During runs through Sunnybrook Park, I’ve noticed several old homes that appear to have people living in them. What gives?

Sunnybrook Farm was once the 154-hectare estate of Joseph Kilgour, a local manufacturer of paper products who fancied himself an English country gent. The houses you speak of belonged to Kilgour’s rambling farm and stable complex: one was for the staff of the cattle barn (featuring a handy ensuite abattoir), another housed the facility’s general manager, and a third belonged to the groundskeeper and overseer of the hounds (English-style hunts being de rigueur for ersatz lords of the manor in those days). Today, all of the buildings are leased from the city and occupied by staff of the Sunnybrook Stables, who carry on the site’s equestrian traditions—aside from the gunning down of local woodland creatures, of course.

• Categories: Miscellaneous