Learn a little of Toronto's history as told through its plaques.

York Cottage

Photos by Alan L Brown - October 2006

This is part of the original stone gate on Yonge Street mentioned on the 1996 Corporation of the City of North York plaque that you'll find at the eastern end of Hounslow Avenue. Here's what the plaque says:

York Cottage was originally constructed circa 1850 as a one-and-a-half storey brick structure in the Ontario Cottage style. It replaced an earlier log cabin on this site. The Johnson family emigrated from Nova Scotia and settled on these lands in 1797. Abraham, son of Lawrence Johnson, married Catherine Hommen Fisher and had seven children, all born in Upper Canada between 1801 and 1814. Their son, Abraham Jr., was born in 1807. Abraham Jr. and his wife Harriet built a brick home on this site and called it "Ash Cottage". Here they raised nine children. In serving the community, Abraham Jr. was Justice of the Peace in 1857 and 1871. He was active in the temperance movement, assisting in the formation of the first Sons of Temperance Society on Yonge Street. Abraham Jr.'s eldest son, Abraham S. was born in 1840. He married Sarah, a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Sheppard, and remained in the family home until it was sold in 1911. In 1855, after the death of Abraham Sr., Abraham Jr. sold the south half of the property to Joshua Lackie. In 1911, the remainder was sold and then subdivided. After the second storey was added in the 1920's, the house served as a rural cottage for the Red Cross and then offices for the Children's Aid Society. York Cottage was demolished in 1993, but the original stone gates that existed on the property at Yonge Street were conserved and re-introduced into this development.

Plaque Location Co-ordinates: 43.775177 -79.415714

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Here are the comments for this page.

Posted June 12, 2010
Here I am yet again, going down memory lane. I just want to thank you for your hard work in maintaining these pages. Toronto (where I grew up) has lots of memories for me.

Posted January 30, 2008
In 1956, my two younger brothers and myself were placed in the care of the staff Mrs Keith head mistress...through the Children's Aid Society. Our parents were unable to care for us at that time. We attended the local public elementary school. There was a theatre across the road on Yonge St that we went to and where I first saw Bert Lancaster and Gina Lollibrigeta in Trapeze. Memories. Alas, I do not have a photo of York Cottage...would you have one? Maybe an old painting. Thank you kindly, Heather Hopkins

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