On January 1, 1971, the Village of Stouffville amalgamated with Whitchurch Township and was designated a community within the larger town of Whitchurch–Stouffville, a municipality in the Greater Toronto Area, about fifty kilometers north of downtown Toronto. It is more than two hundred and six square kilometers in size, and located in the mid-eastern area of the Regional Municipality of York on the ecologically-sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine and the Rouge River watershed. Its motto since 1993 is “country close to the city”.
Stouffville is the primary urban area within the town of Whitchurch–Stouffville. It is centered at the intersection of Main Street, Mill Street and Market Street. Stouffville was founded in 1804 by Abraham Stouffer who built a sawmill and grist-mill on the banks of Duffin’s Creek in the 1820s.
Urban Stouffville stretches from
the York-Durham Line to Highway 48 and is about 2.7 kilometers wide with
development north and south of Main Street. Stouffville is bounded by farmland
and a golf course. Uxbridge lies to the east.
Stouffville
Station was built in 1871 by Toronto and Nipissing Railway connecting Stouffville and
Uxbridge with Toronto. The line’s north-eastern terminus at Coboconk,
Ontario on Balsam Lake in the Kawarthas was completed in 1872. In 1877, a
second track was built from Stouffville north to Jackson’s Point on Lake
Simcoe. These connections were to provide a reliable and efficient means of
transporting timber harvested and milled in these regions. Stouffville
Junction serviced thirty trains per day. The railway became the Grand Trunk
Railway in 1884, and Canadian National Railways took over the line in 1914. Stouffville
Station was demolished in 1980s and replaced by current GO station.
28 Mill Street – Neo-Colonial – gambrel roof52 Mill Street – Late Victorian Hybrid – verge board trim on gablesO’Brien Avenue – rounded verandah36 O’Brien Avenue – twin 2½-storey tower-like bays22 Church Street – c. 1880-1885 – Late Victorian Hybrid – built for Lucinda and R.J. Daley, a shoe merchant – corner quoins, bay window47 Church Street – c. 1890 – Late Victorian Hybrid with Italianate features, verge board trim and finial on gables, bay window, rounded verandah added in late 1920s – built by farmer William Mason for himself and wife Margaret Rae60 Church Street – c. 1891 – Romanesque Revival – long known as the David Stouffer house – he was a village historian and grandson of the founder of Stouffville, Abraham Stouffer – corbelled brick string courses around voussoirs, stained glass window transoms, second floor balcony72 Church Street – c. 1893 – Late Victorian Hybrid with Romanesque Revival and Italianate details – corbelled brick string courses around voussoirs, stained glass window transoms and sidelights, double story porch, dormer, decorative woodwork on brackets, gingerbread and porches80 Church Street – c. 1889 – 1½ story Gothic Revival – built for Isaac Broadway (a drugstore owner) and his wife 96 Church Street – c. 1890 – Romanesque/Queen Anne – built by Nathan Forsyth as his residence, local master builder – corbelled brick string course, balcony over verandah25 Duchess Street – c. 1885 – Late Victorian Hybrid with Queen Anne details – built for John and Thomas Casely -decorative brick, carved wooden fascia and porch, corner quoins, voussoirs, wooden post with capitals on ornately decorated porch for main entrance
