165 acres donated to the city that became High Park
Colborne Lodge
Toronto's first professional architect built himself a cottage on a wooded lakeshore lot in 1837 — then gave the entire estate to the city, on the condition he could live in it until he died.
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Colborne Lodge was built in 1837 by John George Howard, city surveyor and civil engineer for the government of Upper Canada and generally credited as Toronto's first professional architect. In 1836, Howard and his wife Jemima purchased a 165-acre wooded lakeshore lot west of the town, which they named "High Park." Howard built Colborne Lodge the following year and named it after Sir John Colborne, then Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.
A gift to the city
The Howards bequeathed the High Park estate to the City of Toronto in 1873, with John Howard retaining life tenancy in the house until his death in 1890. The Women's Canadian Historical Society restored Colborne Lodge and opened it as a museum in 1928, making it one of the city's longest-running house museums — the story of the man who created and gave away one of Toronto's largest parks, told from inside his own home.
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