Not the King

Following another suggestion taken from “111 Places in Toronto That You Must Not Miss”, we walked down to visit the Mackenzie House Museum which was not far from the condo. It was a damp day with rain threatening so we did not want to venture too far. 

Mackenzie House Museum

Sandwiched between another old house and overshadowed by a massive new condo construction we located the narrow brick house identified by a nice “Free Admission” sandwich board out front. The museum signs all said “open” and clearly pointed to an entrance door which, when tried was securely locked. Slightly confused we turned to leave, but noticed a friendly face inside waving and gesturing for us to come back. 

After an apology for the locked entrance, we were welcomed to the museum and offered a guided tour. Our friendly museum employee, was a cheerful young lady who really seemed to enjoy her job as she guided us through the house. 

The Mackenzie house museum was the home of William Lyon Mackenzie. He was the first mayor of Toronto as a city, a newspaper publisher and the grandfather of William Lyon Mackenzie King, the tenth Prime Minister of Canada. 

A really good guide

The house tour itself resulted in another apology from our guide, for the house had suffered serious damage from a flood caused by a faulty sprinkler system and many walls and ceilings had to be torn out and the furniture had been moved to storage. As a result pre-flood photos and descriptions from our helpful guide allowed one to imagine what the house must have been like. Having done a bit of framing and carpentry in my time, I actually enjoyed seeing the exposed skeletons of the rooms and the talented commentary of our guide filled in the missing plaster, wallpaper, and furnishings. 

I assumed that as a newspaper publisher and city mayor, the home owner would have been wealthy but in fact Mr. Mackenzie struggled financially all his life and this house had been purchased for him by supporters and he had difficulty maintaining it. At one point he had to let their maid go because he could not afford to pay her, and the family lived in only a section of the house in the winter to cut down on heating costs. 

A house in need of repair

Attached to the house was also a replica of the sort of printing facility Mr. Mackenzie would have used. His actual printing press was located in another building downtown, but the various authentic period printing machinery gave a picture of how Mr. Mackenzie made his living. Our guide demonstrated the printing press and we left with a printed copy of one of his newspapers. 

I had expected that the museum was dedicated to prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie (King), but the information about his grandfather was very interesting and I walked away with a greater understanding of this city and it’s history thanks in large part to our really dedicated tour guide. 

The front room (Use your imagination)

The kitchen in the basement

The Printing Press

Printing equipment

Printed papers

Just a nice picture

Tools of the trade

A Wee Dram

Oban Distillery

Oban is a small seaside town in Northwest Scotland. It is busy because it hosts the ferry terminal for many of the islands offshore. However, its reach extends all over the world, and even people back home in Canada may recognize the Oban name from one of it’s most famous exports, Oban 14 year single malt Scotch whiskey.

Although I am not a whiskey fan, it is a big part of the town, and was only three blocks from our apartment, so we booked a tour of the distillery.

The distillery still works out of the original stone building in the heart of Oban under the cliff

Lots to sample . . .

from McCaig’s Tower. When you walk into the visitor’s center however you are in a modern renovated room that although hip and stylish was a bit out of character for the old building it was in. This area housed a gift shop (With lots of whiskey for sale), a reception area for the tours and a tasting bar in case you just cannot wait for the tour to sample the product.

The Fermentation Tanks

Our tour guide was excellent and kept us not only informed but also entertained as she took us through the process of making whiskey. I learned some interesting things about whiskey. The Oban product is fermented in huge Larchwood tanks unlike most distilleries, which use stainless steel for this. The Whiskey is aged for at least 14 years in used American oak barrels that once stored bourbon. Their higher end product is further aged in French Sherry barrels or European oak. Although they still operate out of the original building, growth has forced them to store the barrels off site and some of the other process is done elsewhere as well. They only have four larchwood fermentation tanks and two copper stills, making them one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland, but they manage to produce 650,000 litres a year. That means that there is over 9 million litres of whiskey stored until it is sold. Apparently they produce a quality drink, and a friend back home claims Oban 14 is her whiskey of choice.

An enthusiastic tour guide

The tour was excellent, and although not a whiskey fan, I left with a new appreciation of the drink, and will probably bring a bottle home to have on hand when Scotch fans visit.