Walking Tour Guide
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$5.00 Walking Tour Guide www.unionvilleinfo.com For guided tours call 905-477-0117. Unionville Map Legend Toogood Pond Walking Street Number Page Street Number Page The Rock 154-154A Tour at the Top of the Stairs 4 Mark Braithwaite House 187 & General Store 17 Andrew Eckardt Worker’s 150 Cottage 6 Congregational Church 18 216 218 189 Bandstand Davison’s Garage 6 Unionville Bandstand & Park 18 193 142-144 Hannah Reid House & Shop 7 Mark Braithwaite House #2 197 + Ross Norton 19 Salem Eckardt House 7 136 210 201 Andrew Nicholson House 19 Caldwell House 8 9 Station Lane 206 209 205 Stiver Brothers Feed 205 Griffiths’ House 8 & Seed Mill 20 202 201 209 7 Station Lane Unionville Mill House 9 Toronto and Nipissing 198 197 Carlton & Main Railway Station 20 193 Union Mills 9 139 190-194 Toogood Pond The Planing Mill 21 189 Toogood Pond 10 141 186 187 Robert Harrington House 21 182 218 St. Philip’s Anglican Church 10 143 174 *177 P 216 Pingle Tenant House 22 170 175 Varley Art Gallery 11 145 161 210 McKinnon-Eakin House 22 166 147 158 159 Crosby Memorial Arena 11 157 206 The Christopher Chant 156 House 23 154 155 The Eckardt-Stiver House 12 202 147A Chant’s Showroom 23 151 The Charles Stiver House 12 198 149 150 The First Unionville 149 The Dr. Thomas P. Eckardt Congregational Church 24 147A 145 House 13 190–194 151 147 Eakin-Eckardt Cottage 24 143 Davison House 13 186 155 Bandstand Isabella Mustard House 25 141 Village Post Office 14 144 182 157 Perkin’s Garage 25 142 The Unionville General Store 14 174 159 John Eckardt Queen’s Hotel 15 136 Hardware Store 26 139 170 161 Old Firehall 15 McDowell House 166 & Stanley Stiver House 26 7 Gotlieb Eckardt’s Wheel & 175 Wagon Shop 16 9 Miss Neville’s 27 158 177 Art Brown’s House 16 The John Devlin Harness 156 Shop 27 Brown’s General Store 17 Map courtesy of City Markham 1 Walking Tour Guide Before we begin our self-guided walking tour, we need to thank those who helped to put it together. This brochure was published by the Unionville BIA with matching funds from Central Counties Tourism. The historical content was provided by the Unionville Historical Society, drawing from many resources, including: • UHS Walking Tour Booklet, 1988 • UBIA Walking Tour Pamphlet, 2006 • Heritage Section, the City of Markham • Markham Museum • Markham Public Library • Markham 1793-1900 Isabel Champion, Editor, 1979 rev 1989 • Markham Remembered, Mary Champion, Editor, 1988 • and the many members of the Historical Society & the Unionville community at large Historical photos courtesy of Markham Museum & the Heritage Section, City of Markham For reservations on guided tours, please call 905-477-0117. For more information, visit www.unionvillehistorical.com and www.unionvilleinfo.com. Unionville Historical Society Congregational Church, 150 Main Street 3 The RockUNIONVILLE at the Top of the Stairs s you can see on the map (inside front cover) your tour starts at the top of the stairs on the east side Aof Main Street Unionville, near the centre of the heritage business district. If you’re driving to our village, park at GPS coordinates N43 52.050 W079 18.700, walk west and go up the stairs. The tour will head north toward Toogood Pond, then south along the west side of Main Street toward the Stiver Mill, then return to this spot. Philip Eckardt, one of this group, took up a land grant just under a mile north of this spot and laid the foundations Most of the buildings you will see today were destined for Unionville when his log home was used for Lutheran to be torn down around 1969-70. This street was going church services. Nearby his home, at the top of the hill to be widened to four lanes, and the buildings were in up Kennedy Road, you can visit Bethesda Lutheran the way. The plaque on the rock refers to the Unionville Cemetery, which dates back to 1794. Soon a permanent Village Festival Corporation, which held the first Village church was built near there. Festival in 1970. This festival, still held every year in early June, and other substantial efforts, demonstrated very In the 1840s the centre of activity was drawn southward effectively that Unionvillers had a passionate wish to with the building of the Union Mills, on a site which you’ll retain & maintain these historic structures. Kennedy Road visit shortly. The commercial core of the old village was rerouted to bypass and preserve our main street (as extended southward from there. When the railway came you can see on the map on the back of this brochure). in 1871, settlement was drawn further south again. Unionville is an enviable example of how heritage can be preserved in a living village. Your tour today encompasses the commercial core from the original mill site to the railway, with a brief detour This is primarily an architectural tour but we’ll throw in a