This schoolhouse, the oldest remaining in Toronto, was built at the expense of Enoch Turner, a wealthy brewer, as a "free school" for the Anglican parish of Trinity and adjoining parts of St. Lawrence Ward. An Act of 1847 had made free common schools possible in towns and cities of Canada West, but the municipal council of Toronto had refused to establish them. Enoch Turner's school was the first free school in the city. In 1851, the Toronto Board of Education took over "Trinity Street School" as one of the regular free schools for boys and girls, and it continued as such for more than thirty years. Since then, it has been used as a Sunday school and for community activities.

Location

At the schoolhouse, now the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse Museum, 106 Trinity Street, Toronto

Themes

• Buildings and structures
• Education