Colborne Lodge and High Park

Today, May 7th, turns out to be John and Jemima Howard's anniversary. They got married in 1827. We didn't plan on coming today, but it turned out to be a good day to visit. 

It took him and his wife 11 weeks to come to Canada from England by ship. He thought there would be a lot of work because it was a growing city. They called it "Muddy York".

John Howard built Colbourne Lodge in 1837. He was the first professional architect in Toronto, an engineer and a City Surveyor. He also taught at Upper Canada College. 

They were buried in High Park.

John Howard built his own water filter in the 1860s with sand and charcoal. They grew their own food and they were healthier than the people living in the city. He lived until he was 86.

Here is a picture (of a painting) of John Howard. 

John Howard kept journals about his life. They use his journals now to grow the same plants he had in his gardens.

In the winter they collected their own ice from Grenadier pond (which was on his land) and put it in an ice house in the ravine. It would last throughout the year and they had their own icebox in the kitchen. They didn't have to get ice delivery like most people in the city.

Here is a picture that he painted of people collecting the ice.

This was the bed in the master bedroom. You can see the chamber pots for when they needed to use the bathroom in the night.

Here you can see the dumb stove which carries heat up from the basement.

I think it's cool they still have the tooth paste can from back then. At least he didn't have to use charcoal and honey!

Here is a bath and a toilet that were in the lodge. They were added in the 1860s. They had a tank of water that would feed the water to the bath using gravity.

When Mrs. Howard got sick with breast cancer, she spent most of her time in a sick room.

They had 2 kitchens. One for the summer and one for the winter.
In the winter kitchen they had a brick oven. It would take 2 hours for the oven to heat up.

They had this cool thing which would turn chickens so that it would cook evenly by the fire. (I don't remember what it's called.)

Here's a picture of the stove from the summer kitchen. It has a wood burning stove.

After we left Colbourne Lodge, we checked out the Cherry Blossoms outside.

And of course, I went to the playground that Mike Holmes rebuilt after it was set on fire last year.