Spadina Museum

I may have mentioned it previously, but throughout the month of November, the core Toronto Historic Museums have free admittance.  This includes Fort York and Spadina Museum.  The full list is here.  I had been in the museum at least once before and perhaps twice, but it had been a long time.  My daughter is generally interested in interior decorating and wanted to see it, so we set off right after lunch.

We managed to get inside just a few minutes after 1, and the guided tour hadn't quite left yet, so we joined that.  That was a stroke of luck, since it was 45 minutes until the next tour (you can't see the inside of the house except on a tour).  What's particularly interesting about this house is that four generations of one family lived in it from roughly 1866-1982 and all the furnishings are original (with the flooring, wallpaper and curtains reproduced from original samples).  The house is basically presented as it would have looked in the 1920s, which was a high point for the Austin family.

It was an interesting tour, and I will probably retain more from this visit than my previous ones.

There is only one weekend left to visit the historic museums, not that the full entrance fees are that high (and often the libraries have free passes).  I think next Sunday we will go first to Mackenzie House (which is not that far from the Eaton Centre and opens at noon) and then up to Gibson House in North York (which doesn't open until 1).  Apparently there is a working printing press at Mackenzie House (as Mayor William Lyon Mackenzie was a publisher).  And Gibson House should be decked out in Christmas finery, so that would be nice.  However, I have just looked it up, and there is going to be a subway closure on Line 1 next weekend.  The replacement shuttles were just such a pain that I think I'll have to pass on going up to North York (in particular I don't think my daughter could handle it).  So we might go the following weekend and just pay the entrance fee (and of course I'll try to score the free pass from the library).  I suppose there is a small chance we would try to go out to Etobicoke to see Montgomery's Inn after Mackenzie House, but that is probably just too much travel for one day, and I'll also have to see what the weather is like.