Toronto's oldest surviving building, moved twice to keep it standing
Scadding Cabin
Built around 1794 for John Graves Simcoe's estate manager, Scadding Cabin is the oldest surviving structure in Toronto, relocated to the CNE grounds in the 1870s to save it from demolition.
.jpg)
Advertisement
Scadding Cabin was built around 1794 for John Scadding, who served as estate manager for John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, on land near the Don River that Simcoe had granted him. The simple log cabin is generally recognized as the oldest surviving building within the City of Toronto, predating most of the town of York's early formal construction by only a few years.
Saved by relocation
As the city grew and threatened the cabin's original site, the York Pioneer and Historical Society arranged to move the structure to the Exhibition Place grounds in 1879, preserving it as a historical exhibit rather than letting it be demolished for development. It has remained on the CNE grounds ever since, maintained as a small museum piece and one of the few physical links to Toronto's very earliest settlement years still standing in the city today.
Advertisement
Sources
Continue reading
.jpg)
Exhibition Place
Our CNE guide covers the annual fair itself. The 197-acre grounds it happens on host BMO Field, the…
The LCBO
Ontario's government-run liquor retailer was created in 1927 to replace outright prohibition with something…
Toronto's Coffee Culture
Toronto's independent café scene took off precisely when the big chains stumbled — a 2008–09 recession that…
The Railways That Built Toronto
Two rival 19th-century railway companies turned Toronto into central Canada's transport hub — one of them…