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| Montgomery's Inn | |
|---|---|
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| General information | |
| Type | Living history museum |
| Architectural style | Georgian |
| Address | 4709 Dundas Street West Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Named for | Thomas Montgomery |
| Completed | c. 1832 |
| Owner | City of Toronto |
Montgomery's Inn is a historic building located in the Etobicoke area of Toronto, Ontario. Originally constructed as an inn, it now serves as a living history museum and is owned by the City of Toronto.
Built during the early 1830s as a Georgian-style inn, the building was named for its innkeeper, Thomas Montgomery (1790-1877). He was an Irish immigrant to Upper Canada who amassed 400 acres of land to the northwest of the original city of Toronto, in what is now Etobicoke.
In 1856, shortly after the death of his wife, Montgomery closed the inn but continued to live in the residence. The Montgomery family would go on to rent out the estate as a private farm house until 1946. The building was later owned by a Presbyterian church, a developer, the Etobicoke Historical Society, and the Etobicoke Historical Board, until it was finally transferred to the City of Toronto. [1]
Once in danger of demolition, Montgomery's Inn is now a cherished remnant of colonial times in Upper Canada. Although most of its current artifacts are not original to the building, they are still period pieces, and a few belonged to the Montgomery family and chronicle a chapter in Canadian history.
The building is located at 4709 Dundas Street West, on the southeast corner of Islington Avenue and Dundas Street. Named after Henry Dundas, the British Secretary of State for War in the Pitt Government, Dundas Street was established as a link between the town of York and settlements to the west. It would facilitate the transport of civilian and military supplies, as well as soldiers in case of an American attack. During the 1830s, the Dundas Highway became a stagecoach route, and inns were constructed at various points along the roadway to provide food and lodgings for travelers; one of these was Montgomery's Inn. [2]
A year-round farmers' market is held each Wednesday at the inn. [3]
Yonge Street is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Ontario's first colonial administrator, John Graves Simcoe, named the street for his friend Sir George Yonge, an expert on ancient Roman roads.
The Kingsway is a residential neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is bounded by Bloor Street to the south, Dundas Street to the north, the Mimico Creek to the west and the Humber River to the east. The neighbourhood was officially known as Kingsway Park, which later became replaced by its nickname, The Kingsway. For planning purposes, the neighbourhood is known by the City of Toronto as "Kingsway South" to differentiate it from a more recent extension of The Kingsway north of Dundas Street. "Kingsway South" is not used by residents, due to confusion with the South Kingsway, a street located east of the Humber River and extending south from Bloor Street.
St. Lawrence is a neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The area, a former industrial area, is bounded by Yonge, Front, and Parliament Streets, and the Canadian National railway embankment. The Esplanade off Yonge St., lined with restaurants, cafés and hotels runs through the middle of the area. In previous times, the area was sometimes referred to as 'St. Lawrence Ward' or more often today as 'St. Lawrence Market', synonymous with the large retail vendor market which is the neighbourhood's focal point. The area is the site of a large city-sponsored housing project of the 1970s, which revitalized an old brownfields area. The boundaries of the St Lawrence Neighbourhood Association and the St Lawrence Market BIA are somewhat larger than those noted above. Both groups have boundaries that extend from Yonge to Parliament Streets and Queen Street East to the rail corridor.
Queen Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original east–west avenues of Toronto's and York County's grid pattern of major roads. The western section of Queen is a centre for Canadian broadcasting, music, fashion, performance, and the visual arts. Over the past twenty-five years, Queen West has become an international arts centre and a tourist attraction in Toronto.
York County is a historic county in Upper Canada, Canada West, and the Canadian province of Ontario. It was organized by the Upper Canada administration from the lands of the Toronto Purchase and others.
The Toronto Suburban Railway was a Canadian electric railway operator with local routes in west Toronto, and a radial (interurban) route to Guelph.
The Etobicoke Civic Centre in the Eatonville neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, once housed the municipal government of the former City of Etobicoke.
Eatonville is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located west of the central core, in the former suburb of Etobicoke. Eatonville is bisected by Highway 427, with the community generally located north of Dundas Street West and south of Rathburn Road. Eatonville consists mainly of low density residential homes. The main arterial roads in the community, such as The West Mall, The East Mall and Burnhamthorpe Road, contain a mix of rental and condominium high-rise apartments and townhouses. Cloverdale Mall is in the neighbourhood, and there are community retail areas along Bloor Street West and Dundas Street West.
Downtown Toronto is the main central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the northwest, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don Valley to the east, and Bathurst Street to the west. It is also the home of the municipal government of Toronto and the Government of Ontario.
Islington-City Centre West is a commercial and residential neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. One of four central business districts outside Downtown Toronto, it is bounded by Rathburn Road to the north, Islington Avenue to the east, Bloor Street to the south, Mimico Creek to the west.
Old Mill is a neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the banks of the Humber River. It is located north and west of the intersection of Bloor Street and Jane Street. The area takes its name from the old grist mill ruins on the west bank of the river, now converted into a hotel. The City of Toronto includes this neighbourhood in the official "Lambton Baby Point" neighbourhood which includes the Baby Point enclave and former Lambton village areas to the north.
Victoria Square is an unincorporated community in Markham, Ontario, Canada. The community was formed in the early nineteenth century.
Hotels in Toronto have been some of the most prominent buildings in the city and the hotel industry is one of the city's most important. The Greater Toronto Area has 183 hotels with a total of almost 36,000 rooms. In 2010, there were 8.9 million room nights sold. Toronto is a popular tourist destination, with it having the 6th highest room occupancy rate in North America, but about two thirds of rooms are taken by commercial, government, or convention travellers.
The Ward was a neighbourhood in central Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many new immigrants first settled in the neighbourhood; it was at the time widely considered a slum.
The Village of Lambton Mills was a settlement at the crossing of Dundas Street and the Humber River. The settlement was on both sides of the Humber River, in both the former Etobicoke Township and York Township, within today's City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extended as far west as Royal York Road at Dundas, as far north as the still-existing CPR rail line north of Dundas, as far east as Scarlett Road and as far south as today's Queen Anne Road. The area on the east side of the river is still known as Lambton, although the current neighbourhood encompasses very little of the original Lambton Mills village.
The Middle Road was the name for a historic highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, which served to link the cities of Toronto and Hamilton. The name was used between 1931 and 1939, after which the road became the northern section of the Queen Elizabeth Way. It borrowed the name of Middle Road from a concession road in Toronto Township between 1st Concession South and 2nd Concession South during the early 1800s.
George Street is a north–south street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from south of Front Street, north to Gerrard Street. Its southern blocks are within the grid of the townsite of the original town of York, Upper Canada. George Street was once one of the most exclusive and expensive addresses in the city. Today, the north end of the street, next to Seaton House men's shelter, is an example of urban blight. The City of Toronto government is redeveloping the street with a new Seaton House institution focused more on long-term care. Several abandoned buildings have been bought by the city, and others have been expropriated to facilitate the redevelopment – the George Street Revitalization Project.
Dundas Street is a major historic arterial road in Ontario, Canada. The road connects the city of Toronto with its western suburbs and several cities in southwestern Ontario. Three provincial highways—2, 5, and 99—followed long sections of its course, although these highway segments have since been downloaded to the municipalities they passed through. Originally intended as a military route to connect the shipping port of York to the envisioned future capital of London, Ontario, the street today connects Toronto landmarks such as Yonge–Dundas Square and the city's principal Chinatown to rural villages and the regional centres of Hamilton and London.
