Scarborough Museum

 Hi, this is Akiko. Today, I talk about the historical museum in Scarborough where you can learn about how European settlers lived in Scarborough from the 19th Century to the early 20th century for free, Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 4pm.

This is the Scarborough Museum, located in the Thomson Memorial Park. (1005 Brimley Rd, SCARBOROUGH). This is one of the 10 historical museums that are maintained by the city of Toronto.

There are 2 Houses of European Immigration and 1 Carriage shop that was run in the late 19th century, which all buildings were moved from the original location to here for the preservation and education purposes. 

Once you step into this museum, You will be welcomed by the kind staffs. One of the staff members will offer you a tour of this museum if you would like!

【McCowan log House】

This house was constructed in the 1830s and owned by a Scottish immigrant family.

This portrays the life of local settlers in the 1850s.  

Inside, there are open-hearth cooking place and bedrooms. They make scones and lemonade using the equipment and the stove at the time. You can actually enjoy the food and drinks they made!!

You will be surprised how arduous it was to cook in this open stove and how close it was between this stove to other bedrooms.

【Cornell House】

The picture of the white house on the top of this page is Cornell House. This was originally constructed in 1858 for the immigrants coming from New England region of the United States. However, this house now demonstrates the rural village life around 1914.

This house represents the middle-class lifestyle, which includes that the kitchen, dining room, living room and storage as well as the kids' room and parents' bedroom.

Unlike the McCowan log house, this house indicates that middle-class people at the time were able to afford their money to the more elaborate kitchen and dining culture that reflects the British tea party culture. The porcelain tea pots mirrors the British trade history with China.

As a exchange student who have studied food culture and history here in Toronto, it was such an amazing experience to visit these historical sites, recalling what I have learnt in the courses for the past 8 months.

Even though you are not studying the history and culture of Canada, I strongly recommend you to visit these historical museum as a person who currently live in Canada to profoundly understand what had happened in the past.

 If you are coming from the Downtown area, you can take bus 21 from Kennedy Subway Station. The bus stops near the park entrance so that you can get to this museum by only walking 5 minutes from the bus stop.