I want to touch on one of the real pleasures of getting involved in our local history: the incredible people you chance to meet. Very few of you who grew up in Newmarket and area do not know the name Ila Haines. I want to share my recollections of two conversations I had with Miss…
Author: HistoryHound
Three Early Newmarket Business ‘Survivors’ Thrive Today
Over the last year, I have written about the effects of fire and flood and other misadventures that have altered the landscape of Newmarket, as well as highlighted businesses and merchants of old and their contributions to the growth of our community. This week I want to take a brief look at three survivors, companies…
Three Early Newmarket Business ‘Survivors’ Thrive Today
Over the last year, I have written about the effects of fire and flood and other misadventures that have altered the landscape of Newmarket, as well as highlighted businesses and merchants of old and their contributions to the growth of our community. This week I want to take a brief look at three survivors, companies…
Let’s Go Back To A Year Of Change For Newmarket: 1906
Thanks to input from our readers, I get great ideas for future articles and, this weekend, I bring you one of those ideas. The concept is to pick a year from our past and detail what happened in Newmarket that year. I have chosen 1906, a year, I would argue, that was the beginning of…
Meeting Houses Reminder Of Newmarket’s Early Quaker Settlers
Three Quaker meeting houses stand front and centre for having a key role in our past. A huge wave of immigrants from the Pennsylvania area of the United States began arriving in our area beginning in 1801. Known as the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), they established homesteads along Yonge Street from Aurora to Newmarket…
Architect John Stokes Helped Shape Face Of Early Newmarket
We are travelling back to the year 1849, when a young man who would have a profound influence on Newmarket and what was then York County arrived from England and took up residence in what is now Sharon. John Stokes was one of Newmarket’s most respected businessmen and a prolific architect, whose designs of places…
Newmarket’s Champion Drum, Bugle Corps Demanded Dedication
The concept of the drum corps traces its roots to the American tradition of the Drum and Fife from the 1800s and bugle bands of the early 1900s. Today, those drum and bugle corps have evolved, spreading throughout North America and offering a disciplined display of musical pageantry. It is from this tradition that our…
Roots Of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church More Than 185 Years Deep
When the Presbyterian Church arrived in Newmarket is uncertain. Records indicate that Presbyterianism dates to at least 1813, when a Col. Graham of the Aurora area donated 40 acres, known as Lot 25 on the 2nd Concession of King Township, for a ‘glebe’, land meant for the building of a manse. While it was later…
Newmarket’s Club 14 Welcomed Soldiers, Lit The Fire For Romances
Let’s go back to 1942, when slow waltzes and lively swing tunes were the music of the day and Newmarket was at the height of its war-time activities. A small building on Millard Avenue, known as the old I.O.O.F (International Order of Odd Fellows) Hall was in the midst of its transformation into the Soldier-Citizen…
45 Newmarket Properties Officially Designated As Heritage
This week, I thought I would tackle a topic that seems to be misunderstood by many of the people I meet on my heritage walks or during my heritage talks: the Ontario Heritage Act and how it shapes Newmarket’s heritage preservation strategy. All municipalities in Ontario fall under this act. My thanks to Dave Ruggle…
