View of the Riverdale Zoo in 1925, ( Courtesy of the Toronto Archives )

Riverdale Zoo

The Riverdale Zoo was a typical zoo of The Victorian period, with animals displayed as curiosities and specimens in cramped cages with no natural habitat and pens that were no more than iron bars affixed to concrete slabs. Exotic animals were donated by the rich and businesses of Toronto to the zoo as a way of showmanship, a hippopotamus, lions, a Siberian bear lions and some ocelots. Six pens of various  monkeys and an elephant were all included in the collection over time.

The pressure to close or move the zoo was began as early as 1949, as it sat on only a small 5 acres of land and there was no space in the surrounding area to expand, not much could be done within the existing space in the way of a modern zoo.  Various committees and studies were undertaken but nothing ever came of them until 1966 when land was chosen and purchased in the Rouge Valley.

In June 1974 the Zoo closed and the animals moved to the new much larger Metro Zoo built in Scarborough. Many of the Riverdale Zoo buildings and cages were torn down as the site sat derelict from between 1974 and 1978. The zoo keeper’s Residence, the Donnybrook, and the Island House only remaining ones of the original buildings. In 1978 the Zoo was revitalized as the Riverdale Farm . An urban farm for educational programs for school children. Since Toronto's rapid urbanization over the years, the farmland and orchards and market gardens that were once close by Toronto  in Scarborough and Etobicoke had been turned into tract housings, factories and suburbs. This left most child with the belief that food came from the supermarket or factories .

 The Riverdale Farm specializes in pioneer and heritage animal breeds, examples of the animals that would have been found on many farms in Ontario in the late 1800’s rather than the commercial breeds found on farms today.  As much as the site permits, it is an example of a heritage small scale market garden farm that would have been found anywhere in Ontario in 1900 when people grew and preserved and pickled their own food and sold the excess at the local market. The Riverdale Farm has done well in this aspect of education and personalizing growing food as a large and bustling farmers market is now  held at the entrance every week where people can meet and buy food from the modern day small scale farmers .   

A current resident of the Riverdale Zoo. Heritage breeds of animals are kept

Visitors to the zoo in 1915. The “Donnybrook” in the back ground and examples of the cages on the left. ( Courtesy of the Toronto Archives )

The zoo as looks it is today with much more greener surroundings, with the only wild cats to be seen is the occasional barn cat.

Sign on the  Fancey barn,  Built 1857 moved there from Markham 

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