Heritage T.O. should honour Canada’s first Black doctor

While strolling along Dowling Ave. on a freezing afternoon, recently, I passed by number 119 — a house I had just been reading about.

Apart from the crust of frost forming on my eyebrows, one other thing irked me mightily: the lack of any kind of historical plaque.

This was the longtime home of Torontonian Dr. Anderson Abbott, a man undoubtedly worthy of much more recognition.

In 1861, he became the first Black man licensed to practise medicine in what’s now Canada.

He moved south during the American Civil War, serving as a surgeon, and was one of a handful of doctors to attend the dying president Abraham Lincoln on the night he was shot.

A grateful Mary Todd Lincoln gifted Dr. Abbott a plaid shawl, worn by the president at his first inauguration. Historically significant stuff, indeed! So how about it, Heritage Toronto? The old Abbott House on Dowling is long overdue for some attention and worthy of a plaque. Mick Welch, Toronto