5/5 tycoon kaiser k. 3 years ago on Google • 279 reviews
In
the
19th
century
small
tollkeeper's
cottages
were
built
to
house
tollkeepers
who
collected
tolls
on
the
roads
that
lead
into
the
city
later
known
as
Toronto,
Ontario.
Private
companies
were
licensed
to
maintain
the
province's
roads,
and
they
were
allowed
to
levy
tolls
from
those
traveling
on
the
road
to
pay
for
that
maintenance.
Tollkeepers
were
provided
with
cottages,
so
they
could
work
from
home.
The
first
tollkeeper's
cottage
was
built
in
1820,
at
the
corner
of
Yonge
and
King
streets,
when
that
intersection
was
on
the
outskirts
of
York,
Upper
Canada.
The
tollkeeper
system
was
retired
in
1896.
In
1993
what
had
been
tollhouse
number
3,
one
of
five
tollhouses
on
Davenport
Road
was
rediscovered.
It
had
been
moved,
and
repurposed,
and
was
about
to
be
demolished.
After
a
long
period
of
restoration
it
was
turned
into
a
museum,
and
turned
into
the
centerpiece
of
a
park,
near
its
original
location,
at
the
corner
of
Davenport
Road
and
Bathurst
Street.
John
Allemang,
writing
in
The
Globe
and
Mail,
contrasted
the
poverty
of
working
class
citizens,
as
documented
by
the
cottage,
to
the
luxury
of
the
rich,
as
documented
by
two
nearby
former
mansions,
Casa
Loma
and
Spadina
House,
now
open
to
the
public.
Allemang
wrote:
For
visitors
not
entranced
by
the
history
of
tolls
or
roads,
by
the
lost
stories
of
the
city's
French
roots,
or
the
shameful
betrayals
of
the
Mississauga
Indians
who
once
lived
here,
the
cottage
can
offer
up
a
revealing
picture
of
lower-class
existence
in
19th-century
Toronto.
If
Casa
Loma
and
Spadina
House
on
the
brow
of
the
escarpment
represent
the
aristocratic
Upstairs,
the
tollkeeper's
three-room
house,
with
unheated
bedrooms
where
children
would
sleep
three
to
a
bed,
is
all
too
clearly
Downstairs.
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