“If you look at the carpentry, you look at how big it is the way it is built,” said an awestruck Jason Vistoli, a vendor in farmers’ market hosted at Montgomery’s Inn. “You just don’t find anything built like that.”
Montgomery’s Inn was built in 1830 by Thomas Montgomery, an Irish immigrant in present-day Etobicoke. The inn, which is now operated as a museum by the City of Toronto, hosts a farmers’ market every Wednesday between 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Montgomery’s Inn operated as an inn for 25 years until death of Montgomery’s wife, Margaret Dawson Montgomery. After that, the Inn was rented to tenant farmers until 1946 before it was sold to Presbyterian Church. The inn went through multiple acquisitions and was later purchased by Etobicoke Historical Board, which restored the building and opened it as a community museum in 1975.
City of Toronto has been running a farmers’ market at Montgomery’s Inn for nine years now. For the first five years, the market only operated outdoors during summer months. But for the last four years, the market operates indoors during the winter months as well.
Kate Hill Nicholson, program officer at Montgomery’s Inn, said that the idea of organizing a farmers’ market was inspired by the City of Toronto’s food policy that encourages local eating and food security. “We were trying to comply with that policy and we also thought that a market was a great way to get people to come to the museum not just once, but every week,” said Hill Nicholson. People visiting the market get to tour the establishment for free on that day.
The land of Montgomery’s Inn was a farmland for almost 100 years from 1830s to 1930s, which Hill Nicholson thinks makes this market “unique”. “We are really trying to re-enforce the history of the land,” said Hill Nicholson.
Montgomery’s Inn is a building of Loyalist or late Georgian architectural style located on the corner of Islington Avenue and Dundas Street West. “I think it is a wonderful resource in the community,” said Hill Nicholson. “There used to be five taverns within walking distance of here and all of them except one are now gone. So, it is wonderful that it survived in its original location and people still come and use it really as a community-gathering space.”
Vistoli, a farmer at Nith Valley Organics said he enjoys the fact that he is able to sell vegetables in a place that has so much history. Vistoli also likes meeting people at the farmers’ market every Wednesday. “Farming, you are alone a lot of the time and you don’t have a lot of time to meet with people because you are really busy. So, going to the market is like going to the water cooler if you work in an office,” said Vistoli.
Hansil Mehta 