Travel Back in Time at Black Creek Pioneer Village

When visiting Toronto, a fantastic place for the entire family to spend the day is Black Creek Pioneer Village, which features thirty-five restored buildings, plenty of animals, and interpreters dressed in historic costume, carrying out a variety of living history activities that range from blacksmithing to woodworking. More than just a museum, the village offers weekly demonstrations of various types, plus it hosts special events throughout the year.

With green spaces and historic gardens that hearken back to the slower-paced days of the pioneers, the village offers an astonishing look into the lives of average people who lived more than 150 years ago. When you visit, you can simply wander on your own, talking to interpreters along the way, or you can start out with a guided tour.

Highlights of the Black Creek Pioneer Village

Some highlights of the pioneer village include the Black Creek Historic Brewery, which has been recreated to provide visitors with a glimpse at the way handcrafted ales and porters were made in Ontario’s country villages during the mid-1800s, prior to Confederation. There is a guided brewery tour, plus a tasting experience, as well as an on-site pub; you can even take home a 64-ounce growler of beer if you like. Brewers and pub staff, like everyone else who works in the village, are attired in period clothing. The pub is located right next to the restaurant in the centrally located Half Way House Inn.

The How It’s Made Expedition is a tour through the working shops of the village; on this tour, you’ll visit the Rose Blacksmith Shop and Dominion Carriage Works for a look at early transportation and blacksmithing, plus you’ll get to see Roblin’s Mill, where massive wooden gears and authentic millstones transform grain into flour; then, at the Strong’s Second House, you can see that flour being transformed into delectable baked goods, concocted in authentic brick ovens. At the Taylor Cooperage, you can view raw materials being transformed into stout barrels with no glue or nails. Other highlights of the tour include the Harness Shop and Saddlery, see the Tinsmith’s Shop, visit the Weaver’s Shop, and even see a Printing Office, where type is still set by hand in the same way it was back in the middle of the nineteenth century.

History buffs are welcome to sign on for apprenticeships and participate in workshops, and school groups are encouraged to visit with their teachers; with hands-on experiences that highlight the way everyday objects were crafted in the days before mechanization, the village will give you a whole new appreciation for the labour-intensive lives of the people of the past.

These are just a few of the many sights you’ll see when you visit Black Creek Pioneer Village. Spanning more than thirty acres and home to thousands of artifacts housed in a number of museum buildings that showcase them in the same settings in which they were used by early settlers, the village is much more than just another dusty collection of oddities.

The village is located at 1000 Murray Ross Parkway, Toronto, M3J 2P3, near the intersection of Jane Street and Steeles Avenue. Admission is $15 for adults and $11 for kids between the ages of 5 and 15; children 4 and under are free. Tours should be arranged for in advance. For those who live nearby and wish to enjoy special programmes and free admission, annual memberships are available at just over $67 for individuals, and a little more than $107 for an entire family.