This building, designed to represent the 1850s house on the Francy Farm in Markham Township, is the work of architect B. Napier Simpson Jr., (1925-1978). The large 1840s Pennsylvania German-type barn was donated by the Francy Family and re-erected here on the site of the old Riverdale Zoo. The house and barn were built by the original settlers and acquired by the Francy family in 1875. Napier Simpson was nationally renowned as an expert in building conservation and restoration. A member of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, the Ontario Heritage Trust, the Ontario St. Lawrence Development Commission, the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario and the Toronto Historical Board, and consulting architect to the Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, B. Napier Simpson Jr. served with untiring devotion in the field of heritage conservation. This was his last major project in the city.