York Tavern and the War of 1812, watercolour by F. V. Poole.
This fairly simple wooden structure was a leading inn in Upper Canada's capital of York before the war. Compared to Quebec and Montreal the scale of urban development was still limited in that young western centre. So limited, that when the provincial parliament buildings were burned in the American raid on York in 1813, the legislature had to meet for the following session in this tavern, which for a time housed the political life of the capital. After the war, as new buildings went up and the town grew, it lost its earlier eminence.
Courtesy: John Ross Robertson Collection, Metropolitan Toronto Library Board
