Instagram Park Cottage

While James Reeves House (see last post) is located on the quieter side of Riverdale, Cox Cottage is located on the busier Riverdale Park East, a perfect spot for that cliché Toronto skyline Instagram photo.

Broadview Ave is slightly uphill, so I come usually after rough mornings when colleagues and customers have done swearing at me, turning that toxic vibe into 2^nd gear bursts.

Biking pass local gems like the majestic Broadview Hotel, cute St John’s Bakery and Rooster Coffee, and finally admiring the view at Riverdale East, always makes my day. Not only does it offer Toronto in a “tree” frame, but a hidden bonus, true relic of an old house.

Across from the park, on a small city lot, sits a humble three bay Regency cottage, tiny compared to its neighbors. The overgrown hedge in front makes the house even more incognito.

Having visited here on different times and weather, I notice the house always looks tilted on my photos.

Further research also confirms unlike all the houses that are angled 90” facing Broadview Ave., this house is angled with the original door facing South towards Lake Ontario, predating the street grid of Toronto.

Allegedly, in the 1995, an electrician working on the house discovered by chance the inner walls were not made from bricks but solid logs.

Records suggest this house once belonged to ex-loyalist / solder, John Cox, which was granted the 270 acres of land (Lot 14 in the township of York) back in 1797.

Every time I go pass this house, I still can’t get over the underlying charm / contrast of this house, something so inconspicuous and unassuming can be so significant.

While many old houses exist in Toronto, very few remain as a day-to-day house and in private hands.

Quite possibly, this is the oldest house in Toronto still in use as a family home, as the garbage bins and broom suggest in the photo.

In 1797, sitting on the hill of old East York, this house would have had an unobstructed panoramic view of both the Don Valley and Lake Ontario, making it the perfect Instagram cottage.

469 Broadview Avenue, Toronto

See below YouTube Video on the Cox Cottage (fast forward to 1:20, Source Old Toronto Series)