Bought for Toronto's first mayor by his own political supporters

Mackenzie House

William Lyon Mackenzie led an armed rebellion against Toronto's ruling elite in 1837 and was forced to flee the country. Two decades later, his supporters bought him this house to retire in.

William Lyon Mackenzie (1795–1861) was elected Toronto's first mayor in 1834, the year York was incorporated as the City of Toronto. In 1837 he led the armed Upper Canada Rebellion, rallying rural Reformers against the "Family Compact" oligarchy; the rebellion was crushed at the Battle of Montgomery's Tavern, forcing Mackenzie to flee to the United States. Pardoned in 1849, he returned to Toronto and resumed his political career.

A retirement home from supporters

When Mackenzie retired from politics in 1858, friends and political supporters purchased this three-storey brick rowhouse at 82 Bond Street for him as a home for his final years; he lived there until his death in 1861. The house opened as a historic-site museum in 1950. In 1967 a rear addition was built recreating a 19th-century print shop, reflecting Mackenzie's career as a newspaper publisher — he founded the Colonial Advocate — and displays an 1845 printing press and period print artifacts.

Sources

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