Colborne Lodge
N 43° 38.439 W 079° 27.641
17T E 624156 N 4833113
This rare Regency picturesque cottage is a graceful monument to John and Jemima Howard, the couple who founded High Park.
Waymark Code: WMADT
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 04/14/2006
Views: 42
John Howard, one of Toronto’s first architects as well as
a City Engineer and Surveyor, built Colborne Lodge in 1837 which still contains
many original furnishings, artifacts, and some of his own watercolours depicting
images of early Toronto. Colborne Lodge’s extensive ornamental and kitchen
gardens are now being restored. Tour the Lodge or come and enjoy the Harvest
Festival, Christmas celebrations or celebrate Doors Open Toronto with the
museum’s friendly and knowledgeable staff.
Nearby is the John Howard Tomb,
John Howard designed this tomb in High Park for his wife and himself in 1874-75.
(Jemima Howard died in 1877 and John passed away in 1890). Like Colborne Lodge,
this was a romantic structure, but it represented a heavy Victorian romanticism
in contrast to the lighter version articulated in his Regency lodge.
John Howard married Jemima Frances Meikle in 1827. Jemima (1802-77) sometimes
prepared copies of specifications in John's architectural and engineering
practice. She also was an amateur watercolourist, but did not document the
city's life, focusing instead on romantic images. The Howards' relationship
seems to have been incomplete: John engaged in a long-term clandestine
relationship with another woman, Mary Williams, with whom he had three children,
whereas he and Jemima had none. Yet during Jemima's final illness - with cancer
- John did his utmost to find a cure and to care for her, and seems to have
grieved her loss with deep sincerity.