Mackenzie House

Here, at 82 Bond Street, we see a gas-lit Greek Revival row-house, in which William Lyon Mackenzie, the first Mayor of Toronto, lived from 1858 to his death in 1861. Owned by the City of Toronto, it has been restored to what its appearance would have been when he lived there in the mid nineteenth century. It features period rooms decorated to reflect middle-class city life in Toronto at that time and an exhibit gallery telling the story of political upheaval in 1830s. The house has a fully-functional 19th-century printshop, similar to the one Mackenzie used to publish newspapers. After the death of Mackenzie and his wife, the house changed hands several times. By the 1930s the house was badly deteriorated and slated for demolition; however concerned citizens raised the money to buy it. After many delays it was renovated and opened to the public in 1950.

Mackenzie was an outspoken newspaper editor, thorn in the flesh for the ruling elite and leader of the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion, for which he was deemed a traitor and forced to flee the country. Pardoned in 1849 he returned and was elected to Parliament. While he did not win the rebellion, his Reform allies did in time win responsible government for Canada.