Building Partners

Over the last few years, Muddy York Walking Tours has built up some great alliances with heritage buildings in Toronto. Below is a listing of buildings that can be incorporated into your Muddy York trip. If you’re interested in visiting one of these sites, please contact Muddy York Walking Tours and we’ll make all the arrangements with the building.

Please note that in some cases, these buildings host their own events. The opportunity to take a tour depends on what other events may be going on in the building on a given date.

CAMPBELL HOUSE MUSEUM

Campbell House Museum is the oldest surviving brick house from the original Town of York. It was home of the Chief Justice of Upper Canada Sir William Campbell and his wife Lady Hannah, and was constructed in 1822. The house is located at the corner of Queen Street and University Avenue. The home was designed for entertaining and comfort, and was constructed at a time when the Campbells were socially and economically established and their children had grown to adulthood. The house is one of the few remaining examples of Georgian architecture left in Toronto and is constructed in a style in vogue during the late Georgian era known as Palladian architecture.

Campbell House offers guided tours of the house with costumed tour guides every day. Our programmes for adults and school groups include historic baking, dancing, and historic toys, and a re-enactment of the Types Trial - in which William Lyon Mackenzie sought damages for the destruction of his printing press and type by young members of the upper class of the Town of York. Bread-baking in the historic bake-oven year-round, and a period herb garden during the summer months are also featured.

Link : http://www.campbellhousemuseum.ca

THE ELGIN AND WINTER GARDEN THEATRE CENTRE

Visit the last operating double-decker theatre in the world and a National Historic Site. Originally built in 1913, the complex houses the ornate Elgin Theatre, with its rich damask wall coverings, gilded plaster details and domed ceiling. Seven stories above it, sits the magical Winter Garden (which had been closed for more than 60 years!), with its hand-painted water colour walls, a painted sky and a canopy ceiling of real beech leaves and twinkling lanterns.

Patrons will have the opportunity to see samples from the world’s largest collection or original vaudeville scenery as well as visiting backstage areas that house the Winter Garden’s original Simplex silent film projector, lighting board and a dressing room from the 1913-14 time period.

Link : http://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/userfiles/HTML/nts_1_2374_1.html

THE MARKET GALLERY

The Market Gallery offers changing exhibitions dedicated to Toronto's history, art and culture as well as educational programmes for school groups and adults. Located inside the South St. Lawrence Market, in Toronto's oldest neighbourhood, the main gallery occupies the nineteenth century city council chamber which is all that remains from the City Hall that stood on this site from 1845 to 1899.

Toronto’s original City Hall (1845 – 1899) and since 1803 the site of a Saturday Farmers’ Market, has undergone many modifications over the past two centuries. Today, the market is an animated centre that wonderfully combines the traditions of the past with the tastes and flavours of contemporary, multicultural Toronto.

The Market Gallery offers education programmes linked to the Ontario Curriculum for Grades Three, Five, Seven & Eight. Programmes are between 90 minutes and three hours in length. The cost is $3 per students, supervisors are free. We also offer a program for adult ESL students. Programmes can be modified to meet your curriculum.

Link : http://www.toronto.ca/culture/market_edu.htm

TORONTO’S FIRST POST OFFICE

Toronto’s First Post Office is a small private museum administered by The Town of York Historical Society, situated on its original site and within its original walls. Dating back to British colonial times, this building is one of few left standing from the old town of York. Seating yourself by the fireplace in its cozy reading room you can write a letter with a quill pen, seal it with wax and, yes, even mail it from the same post office that served the denizens of the city from 1833 to 1839. A scale model of Toronto in 1837 makes this an ideal starting point for any exploration of the area.