Colborne Lodge

High Park history comes to life at Colborne Lodge.

Colborne Lodge was the 19th-century home of John and Jemima Howard, the couple who founded High Park. John, one of Toronto’s first architects, as well as a City engineer and surveyor, built Colborne Lodge in 1837. This rare regency picturesque cottage is now a museum and contains many of the Howards’ original furnishings as well as John’s watercolours of early Toronto, and two of his maps of High Park.

Colborne Lodge Front09-304-04For Equinox 009

Guided tours through the Lodge are offered year-round.  Hours, times, and admission prices vary seasonally; visit the website for details.  Visitors see three storeys of rooms restored to illustrate the Howards’ lives in the 1870s and learn about their role in the naming, founding, and development of the park, and their lives on their 165 acre High Park property.

Throughout the year, the Lodge hosts numerous annual events, such as seasonal craft workshops for families and adults, High Park Harvest Festival, Haunted High Park, Christmas tours, and March Break, PA Day and Summer Camps.  The Lodge also offers private tours and children’s birthday parties.

The Lodge is at the south end of the park, on Colborne Lodge Drive just north of The Queensway.