Happy early birthday to Hazel McCallion! February 14, 2021 is the 100th birthday for our beloved former Mayor. In recent years, we have begun to see Hazel McCallion’s name imprinted on our landscape, in honour of her significant impacts on our city. In 2007, the new library building at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus…
This coming Saturday, as part of Black History Month, there is a virtual presentation through the History Symposium featuring Natasha Henry, President of the Ontario Black History Society, and entitled “Hidden in Plain View”: http://www.historysymposium.com/hidden-plain-view The concept of hidden history has long fascinated and frustrated me in equal measure, but even more so in our…
Continuing our theme of late in looking at early industries brings us to Barbertown Road, south of Streetsville. Barbertown Road is an early mill-access route and Credit River crossing point. A trip down Barbertown Road today will bring you to the ADM Milling Company, formerly the Toronto Woollen Mills and operated by the Barber brothers…
Just to the north of the railroad tracks, where Mississauga Road becomes Queen Street at the south end of Streetsville, you will find Reid Drive, and you will also see one of the most visible landmarks in Streetsville – the large silos adjacent to the railway. Reid Drive takes its name from Duncan Wallace Reid…
There is a street towards the north end of Streetsville called Ontario Street. To many, it is the extension on Church Street as it connects back to Queen Street. Ontario Street itself is one of the only remaining connections on the landscape to the historic enterprises of prominent Hyde family of Streetsville. Heman and Mary…
Before Christmas we received an inquiry asking about the name origin of Sawmill Creek. The answer is a fascinating look at local history, and how place names remain on our landscape from many years ago. In short, the creek takes its name from being the source of power for a sawmill, or possibly two sawmills….
Christmas – that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of gathering, but always it will be a day of remembrance – a day in which we think of everything…
Call it an urban legend … or at least a rural legend in its origin. There is a plaque in historic Dixie Union Chapel that references the baptism of one Colonel William Frederick Cody, better known to the world as “Buffalo Bill”. There are entire books dedicated to the story of Buffalo Bill Cody, and…
Happy Birthday! Heritage Mississauga turned 60 years old on December 6, 2020. While this year has not quite been the anniversary year we had originally planned, we thought we would take a moment to share, in brief, the story of us. Heritage Mississauga, then known as the Toronto Township Historical Foundation, was incorporated on December…
For many years I have been fascinated by stories of historic rivalries. They are often catalysts for change on the landscape. Sometimes they led to famous (and infamous) moments in our history. For many people, the story of the Donnelly family from Lucan, Ontario is a fascinating study, and those violent times were born, in…