Rolled through the streets on rollers to save it from demolition

Campbell House Museum

The oldest surviving building from the original Town of York was about to be demolished in the 1970s — until a group of lawyers physically moved it, on rollers, to a new corner downtown.

Campbell House, the 1822 home of Chief Justice William Campbell — Campbell House, Toronto — Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons licensed

Campbell House was built in 1822 for Sir William Campbell, the sixth Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and his wife Hannah. It originally stood on what is now Adelaide Street East, near Frederick Street, in the original Town of York — and is considered the oldest surviving building from the original town.

A house on the move

By the mid-20th century the building was threatened with demolition. The Advocates' Society, an organization of Ontario lawyers, saved the house and had it physically moved — on rollers, through downtown streets — to its present site at the corner of Queen Street West and University Avenue in 1972. It was restored with Georgian-period furnishings and opened to the public as a museum in 1974.

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