1882
In 1882, Father Lawrence Brennan, C.S.B., then Parish Priest at St. Basil's Church on St. Joseph Street, purchased 50 acres of land with a frontage of 320 feet on St. Clair Avenue West. At that time, this was farmland well out in the country from Toronto. Father Brennan bought it as a farm for St. Michael's College and subsequently, for the building of a novitiate to train young men who aspired to become priests. He had no idea of the eventual value of such land today.