Built in 1862, Hillary House is a National Historic Site, known as one of Canada’s best remaining examples of Gothic Revival architecture. With its wide verandas, “gingerbread” trim, casement windows and pointed arches, Gothic Revival was a style that influenced many houses in Victorian Canada. It may be seen here in all its original glory.
Hillary House also is important as the former residence and workplace of four Canadian physicians, Dr. Walter Geikie, Dr. Frederick Strange, Dr. Robert William Hillary and Dr. Robert Michael Hillary, whose professional practice spanned a time of immense scientific change.
Visitors today have the opportunity not only to enjoy an architectural masterpiece, but to see original instruments and equipment used in medical practice from the era of leeches and bloodletting to the development of antibiotics. They also will find how doctors and their families lived through rooms furnished by the Hillary family during their long period of ownership of the house from 1876 until 1981.
Hillary House continues to play a role in the cultural life of its community through its unique “ballroom,” part of a wing added around 1870 and now restored to house special events and exhibits. This wing also houses what was probably Aurora’s first indoor bathroom with its original metal tub!
Located amidst spacious grounds, including an original lawn tennis court, flower gardens, tall trees and even a small barn which once housed the doctors’ all-important horses, carriage and sleigh for travelling to visit patients, Hillary House can seem like a world apart, even though it is just a few steps away from busy Yonge Street.
The ongoing restoration and operation of Hillary House by the Aurora Historical Society builds on the legacy of generous donors such as the Hillary family and the late Murray Koffler, founder of Shoppers Drug Marts. In their honour the site is known as Hillary House, The Koffler Museum of Medicine.
