Accommodation, refreshment, and stagecoach stop.

Details of Site Location: The southwest corner of Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue on Farm Lot 15 West of Yonge.

PDM: TBA

Boundary History: The lot was spacious and took only a small corner of the 200-acre Farm Lot, occupying a total of 10.5 acres including the hotel and outbuildings on separately acquired building lots.

Current Use of Property: Commercial buildings and street widenings on the surface, with subway construction subsurface.

Historical Description: One of the important landmarks and stagecoach stops on early Yonge Street was at the famous Golden Lion Inn or Hotel. The Farm Lot had been granted first to Thomas Hill in 1801, and he built a hotel at the Yonge corner. Four years later he sold the lot and hotel to Stillwell Wilson, who sold it to Adam Everson in 1806. At this time, the hotel function seems to have ceased for a few years. What happened to this first building is not clear, but the site was purchased in 1824 by Thomas Shephard (whose name is consistently misspelled in the directories), Shephard built the hotel named the Golden Lion. Trained as a woodcarver, he made a sign for the hotel out of locally cut oak, and added putty to help fashion the lion’s mane. The hotel was a large square frame building with verandahs on the east and south sides. It was within a 2-acre lot not quite at the corner, as maps indicate a drive shed on a 2-acre lot on the north side of the hotel. An 8.5-acre lot on the south side had a barn and stables. All three lots fronted on Yonge. Another building made of mud bricks was on the property, but its location is uncertain, and it may be the building known as Hill House. Thomas is not related to the Sheppards of Sheppard Avenue, nor to the Sheppards of the Yorkville Brick-works. Over the next 100 years, the hotel had many proprietors including: Cornelius Van Nostrand, Nelson Davis, Francis Cosgrove, and James Thompson. In 1892, the hotel became the home of the Reverend T.W. Pickett, a retired Methodist minister who, years before, had developed a bible class that was the beginning of the Lansing United Church. The bible class began in the hotel, as did so many other congregations in the 19th century. In 1922, the hotel served as the Municipal Office for North York Township. In 1928, it was demolished.

Relative Importance: The Golden Lion was a Yonge Street landmark for over 100 years, and was well known to travellers in the 19th century. By users of the Playter (then Thompson) Stagecoach line it was regarded as an oasis or respite from the horrors of travel on Yonge Street. It assisted in the growth and development of the region as well.

Planning Implications: From Highway 401 north to Steeles Avenue, all of the major historic landmarks along Yonge Street have vanished. The importance of plaquing sites along this section of Yonge, wherever possible, is heightened so that residents of the area do not lose all contact with its roots.  The golden lion sign from the old hotel survives but is not visible to casual passers by, as a plaque should be.

Reference Sources: J.H. Beers, Commemorative Biographical Record of County York.

Acknowledgements: Maps Project.