Riverdale Farm

The land now occupied by Riverdale Farm was purchased by the City of Toronto in 1856. Toronto's first zoo took root here almost by accident: in 1888, an alderman donated a small herd of deer and encouraged other prominent citizens to donate animals, and the resulting menagerie grew quickly enough that the Riverdale Zoo formally opened in 1894 — the city's first zoo.

An eclectic Victorian menagerie

Over the next roughly 75 years the zoo expanded into an eclectic collection that at various points included elephants, hippopotamuses, monkeys and sea lions — species and husbandry standards that would be considered wholly inappropriate for an urban city park by today's animal-welfare norms. By the early 1970s, changing attitudes about zoo animal welfare led to the zoo's closure in 1974, when its animals were relocated to the newly built Metro Toronto Zoo in Scarborough.

Reborn as a working farm

Riverdale Farm officially opened on September 9, 1978, reimagined not as a zoo but as a working 19th-century-style demonstration farm, in Cabbagetown on the west bank of the Don River. Today it covers about 3 hectares and continues to keep livestock and run seasonal programming — a deliberate contrast with its predecessor, presenting agricultural life rather than displaying exotic animals for spectacle.

Sources

• City of Toronto — Riverdale Farm
• BlogTO — A Brief History of the Riverdale Zoo