Marshall McLuhan’s House

Located in a historic neighborhood north of downtown Toronto, Wychwood Park was established in 1874 as an experimental space for an artists’ colony. In the 1890s, housing expanded across the neighborhood, designed by the Toronto architect Eden Smith. With strong Commonwealth ties in place between Canada and the United Kingdom at the time, the houses were built to reflect the popular Arts and Crafts movement of the British Isles.

The Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan resided at 3 Wychwood Park beginning in 1968, when he was teaching at the University of Toronto. A leading visionary thinker at the forefront of the Information Age, McLuhan hatched phrases such as “the medium is the message” and “global village” in his academic publications.

The former McLuhan house overlooks Taddle Creek Pond—one of the few places in the city where Taddle Creek, a former ravine that once ran through the heart of the city, can be seen above ground. The bucolic setting and circular shape of the planned community layout make the neighborhood a unique place for a stroll in the middle of a bustling city—seemingly a world away from McLuhan's prescient theories yet the source of many of his famous writings.