June, 2017:

Seaforth, Ontario – My Top 6 Picks

Seaforth is a southern Ontario community in Huron County. Originally known as Four Corners and Steene’s Corners after an early settler, much of the area of what is now Seaforth was acquired by brothers Christopher and George Sparling in anticipation of the construction of the Buffalo, Brantford and Goderich Railway. Developer James Patton of Barrie purchased the land and laid out a town site in 1855.

Seaforth’s Main Street is a Provincially Designated Heritage Conservation District, and architectural critics consider it to be one of the finest late 19th century streetscapes remaining in the Province.

In September 1876, at two o’clock in the morning, a fire broke out in Mrs. Griffith’s Candy and Grocery store raging through Main Street destroying 12 acres of the business section. The town rebounded and Main Street was rebuilt with the brick and block structures which we see today, more than a century later. This architectural composition of two storey brick buildings is unique in its uniformity of scale and character. Through grants and local support, property owners have been encouraged to restore and preserve the architectural characteristics of their buildings so that this valuable resource may continue to be a reminder of Seaforth’s history. The street is lined with uniquely homogeneous buildings and you will always know the time from one of the most lavish clocks of its day.

Seaforth was one among many small southern Ontario towns to prosper from a national shift toward an economy based more on industry and manufacturing. Seaforth had many things to recommend it for the site of a new post office building. It was on a direct railway line between the two busy ports of Goderich and Buffalo. The transportation of goods was a main income source for the town, goods such as the products of its salt wells, woolen, flour and flax mills, sawmill, foundry and cabinet factory. It was an important market town and had been a postal station for many years. There were two telegraph offices and two daily newspapers. As an outport of Goderich, Seaforth collected customs revenues as well as post office revenues.

In 2001, Seaforth was amalgamated with Brussels, Grey Township, McKillop Township and Tuckersmith Township to form the Municipality of Huron East.

Stoney Creek, Ontario – My Top 6 Picks

Stoney Creek is located on the south-western shore of Lake Ontario into which feed the watercourse of Stoney Creek as well as several other minor streams. It was settled by Loyalists after the American Revolution. The Battle of Stoney Creek during the War of 1812 occurred near Centennial Parkway and King Street.  In a surprise night-time attack, the outnumbered British overwhelmed the Americans and forced their retreat to Forty Mile Creek (the present location of Grimsby). In this forty minute battle, hundreds were killed and the two American Generals were captured.  Battlefield Park has a monument and museum to preserve the history of this area.

Branches of the Bruce Trail provide access to Battlefield Park as well as the Devil’s Punch Bowl which is marked by a large illuminated cross and offers an excellent lookout for Stoney Creek and Hamilton.

The Stoney Creek Dairy on King Street, with a stylized Battlefield Monument in its logo, offered frozen treats for decades. In 2013, the dairy was torn down for re-development. Eastgate Square Mall straddles the former border between Hamilton and Stoney Creek.

Due to the temperate environment, the Stoney Creek area is known for fruit growing. Most of the land mass of Stoney Creek remains agricultural. The communities of Elfrida, Fruitland, Tapleytown, Tweedside, Vinemount, and Winona are agricultural areas. Stoney Creek became a center for light industry, road transportation and commuting residences, since its land costs were much lower than in neighboring Hamilton.

E.D. Smith was established in 1878 in the Niagara Peninsula when a young farmer experimented with grapes, onions, hens, cows, sheep, grain, and a little patch of strawberries. The place was 120 acres tucked under the protective shadow of the Escarpment in Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula. He hoped to make a living by harvesting the strawberries and taking the fruit to market. The juicy strawberries that grew so well in this rich soil were the beginning of a food empire.  Its current product line includes jams and spreads, syrups, pie fillings, ketchup, sauces, and salad dressings.

Waterdown, Ontario – My Top 7 Picks

Waterdown is located east of the junction of Highways 5 and 6, the intersection known as Clappison’s Corners.

Established in 1792, the Township of Flamborough was named after a prominent geographical formation, the Flamborough Head, and the Town of Flamborough in East Yorkshire, England. The most striking aspect of Flamborough Head is the white chalk cliffs that surround it. The chalk lies in distinct horizontal layers with a layer of glacial deposits at the top of the cliffs.

Alexander Brown of the North West Fur Company purchased 800 acres and built a log cabin and sawmill at the top of the Great Falls in present-day Smokey Hollow in 1805. He was the first European settler in the region and was a key figure in the community throughout his lifetime. He moved down Grindstone Creek to the site of present-day LaSalle Park and built “Brown’s Wharf”. Smokey Hollow was the site of saw, grist, and flour mills, a woolen mill, a brass foundry, tanneries, rake, cradle, and basket factories. Brown built the first school of the village in 1815 on the site of the present-day American House, and employed Mary Hopkins as its first teacher. Entrepreneur Ebenezer Culver Griffin arrived in 1823, purchased more than half of Alexander Brown’s property, and had his property surveyed in village lots, the true beginning of the Village of Waterdown.

In 1854, Flamborough was divided into two separate townships, East and West Flamborough. Included within East Flamborough was the town of Waterdown, named because of its close proximity to the place where Grindstone Creek tumbles over the Niagara Escarpment. Mills were built along the creek with the water harnessed to provide power.

New Hamburg, Ontario – My Top 8 Picks

New Hamburg was established in the early 1830s by William Scott.  In 1834, cholera killed many of the original settlers of New Hamburg.  A grist-mill built by Josiah Cushman about 1834 formed the nucleus around which a small community of Amish Mennonites and recent German immigrants developed.   More German and Scottish settlers arrived in the late 1830s and early 1840s.  The Grand Trunk railway arrived in the 1850s and the village became an important center for milling and the production of farm machinery.

New Hamburg is located in the rural township of Wilmot in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. It is bordered by Baden to the east and is within easy driving distance of the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Stratford.

The Nith River winds through town and flows through the downtown core, which is home to a 50-foot waterwheel built in 1990, the largest operating water wheel in North America; a symbol of the importance of the Nith River, and of the water-powered mills which were the first industries in pioneer New Hamburg.