Montgomery's Inn - Helen Polishuk Blog

The celebration of the 150th anniversary of the formation of Canada come to the ending and I will calmly tell about some events of the past weekend.
Firstly, I was celebrating understanding, I will not live so much 🙂
Great!!!!!!
Congratulations,Canada!

Celebrate in a big way only newcomers,with noisy companies and fireworks.
The Canadians preferred to escape from Toronto for the weekend, to surrender to the mosquitoes in the campings, or to fly to more hot places or an island near.

Today I will tell you about my favorite place in Etobicoke.
This weekend it was open for visitors.It is Montgomery’s Inn.

This is the smell and style of the 18th century.This is an extraordinary spirit, located in an old house, thanks to the still living there old women from Montgomery’s dynasty.

The house is located near my house and I happily visit it, walking through the park.
Go from the subway,, Islington ,,through the park to the north only 500 m, the second traffic light on the right and you are on the spot.
This year, for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Canada, the Montgomery’s Inn was opened.

Two dozen volunteers helped create the comfort of the 18th century.

On the terrace was a small mini-restaurant where you could have a small lunch.

The building consists of three floors.
The main floor is divided into two parts. One for guests and tourists. The second is a kitchen, a fireplace, a living room and a refectory.

In the kitchen, volunteers in ancient dresses cooked biscuits and prepare it according to old recipes.

Cookies, baked on charcoal, in a large fireplace on a special shovel.
We immediately tested them.

Near the volunteer set up a picnic set of 1867.

She referred to descriptions from the book she presented to us.

In the next room there is a bar and a place where you can have fun, play cards or…..

If you want to take a photo in this cozy bar of the 18th century, ask the volunteers and they will organize it for you.

… I’ll show you this ancient game, I do not know what it’s called, it’s like our “towns,” or bowling
You throw a suspended ball and you need to knock down as many balls as possible. The one who shoots down the most.

From the kitchen through the corridor the staircase raises to the second floor, where the bedrooms and social room.

I drew attention to the unusual ledges above each door on the top floor.
This is the place where the candles were placed.
This place is protected from wind and drafts and illuminated the room.

Here is an example of decorating a room! A great idea that the current architects have forgotten.

It is also reliability and protection from fire. The higher the flame is raised, the safer it is from the fire.

Was it cold to sleep on such beds?

Yes, it was very cold.
Probably that’s why a bed of this size, and three people slept on it.
A small bed was reduced by three people so that they warmed themselves 🙂
There was a fireplace in the room, but there was not enough firewood until morning and in the morning a person quickly dressed and lit a fireplace. As a rule, this was done by a husband or a servant in the lower floors.

The mistress of the house was very affable and caring woman, but she lived 48 years and died.
By our standards, it’s early.
But in those days, it was the average age of a person’s life.
There was no medicine or medical care.
On the windowsill you will see in the photo a set of vials-these are bottles with tinctures. They were primitive medicines that were used at that time.

Next to the decanter and a bowl of pottery.
In the morning they did not leave the room, but washed right there.
And the linen was dried in winter on special wooden hangers, putting them near the fireplace to warm up.
Washing clothes was a problem for Canadians with such severe winters.
It was very hard to wash large bed sheets and duvet covers. It was even more difficult to dry them.

Because this was assigned to the rooms at the bottom of the house and in the warm season was prepared in advance
The bed sheets were kept near the fireplaces in the heat and smelled of burnt wood.

I was intrigued by this photo
What is it?
This is for shoes ,,take off,, 🙂

Shoes did not take off before and carried a whole day, until night.
Because it was cumbersome and that it was easy to remove, become a back to this device and a bottom-up movement, took off boots.
Of course and immediately to sleep, on the bed.(СOLD!!!!)
Because it stood near the bed.
By the way, all things were stored in such small chests near the bed in the legs (see in the photo).

Go further from the hostess’s room to the servant’s room or children room.

The first thing that catches your eye is the pot under the bed.

Yes, in the old days there were no toilets.
Or be patient until the morning or under the bed! 🙂

The room has a lot of beds and one caught my attention.
This is the bed of a newcomer. 🙂
Beside him’s bed lies his trunk. With such trunks or suitcases, people moved from country to country or from city to city.

On this trunk is written # 5.
This means that they, these trunks were many and it goes under number 5.

Emigrants used to move heavily and often did not return back to their country.

Here this wooden suitcase arrived in that year (1837) with his passenger (his name) through New York in the number of luggage and was the fifth in the luggage of his master.

Incredibly! Preserved, preserved!
More years to this chest than Canada itself !!
History!!!!!!History!!!

Next guest room
It is modest and decorated with all necessary.

Next room is social room.

Yes, yes, yes, you were not mistaken.
There were some rooms and they actively discussed all the cases and planned future events
As we are, modern people are behind our ancestors!
Because we are in our small rooms we catch TVs and turn off all social communication.

The room is large, spacious with a fireplace and a table where you can negotiate and sign treaties and agreements.

Again everywhere above the windows a place for candles.
This room was well lit.
It was important.
Next I’ll tell why I paid attention to it.

We go to the floor downstairs in the part of the house where the people who came to spend the night, the guests
There are close and low ceilings and dark.
And under the windows there are no candels space under the windows or doors.
I asked, how do they light these rooms? Me replied that here people just slept( more often drunk) and come held candles in their hands. Since there was not enough room in the room and different people, for safety reasons they did it.

Several rooms are divided into services
There are only two people more expensive, and there are for a few, cheaper. If they paid the rooms they were heated. If they did not pay, they spent the night without heating.

So looked by our standards, the most expensive room for one person with all the services and warm.Sleep here could and two people together.Under the bottom is a place for a child.

Going down to the next floor bump into the inscription on the wall.
This inscription has its own story.

Montgomery’s Inn built in 1830 as a Georgian-style inn and as house was rented to tenant farmers by the Montgomery family until 1946.It was later owned by a Presbyterian church and finally transferred as museum to the City of Toronto.

The history of this sign is such that one of the new owners took all the old clothes out of the house and did not like this sign, “Montgomery”.
He threw it into the garbage along with the things of the owner of the house.
One of the neighbors saw it and took it and keeped it over to the old masters of the house, Montgomery’s .
They gratefully saved it and when the house came to life again, hung this sign on this wall.

Here is such a short story with a short excursion into the 18th century, for which I thank the Montgomery’s Museum.
I promised to tell about you and I did it.

If you?my readers, are interested in this house, then it is located at the address:

4709 Dundas Street West

Toronto

Ontario

Canada

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