Fodor's Expert Review Mackenzie House

Once home to journalist William Lyon Mackenzie, Toronto's first mayor (elected in 1834) and designer of the city's coat of arms, this Greek Revival row house is now a museum. Among the period furnishings and equipment preserved here is an 1845 printing press, which visitors may try. Mackenzie served only one year as mayor. In 1837, he gathered some 700 supporters and marched down Yonge Street to try to overthrow the government, but his rebels were roundly defeated, and he fled to the United States with a price on his head. When Mackenzie was pardoned by Queen Victoria years later, he returned to Canada and was promptly elected once again to the legislative assembly. By this time, though, he was so down on his luck that a group of friends bought his family this house. Mackenzie enjoyed the place for only a few years before his death in 1861. His grandson, William Lyon Mackenzie King, became the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.