| "The simplicity of design in the Weston Library is enriched by Art Nouveau mosaic panels over the windows and main entrance, a unique feature among the Ontario Carnegie libraries," observed the authors of a library history.1 The mosaics at Weston Library were created by the Italian Mosaic and Marble Company, "run by an Italian Canadian from the Friuli region of Italy named Egidio (but known as Gid or Giles) De Spirt (1894-1981)," notes historian Olga Zori Pugliese.2 Additional details about the De Spirt family’s operations in Toronto are provided by John E. Zucchi:
In the late 1890s, a fruilano family originally from Fanna, the De Spirts, moved from New York City to Buffalo where they opened a mosaic, marble, and terrazzo firm. From Buffalo, employees were sent to various worksites in the American west and midwest…In 1912, Albino Pedron was sent to Toronto by the De Spirt family to work at one of its jobsites and to open a branch office from which he could expand into the Canadian market. Pedron seized the opportunity to establish his own business and the De Spirts had to send one of their own sons to complete with their former employee and with some of the older Canadian firms which had been hiring fruilani mosaic, marble, and terrazzo workers, and tile setters. In 1925, Egidio (Gid) De Spirt replaced his brother and came to dominate the trade among the friulani in the city.3
In 1978, Architect Donald J. Rankin praised the mosaics at Weston Library: "From certain angles at night, this mosaic work reflects the street lights with an almost Byzantine effect."4
1 Margaret Beckman, Stephen Langmead and John Black, The Best Gift; a record of the Carnegie libraries in Ontario (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1984): 134.
2 Olga Zori Pugliese, "The Mosaic Ceiling of 1933 at the Royal Ontario Museum and Its Craftsmen: The Untold Story," Decorative Arts, 11 (Spring-Summer 2004): 62.
3 John E. Zucchi, Italians in Toronto; development of a national identity, 1875-1935 (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1988): 84.
4 Donald J. Rankin, "Commentary: Weston Public Library," Unpublished paper, 2 March 1978. Weston Historical Society.
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