of the bluffs with their crumbling cliffs. Very few people actually know about this so it isn’t crowded.

The Story of Rosetta McClain Gardens is one of touching sorrow. Early in the 1900s Rosetta McClain’s father Thomas West purchased the J&J Taylor Ltd. a famous company in its time also known as the Toronto Safe Works that used to make these beautiful safes. Sometimes safes from this company still turn up. His new company prospered and he purchased a farm at Glen Evest and Kingston in 1904. Later the farm was divided amongst his four children amongst whom Rosetta was one. Rosetta married Robert Watson McClain and they later added the share of one of their brothers property to thiers. The McClains had only one child who never married so they had no grandchildren. Together with their brother they created the gardens. Rosetta died on November 1940 at age 70 and their only son also contracted leukemia and passed away in 1955 leaving Robert Watson alone and with out no heirs at age 88. He eventually gifted the gardens to Scarborough and thus Rosetta McClain Gardens was opened to the public.

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