BY TIM LAMBRINOSEmery Village developed exclusively as a farming community in the 1800s and the small village quickly established a centre at Finch and Weston Road. Yet by the mid 1920s a parcel of the Griffith farm on the west side of Sheppard and Weston caught the eye of an illustrious Toronto philanthropist, Percy Gardiner and his wife Gertrude. Gardiner initially made his money in the brass manufacturing industry and by the mid 1920s to the mid 1930s was a principal director in significant brokerage firms and The Toronto Stock Exchange. Gardiner was renowned to be a generous man who was acknowledged to anonymously support any charity that asked for his help.
In 1928, Percy and Gertrude purchased 57 acres of land from the Griffith family in order to build an extravagant summer cottage complete with tennis courts and a swimming pool so they could organize lavish summertime parties and charitable benefits for Toronto’s downtown elite. The cottage, known as Rivermede, had a luxurious $75,000 swimming pool surrounded by colourful gardens in the rear of the building on the hill-top. The cottage was colossal but quite a distance from downtown and deep into the country-side, so Gardiner made a map to his cottage which included a hand-drawn diagram of his summer home complete with an illustration of how the main gates actually looked. 
In the early 1940s, Jethro Crang of the Wilson and Jane area purchased the Gardiner cottage at Weston and Sheppard and later quarried a sizable area of gravel that was used to support the building of Hwy 401 in the early 1950s. The quarry later filled with nearby creek water right from an area of todays Florida Crescent and Coral Gables to produce what we presently have - Crang’s Pond.
In 1961, the cottage along with the entire 57 acres was purchased by the Basilian Fathers who quickly built their own Catholic High School right beside St. Basil’s College.
In 1998, the relocation of the high school to the former Southam-Murray Printing Plant site on Starview Lane created an opportunity for our local Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti to negotiate using the original school, to be leased by the city from the Basilian Fathers as a community centre. At that time, a City of Toronto Parks and Recreation report and follow-up City Council approval identified the immediate community to be in need of a full-scale aquatic centre too.
These days, Father Melowani resides at the Gardiner summer cottage along with other Fathers and welcomes all to pray and to attend the religious shrine in the rear of the building which was created by filling in Gardiner’s former swimming pool. The shrine is visited regularly by many catholic religious groups whilst they pray. Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti has recently announced that the City’s Real Estate Division is in final negotiations to start making a modernized building which will include a full aquatic centre on the site of the Carmine Stefano Community Centre.
The building’s name was a dedication to Carmine Stefano, who resided on Jubilee Crescent and was instrumental in assisting recreation for our community’s youth and world championships for boys’ Weston Wolves soccer leagues. The City Councillor aims to officially classify Gardiner’s original cottage to be protected and sanctioned as an official Heritage Building within our community.