to the tranquilty of Toogood Pond. little bit of history along the way. Anybody who has ever done historical research, trying As the plaque states, William Berczy founded Unionville. to glean the facts and the full story from the snippets Britain realized, right after the American War of Inde- of folklore, newspaper articles, diaries, legal & financial pendence, that Upper Canada needed good military & records of the past, knows that it is impossible to avoid transportation roads and lots of loyal settlers to perma- some inaccuracies. For example, the reference to nently fill the land. Its Lt. Governor, John Graves Simcoe, Stiver’s Mill on the plaque here is incorrect. The Unionville advertised far & wide that free land was available. One area had two grist mills in the 1850s. Somehow, one of of these newspaper ads was spotted by William Berczy, these was confused with the Stiver Feed & Seed Mill, who had led a group of settlers from Germany in 1792 to which you’ll see soon – it wasn’t built until the early 1900s. settle in New York State’s Genesee Valley. The settlers were not happy with the financial and tenure arrange- Inevitably, a few inaccuracies may have snuck into this ments and, again led by Berczy, took up Simcoe’s offer brochure. The material was gathered from a variety of of free land in 1794. sources, some of it conflicting in many respects. The Unionville Historical Society is continually working to correct our history as new information comes to light. There is also much more information on the Internet, particularly stories of William Berczy and early Unionville. There are links to these stories on our website www.unionvillehistorical.com. There are other plaques on or near some of the buildings on your tour today, containing more information than could fit into this brochure. So now, on with the tour... 4 www.unionvilleinfo.com www.unionvillehistorical.com 5 187 MainUNIONVILLE St 193 MainUNIONVILLE St Andrew Eckardt Worker’s Cottage Hannah Reid House & Shop Georgian Style Board and Batten Cottage Unionville Vernacular with Georgian influences The southern section was built c1850 as Hannah Reid’s house. Her dressmaker’s shop was added c1875. This Built c1850 by Andrew Eckardt, this building has been building was a butcher shop from 1887 well into the used as a Doctor’s office, residence, general store and 1960s, and later as gift shops, a toy store and ladies’ many restaurants. fashion store. 189 MainUNIONVILLE St 197 MainUNIONVILLE St Davison’s Garage Salem Eckardt House Ontario Carpenter’s Gothic Vernacular Built c1850 by Salem Eckardt, Unionville’s auctioneer. This building has been extensively but authentically rebuilt The house was purchased in the late 1950s by Donald since a fire in 2008. It was Minton’s Blacksmith Shop and, & Kathleen McKay (nee Gormley), who hosted Fred after Minton moved out, it was the garage for the Ford Horsman Varley, an original member of the Group of Dealership, providing car & truck repairs. It has also been Seven from 1957-1969. This building was a residence a playhouse, a trophy store, a travel agency and several until 1988. It now houses the McKay Art Centre & the BIA restaurants. Offices. 6 www.unionvilleinfo.com www.unionvillehistorical.com 7 201 MainUNIONVILLE St 209 MainUNIONVILLE St Caldwell House Unionville Mill House Georgian Vernacular with Queen Anne Revival Gothic Revival influences The Caldwell family’s blacksmith shop, built in the 1850s, Built c1846, this building was associated with Ira White’s was replaced by a residence in 1910 by William Caldwell. Union Mills. Since then, it has been used for a firehall, a This building has also housed a dental office, various residence, and stores for antiques, books, gardening stores and a coffee shop. supplies, stationery, shoes, jewellery and specialty food. 205 MainUNIONVILLE St CarltonMain UNIONVILLE& St Main Griffiths’ House Union Mills Carlton & Main This was an ideal spot to build a flour mill, tapping Bruce Gothic Revival, Vernacular Creek, a tributary of the Rouge River, which it joins 1/2 mile to the southeast. Ira White, a noted millwright Built in 1870, possibly by George Robinson, husband originally from New York, built the Union Grist Mill here of Dorothy Eckardt. This building has been used as a c1840. It is believed that Unionville got its name from this residence, various clothing stores, various restaurants & mill. Later an electrically-powered chopping mill, it was a cigar shop. destroyed by fire in 1934 and never rebuilt. 8 www.unionvilleinfo.com www.unionvillehistorical.com 9 ToogoodMainUNIONVILLE St Pond 216 MainUNIONVILLE St Toogood Pond Varley Art Gallery Toogood Pond Toogood pond, earlier named Willow Lake and often referred to only as The Pond, was formed when a mill race was built in 1840 on the south side and a dam placed across Bruce Creek a tributary of the Rouge River.