Campbell House Museum

Campbell House Museum at 160 Queen St W, on the corner of Queen Street and University Avenue in Toronto, Ontario, is a Georgian mansion built in 1822 for Sir William Campbell, a Loyalist-era Scottish-born lawyer who served as Chief Justice of Upper Canada. The house was built near Adelaide and Frederick streets, in the town of York, and it is one of the oldest surviving buildings from that period. In 1972, when the original site was redeveloped, the house was moved about 1.6 kilometres on a truck to its present location near the courthouses and Osgoode Hall, which fits the Campbell family's judicial connection. The Advocates' Society, a lawyers' association, helped save and restore it. The interiors are furnished with early nineteenth-century pieces to show the household of a senior judge, with a formal drawing room and dining room, bedrooms, a kitchen in the lower level and the Chief Justice's study area. Architecturally the building is a symmetrical, two-storey brick house with a hipped roof, a central doorway and sash windows in the Georgian manner popular in British North America. Today the house contrasts with the glass and concrete of the nearby hospital and court buildings, a reminder of how little of early York survives. The museum interprets the elite society of colonial Toronto, the legal system of Upper Canada and domestic life, and it takes a thematic approach through guided and self-guided visits. Staff and volunteers care for the building through conservation of the plaster, floors and furniture, and the museum offers seasonal events such as teas and holiday programs in a building that is small by modern standards. Opening days and times change, so visitors should confirm them on the official website, campbellhousemuseum.ca, before going.