May 4, 2024 When millwright Ira White arrived at the north end of what would become Unionville in 1839 he recognized the east half of lot 13 in the 5th concession to be an ideal site to harness the water power of Bruce Creek.  He built a sawmill first and then set about cutting the wood for the grist mill he built where the creek crosses Main Street in Unionville. He built a dam across the creek to create a mill pond to provide consistent water flow to power the wheels that operated his grist and saw mills. Originally it was known as The Pond and later as Willow Lake. The mill continued t ..read more

April 27, 2024 We started our blog with our initial post on April 27, 2014, Since then we’ve done a few “greatest hits” type posts where we featured the stories that have had the most reads. To celebrate our tenth anniversary we’re looking at some of the hikes that were the most fun for us. The places that were the most enjoyable and had the most interesting artifacts or histories. With over 600 posts its hard to choose the most enjoyable ones but the fifteen listed below represent some of our most loved ones. These are presented in no particular order. Click on the title of the article in eac ..read more

Monday October 12, 2015 Mullet Creek contained a couple of surprise waterfalls and an old dam in the short section we hiked.  It originates in Meadowvale north of the 407  and empties into the Credit River on the University of Toronto Mississauga campus.  It was a gorgeous long weekend and Thanksgiving Monday was a beautiful day for a brief hike before getting the turkey in the oven.  We parked on O’Neil Court and entered the woods through the community walkway. Reginald Watkins bought 150 acres of land in 1928 north of the now abandoned Erindale Power Dam.   ..read more

April 20, 2024 Maple Leaf Gardens was home to The Toronto Maple Leafs from 1931 until 1999 during which time they won the Stanley Cup 11 times. Unfortunately none of these was in the last 32 seasons they played there. Previously, The Leafs had been playing in Arena Gardens on Mutual Street which had been built in 1912. When the capacity of 7,500 people was deemed to be too small by the teams managing director Con Smythe he went looking for a site to build a more impressive arena for the team. He eventually settled on the corner of Church and Carlton Streets which he bought from The T. Eaton Co ..read more

April 6, 2024 The oldest standing schoolhouse in Toronto was built in 1848 just five years after York changed its name to Toronto and became a city. The population of the city stood at about 25,000 and some of the poorest people lived in the St. Lawrence Ward which is seen in the map below. This image is taken from the 1884 Goads Fire Insurance Map of Toronto. Trinity School, as it was then known, is circled in green. Also featured in this story are the East Toronto Brewery (blue) and Little Trinity Church (orange). Enoch Turner was born in Stafforshire, UK in 1792 and came to York early in t ..read more

March 16, 2024 For years we used to stop at the entertainment facility just north of Barrie on highway 11 as we made our way back home from Gravenhurst. Usually we would grab a coffee or a snack from McDonalds but this section of the highway used to be known for cheaper gasoline. Therefore, we if we had seen cheaper gas on the route north we might stop on the way back home to fill up. The image below shows the site from the air and indicated the location of the Go-Kart Track, the Kids Track, The Coffee Time, McDonalds and the Shell gas station. Other blogs online suggest that the business was ..read more

Saturday, March 9, 2024 The Uxbridge Historical Centre was founded in 1972 and was created around the Quaker Hill school house. It is home to ten buildings and a large number of artifacts that combine to tell the local history of the township and the town of Uxbridge. When Uxbridge township was opened up for settlement a lot of the early pioneers were Quakers. These members of The Society of Friends came from Pennsylvania along the newly created Yonge Street. Twelve families started to carve out a new life for themselves in 1804. Soon they started to make plans to build a Meeting House for the ..read more

February 10, 2024 The Somerset House Hotel was built on the south west corner of Church and Carlton Streets in 1895. It served as a hotel for 35 years until the building was sold. The hotel was renovated in 1930 by the architectural firm of Langley and Howland and was converted into a Bank of Commerce. In 1961 the largest merger in Canadian banking history took place and the Imperial Bank of Canada and the Bank of Commerce joined to become the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The CIBC branch at 436 Church Street lasted until a few years ago when it was closed and the structure’s future was ..read more

Feb.3, 2024 The Oro African Methodist Episcopal Church is a National Historic Site that was designated in 2000. It is the last remaining building in an African Canadian community that was developed in Oro Township between 1830 and 1850. The idea of such a community was first proposed in 1783 by Sir Guy Carlton who was the Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America. It was thought that integrating African Canadians into a farming community would allow them to settle into a new life in British North America. Carlton had promised freedom to slaves of the American Revolutionaries who fo ..read more

January 27, 2024 Erindale isn’t a ghost town in the traditional sense because it is now part of the larger city of Mississauga. However the older homes that remain scattered through the area provide a ghost of the town that once was. Over the years we have written eight other blogs which focus on various aspects of the local history of Erindale and links to all of these can be found at the end of this post. Erindale began in 1825 and was originally known as Toronto. It went through several name changes being known as Credit, then Springfield and finally Springfield-on-the-Credit. In 1900 it to ..read more