Scadding Cabin

The Scadding Cabin, 1794

There are three plaques about this cabin.
All can be seen on this page.

Photos by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted October, 2012

In front of this 219-year-old (as of 2013) house at Exhibition Place can be seen a 2012 Heritage Toronto / York Pioneer and Historical Society plaque. (A sign near the door mentions that the house is open during the CNE from 12 noon to 7 pm daily; other times as announced.) Here's what the plaque says:

Plaque coordinates: 43.630709 -79.423996

This log cabin, Toronto's oldest known surviving house, was constructed for John Scadding in 1794 during the first years of British settlement. Scadding was a government clerk and close friend of Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe. The cabin stood on the west side of the Don River on a 102 ha land grant that stretched north from Lake Ontario to present-day Danforth Avenue. Scadding lived there until he went back to England with the Simcoes in 1796.

When Scadding returned to York in 1818, he sold the cabin and its property to farmer William Smith, who used the cabin as an outbuilding. In 1879, the Smith family offered the cabin to the 10-year-old York Pioneers Association; Scadding's son Henry, a prominent Toronto historian, was a founding member.

In the summer of 1879, in an early act of Toronto heritage preservation, the York Pioneers dismantled the cabin and reassembled it at this location for the inaugural Toronto Industrial Exhibition, now the Canadian National Exhibition.

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted September, 2006

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted April, 2012

At the rear of the house attached to a rock can be found this 1978 Toronto Historical Board plaque. Here's what it tells us:

John Scadding (1754-1824), the manager of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe's Estate in Devonshire, arrived in Canada in 1792, and came to York with Simcoe the following year. He was granted 100 ha east of the Don River where, in 1794, he built a log cabin. He lived in England from 1796 to 1818 but returned to York and sold the cabin and part of his land to William Smith Jr., whose descendants, along with the York Pioneer and Historical Society, moved the cabin here in 1879.

Photos by Alan L Brown - Posted August, 2007

On the south east end of the Queen Street Bridge over the Don River is this 2003 Riverdale Historical Society plaque which has this to say:

Plaque coordinates: 43.657937 -79.353411

Near here, on the east bank of the Don River, John Scadding built a log cabin establishing his claim to lot 15, stretching from Lake Ontario north to present day Danforth Avenue. Scadding was manager of the Simcoe estate in Devonshire, England and Secretary to Governor Simcoe in the first government of Upper Canada, now Ontario. This cabin, moved in 1879 to the Canadian National Exhibition, is Toronto's oldest building.

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Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

Posted November 2, 2012
I'm very interested in AW Dingman and AE Walton connections to Smith family

Posted August 5, 2012
Does anyone know where I would be able to find out information about the Smith family who originally bought the cabin from Mr. Scadding? I believe there is a good possibility that this may be someone in my family and I would like to know where I could find the names of the Smith family who actually lived there before it was eventually donated to the York Pioneers by Mr. William Smith. Is any of this on file anywhere that anyone would be aware of? Thanks for your assistance!

Posted November 15, 2011
I know who AE Walton was, why do you ask? this in fact is a link to a video I made partly about both these men
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWov2hKknTs

Posted April 3, 2011
Helen: would you pls. phone me about the painting? Audrey (416) 656-0812

Posted March 15, 2011
wonderful to see a piece of our history fragmented by time. does anyone remember it where it was, how it was and who they were. does anyone know who AW Dingman or AE Walton were

Posted June 7, 2010
I visited the Archives of Ontario on Saturday, May 28th for Doors Open Toronto. There was a draw for a reproduction of a painting entitled "Scaddings Cabin". I was very fortunate to have my name drawn. I received it in the mail last week. I would love to know the name of the artist.
Thank you. Helen Shareck

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