Scadding Cabin was built in 1794 and is Toronto’s oldest surviving building. The original location of the cabin was near where Queen St. crosses the Don Valley Parkway. A plaque erected in 2003 by the Riverdale Historical Society marks the original building.

John Scadding (1754-1824), secretary to Governor John Graves Simcoe, came to York (Toronto) in 1793. Simcoe granted him 250 acres on the east bank of Don River, south of Kingston Road. It was on this land that the cabin was constructed, built by the Queen’s Rangers in 1794. It is a two-story, square-timbered construction from hewn logs.

Scadding returned to England in 1796 and upon returning to York in 1818, sold the cabin and part of his land to William Smith Jr. The Smiths used it as an outbuilding for their farm.

In August 1879, owner John Smith donated the building to the York Pioneers. The group dismantled the building, transported it, and rebuilt it on the Industrial Exhibition grounds (now the Canadian National Exhibition). It is not known how the building was transported to its current site, although some suggest it may have been floated down the Don River and along the shoreline of Lake Ontario. On August 22, 1879 the York Pioneers rebuilt the cabin and, according to newspapers, were finished by 5pm. The cabin was opened as a museum and is still open every day during the CNE.

In 1909, the cabin’s interior and exterior were whitewashed, a practice that continued regularly until the 1950s. While the exterior is no longer white, the interior logs remain so. In 1959, a cement sub-floor was created for the cabin to sit upon.

The cabin was designated a heritage building by the City of Toronto in 1989. As the property is over 200 years old, its condition had deteriorated over time. Heather & Little were hired to replace the cedar shingle roofing. The team worked to make the replacement shingles as historically accurate as possible; #1 Blue Label Western Cedar Shingles were used. At the same time, masonry repairs on the chimney were completed by Colonial Building Restoration of Toronto.

The building had often been referred to as ‘Simcoe’s Cabin,’ perhaps because of a misunderstanding of the original occupant. The building’s current name- Scadding Cabin- is in honour of Henry Scadding (John Scadding’s son), who was a founding member and president of the York Pioneer Historical Society. A plaque detailing the history of the cabin was erected in 2012 by Heritage Toronto at the cabin’s current site.