Straddling the Don River east of downtown Toronto, this park opened to the public in 1880 on the west side of the river, but expanded across it in 1884, when the City of Toronto annexed the community of Riverdale. Originally some 48 hectares of farmland, the parcel was acquired in 1856 from the estate of John Scadding, for the construction of the Don Jail (opened in 1864), whose prisoners toiled on the farm that covered much of the present parkland east of the river. In 1894 the Riverdale Zoo opened on land west of the river, operating until its closure in 1974, when most of the grounds were leveled. Four years later, Riverdale Farm opened on the site of the zoo, its gardens, buildings, and heritage-breed livestock interpret a nineteenth-century Ontario farmstead.
Accessed from Broadview Avenue, Riverdale Park East contains several recreation fields, tennis courts, a track, and a pool, and is crossed by the Don Valley Parkway. Its bowl-shaped topography has long been a natural setting for gatherings and parades. A pedestrian footbridge crosses the Don to Riverdale Park West, with baseball diamonds and an open lawn. The Riverdale Farm section occupies three hectares of scenic walkways, vegetable gardens, ponds, and woodlands. Three structures (the Donnybrook Ruin, the Island House, and the Residence) remain from the zoo, while the Francey Barn, built in Markham in 1858, was reconstructed on-site in 1977, and paired with the Simpson House, modeled after the original Francey farmhouse. Enclosed on all sides by residential neighborhoods, the undulating topography of Riverdale Park is transected by a section of the Lower Don River Trail.
