Fort York, Toronto, ON

Gord and I walked to Fort York this afternoon.  It was a fun time!

Canada's largest collection of original War of 1812 buildings and 1813 battle site. Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, Fort York is open year-round and offers tours, exhibits, period settings and seasonal demonstrations. During the summer months, the site comes alive with the colour and pageantry of the Fort York Guard. Fort York also provides a wide variety of education programmes for groups of all ages.

To get there, we walked through the Military Burial Ground, between Strachan Avenue and the Fort, which dates back to 1863.

The Fort was celebrating Simcoe Day.

Fort York comes to life in honour of the first Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Upper Canada (1793-96) and founder of Fort York and the Town of York - John Graves Simcoe. Walk the historic grounds and thrill to musketry, artillery and music demonstrations presented by the Fort York Guard and Guards from Fort George National Historic Park from Niagara-On-The-Lake and Old Fort Erie. Visit the working kitchen in the 1815 Officers' Brick Barracks, take tours of the fort's buildings and grounds and discover the dynamic lives of the fort's men, women and children. Admission is FREE.

There is a new visitor's centre.  From their roof there is a great view of Fort York with Toronto in the background.

We entered the Fort.

There was lots to see and explore!

We checked out the building that houses the 1826 officers' mess kitchen.

In the kitchen, they were actually making things.

The cake was yummy!

Kids were invited to help make cookies (after they washed their hands!)

We went downstairs to the 1815 officers' mess kitchen (I'd never been down there before).

One of two vaults ... it was really dark in there!

There was a dancing demonstration in the Officers' Blue Barracks by the York Regency Dancers.  They were good.

They gave a lesson afterwards

There was a musketry, artillery and music demonstration presented by the Fort York Guard and Guards from Fort George National Historic Park from Niagara-On-The-Lake and Old Fort Erie.  That was fun to watch!

Nikki Clarke of the Ontario Black History Society said a few words (there is an interesting display about slavery in the Officers' Blue Barracks.

The man we were celebrating today, John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Upper Canada (1793-96) and founder of Fort York and the Town of York, arrived with William Jarvis.  The band played God Save our King and Simcoe gave a short speech.

Simcoe then inspected the soldiers

The soldiers did some drills and then loaded and fired their guns (it was loud), and then marched off.