John Buchan House

The John Buchan House is noted for its distinctive Italianate and Romanesque style architectural features, notably the twin turrets which frame its facade, the prominent centre gable and the stone lions guarding the front entrance. The building's distinctive architectural characteristics, which are indicative of the values and lifestyle of the late-19th century upper middle class, emphasize the contrast of a residential building situated on a busy commercial and institutional avenue.

The building's connection to prominent London figures and institutions in the 19th and 20th centuries adds to its importance. Located on land that was granted to the Crown by Reverend Benjamin Cronyn in 1845, it was later purchased by Thomas Aspden, who constructed a single family home in 1872; this structure now forms the rear of the present building. In 1887, Thomas Baker Escott, a local merchant who operated one of the most important wholesale grocery businesses in the southwestern Ontario, remodeled the structure by adding the turreted front section and naming it "Oakhurst."

Subsequent owner Albert Daniel Jordan established the London Institute of Musical Art there. Still later the building served multiple uses, including the "Oakhurst School for Girls", the Western Ontario Conservatory for Music and, in 1944, housing people of Japanese descent from British Columbia. In 1945, the Tweedsmuir Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion purchased the building and formed the Buchan House Limited Company to administer the house.