Halloween at Mackenzie House

On Halloween Mom and I went to Mackenzie House. It turns out that we went there on Halloween last year too! 

We ran into Bruce Beaton, the actor from the Necropolis Tour. He showed us around the house.
I remembered quite a bit about William Lyon Mackenzie's life from what I learnt in the last school year but you learn something new every time you come to a place like Mackenzie House.

Mom took this picture of Mackenzie's bedroom. He died from 'softening of the brain' which might have meant that he had a stroke. He died in this very room. 

We took this picture in the basement. It's very bright compared to most other basements. The Mackenzies would have used the basement as a day room.

This is a picture of Mackenzie. It would have been very expensive to pose for paintings but he was the first Mayor of Toronto.

Mackenzie's family wasn't wealthy but there are records that they rented a piano.

 This is a painting of Todmorden Mills. We plan to visit there soon!

There was a display area where they showed the boxes that the prisoners from the 1837 Rebellion made. Mackenzie was the 'Ringleader' but he escaped arrest by fleeing to America. The prisoners made these boxes for their loved ones. They were afraid that they would be executed. Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews were both hung for their participation.

The box on the bottom right of the second picture is a snuff box from John G. Parker and John Montgomery. Parker was sentenced to transportation to 'Van Dieman's Land' now known as Tasmania. He was freed in 1839. Montgomery's death sentence was commuted to transportation but he escaped to the United States. He was able to come back to Toronto after he was pardoned in 1843.


At the end of the tour I got to go in the historic print shop and I printed this souvenir.

It was my first time at the house while there was a school group. They were from St. Michael's Choir School and they were very well behaved. The children and their teacher were very nice!