Old Toronto Photo Series
As part of my promise to take more photos of my city, I recently visited what is now Riverdale Farms on Winchester St.
- A little more than 100 years ago it was a Toronto Zoo and some of the initial buildings are still erect.
- Apparently they had Lions, Elephants and Bears, a Wolf, Deer, Monkeys and an assortment of other animals.
- Of course the animals were living in terrible conditions and in 1974 the zoo closed and the animals were relocated to improved conditions.
This is a compilation of my favourite area of the current Riverdale Farms. It's located at the lowest part of the farm and features this tranquil pond as well as an old animal cage.
- Across the road from Riverdale is a necropolis and old church.
Old Toronto Zoo (Bet you won't guess what they used to keep in there...
Old Toronto Pond
Old Toronto Necropolis Church
jaybird ~
Without Tranquilizers, I wonder how many men/women died trying to capture and bring back all of those animals into the zoo? The last picture (maybe entrance?), looks awesome! Thanks for sharing!
I have no clue how they were captured. Apparently many of the first animals were donated by "Rich" people lol and then there was funding to accumulate more. The Transit company (which is now TTC) helped ship them in, bc they were invested in the zoo and owned land surrounding it. They also helped to put up some of the first buildings there i believe.
The first picture... not the last lol (it's a cage)
It's amazing to see that the some of the buildings still stands! I guess maybe there were monkeys in the cages before!
Cheers
That particular cage housed a polar bear believe it or not ... Which is pretty screwed up given that Toronto Summers are probably unbearable for that animal.
Oh my god the polar bear! That was a disgusting thing to cage such an animal in such hot temperatures!
Thanks it's no more the case though!
This is very informative. Great post I will go through it in details after my day is done. Thanks for posting.
I follow you.Upvote me !
I lived in Toronto for 2 years, but never noticed any of this!
I had forgotten about Riverdale Farms. Went there as a kid, then randomly re-discovered it when I was wandering cabbage town ;)
That overgrown church is stunning.
Ya mon, I think that was the best picture I capture that day. had lots of practice in Europe capturing churches haha and more in japan snapping temples.
Nice! Those are the kind of trips I wanna make one day.
Hello. Be friends with Doggo!
Bork!
Looks like my village house