Inside the Museums views Toronto’s heritage museums for the first time as a single community — linked by events, personalities, and function. In this special excerpt we visit the well-known Grange at 317 Dundas Street West, near the Art Gallery of Ontario. More than any other house in Toronto, The Grange, built in 1817, testifies to the years when a tiny, colonial elite connected by blood and marriage — the Family Compact — dominated the government and judiciary. The Grange was home to the Boultons. On the Family Compact tree compiled by critic William Lyon Mackenzie, patriarch D’Arcy Boulton Sr. ranked No. 1. John Goddard takes us on a detailed tour of the house, providing fascinating historical background and insight.
