Colborne Lodge is the fourth of the ten City of Toronto Museums I’ve visited this year (after Gibson House, Market Gallery, and Scarborough Museum).
Last year a friend and I had the privilege of a private tour of the interior, due to our being the only walk-ins at the time on the freezingest Sunday in January. So this time I decided to join an after-work guided walk in High Park (preceded by a visit to High Park Zoo), ending at Colborne Lodge, called Ghosts & Grenadiers – Tales of the Howards in High Park.
It was a fabulous evening. Beautiful weather, great stories, charming and talented leaders. Here was the description of the event.
Learn about natural features of the park and how they’ve changed over thousands of years, stop by Grenadier Pond to share theories about the origins of its name, and have an eerie interlude at the Howard Tomb near the south end of the park.
We’ll conclude with some behind-the-scenes ghost stories and a Victorian fruit drink inside Colborne Lodge.
I recall reading that the iron railing surrounding the tomb designed by John Howard (owner of Colborne Lodge) for himself and his wife, Jemima, came from London. It floored me again to hear the story of the origin of the railing.
Much of railing was lost in a shipwreck in the St. Lawrence River, however one section was salvaged and transported to Toronto where it was installed around the tomb in High Park.City of Toronto: Colborne Lodge Architectural Value
The walk was a great excuse to see parts of High Park I’d never visited before, including the Hillside Gardens and Grenadier Pond. It’s thanks to John and Jemima Howard, who gifted the park’s 165 acres to the City of Toronto along with their Colborne Lodge estate, that visitors can enjoy this extensive and beautiful public space.
Colborne Lodge is museum no. 37 in my #100museums challenge (see 100 Museums Challenge).