November, 2017:

Port Elgin, Ontario – My Top 9 Picks

Originally, the village of Port Elgin was named Normanton. In 1873, the community was named after James Bruce, 8^th Earl of Elgin, a former Governor-General of the Province of Canada. In the 1990s, Port Elgin was merged into the town of Saugeen Shores.  Port Elgin is close to MacGregor Point Provincial Park and Southampton in Bruce County; the community has several beaches on Lake Huron.

In 1854, Benjamin Shantz acquired a sawmill on Mill Creek from George Butchart. Nearby he built a gristmill and within three years a community of 250 people developed around these mills.  Stores, hotels and tanneries were built and a village plot for Port Elgin was laid out in 1857. Businessmen Henry Hilker, Samuel Bricker, and John Stafford contributed to the development of the settlement.

The original economic development of Port Elgin during the 19th century was based on its harbor facilities on Lake Huron constructed in 1857–1858. This made the village a distribution center for the surrounding agricultural region.  The arrival of the Wellington, Grey and Bruce Railway in 1872 further stimulated the growth of the community. The increasing urbanization of Ontario and the increased importance of the road network for transporting goods resulted in a declining economy and population. More recently, recreation and the nearby Bruce Nuclear Generating Station have dominated the local economy.

The Port Elgin and North Shore Railway is a two foot (610 mm) narrow gauge heritage railway. The railway operates excursion trains along the beach on a one-mile route in downtown Port Elgin. The round trip takes about twenty minutes.

The last picture is from Port Elgin Book 2. There are lots more beautiful homes in Port Elgin Book 2.

 

 

There are lots more beautiful homes in Port Elgin Book 2. Here is one example.

Neustadt, Ontario – My Top 7 Picks

Neustadt is a community in the municipality of West Grey in Grey County in southern Ontario. The village is located south of Hanover on Grey Road 10 and north of Guelph and Kitchener. Neustadt is a picturesque rural Ontario village with German roots and a village history full of vibrant farming culture.

The village’s name is of German origin and it translates to “new town”. It was founded in 1856 by David Winkler, a settler from Germany. He purchased 400 acres from the government, laid out the town-site, dammed Meux Creek and built a sawmill. A flour mill and grist mill were also erected near the dam the following year. Many other German speaking settlers began arriving immediately. Winkler was the founder of many other institutions, including opening the first post office in town in the year 1857. Later he became a Justice of the Peace and Reeve of Normanby Township.

John Weinert, a saddle maker from Prussia, moved into Neustadt in 1859 and established a tannery on the north side of William Street. By 1861, he had added a boot and shoe factory and supplied footwear to the settlers. Henry Huether, an immigrant from Baden, Germany, constructed a wooden frame Brewery; a fire in 1859 destroyed it. The brewery was reconstructed in field stone and reopened in 1869.  The brewery continued to be successful until 1916 when it became a creamery. For many years it remained empty until 1997 when it was reopened as Neustadt Springs Brewery which currently brews ten brands of beer.

In the early 1880s, the village saw its peak of development. The opening of a modern school and several new churches, businesses, and industries lead to a growth in population. Many years later, small businesses, farm equipment dealer, creameries, woolen mills, egg grading stations, some stores and later banks began to vanish.  Each closure was critical to the village. Fewer attractions meant fewer visitors; the economy and population began to decline. In 2000, the Village of Neustadt with the Townships of Bentinck, Glenelg and Normanby, and the Town of Durham formed the Municipality of West Grey.

Harriston and Clifford, Ontario – My Top 7 Picks

Harriston is a community in Wellington County located at the headwaters of the Maitland River. In the summer of 1845, the first non-Aboriginal settlers arrived in the area and the Crown made land available for sale in the region in 1854.

The town was named after Archibald Harrison, a Toronto farmer who was granted land along the Maitland River in 1854. Harrison’s brothers George and Joshua built several mills in the area and the community soon grew.

A post office was established in 1856. The southern road leading to Harriston was graveled in 1861, opening easier access to the larger markets of Guelph, Hamilton, and Toronto. By 1867, the village contained many businesses including wagon works and blacksmith shops.

The town became a prosperous commercial and farm-implement manufacturing center following the construction of the Wellington Grey and Bruce Railway, completed to Harriston in 1871. A telegraph link to the community followed soon after. A second rail line, the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway, intersected the village in 1873.

Harriston was incorporated as a village in 1872, and as a town in 1878. In 1882, the Grand Trunk Railway began shipping through Harriston. A Carnegie Library opened in Harriston in 1908.

Beginning in the late 1860s, Harriston’s citizens began to create friendly service organizations parallel to, as well as outside, of religious groups. In 1868, the Loyal Orange Institution opened a Harriston Lodge; in 1871, the Freemasons established a Lodge.  Other groups followed, such as the Independent Order of Oddfellows (1879), and the Independent Order of Good Templars (active by 1874) and the Royal Templars of Temperance (active by 1900).

The Harriston Minto Agricultural Society was founded in 1859 and continues to operate an annual fall fair on the third weekend in September.

Clifford is a community in the Town of Minto in Wellington County. The village of Clifford was founded around 1855 as Minto Village. After the opening of the post office in 1856, the settlement was renamed Clifford by the first postmaster Francis Brown after Clifford in West Yorkshire, England. Clifford was incorporated as a village in 1873.

Clifford is home to Wightman Telecom. The Wightman family has owned and operated a communication system in Clifford since 1908. The company is now involved in high speed fiber-optic internet, cable, and telephone throughout mid-western Ontario.

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario – My Top 7 Picks

Known at various times as Butlersburg, West Niagara, and Newark, its first permanent settlers, Butler’s Rangers and other Loyalist refugees arrived in 1778 when they began crossing from Fort Niagara to settle the west bank of the Niagara River.  A town was laid out in a grid pattern of four-acre blocks and grew quickly, gaining prominence as the first capital of Upper Canada from 1792 to 1796.  The town was captured by American forces on May 27, 1813; upon their withdrawal on December 13, 1813, the American forces burned the town.

Following Niagara’s destruction, the citizens rebuilt mainly in the British classical architectural tradition, creating a group of structures closely related in design, material and scale.  Spared from redevelopment, the town’s colonial buildings eventually became one of its greatest resources.  Beginning in the 1950s, residents rehabilitated and restored old structures, demonstrating an exceptional commitment to the preservation of local heritage.

The Prince of Wales Hotel is a historic Victorian hotel located at King Street and Picton Street.  Built in 1864, the three story 110 room hotel went by several names (Long’s Hotel, Arcade Hotel, The Niagara House) and was renamed with the current name after famous guests The Duke of York (and Prince of Wales) and The Duchess of York in 1901.  Queen Elizabeth II stayed at the hotel during her visit to the area in 1973.