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230 plaques found that match your criteria
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Frederic W. Cumberland 1820-1881
An outstanding Canadian architect, civil engineer and railway manager, Cumberland was born in England and practiced there before immigrating to Toronto in 1847. He quickly gained recognition, designing such notable buildings as St. James Cathedral (1850-53) and University College (1856-59), Toronto. In 1860 he completed this house, Pendarvis, in which he lived for 21 years. As an engineer, Cumberland became increasingly involved in railway construction and management, and after 1858 achieved wide prominence as managing... -
Lieutenant Christopher James Bell, R.N. 1795-1836
A pioneer of the Ottawa Valley lumber industry, Bell had commanded H.M. gunboat "Murray" at the battle of Plattsburg on Lake Champlain in 1814. Emigrating to Upper Canada about 1817, he was granted 800 acres of land, partly located here at the "first chute" of the Bonnechère River. By 1829, he had built a timber slide and sawmill, in the vicinity of which there grew up the hamlet of "Castleford", named for Bell's birthplace in... -
Founding of Englehart
Englehart owes its beginnings to the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway (T. & N.O.), a colonization line designed by the provincial government to open agricultural lands of the Little Clay Belt to settlement and to provide access to the area's vast timber resources. In 1905 the railway stockpiled equipment and materials on the east bank of the Blanche (now Englehart) River, at mile 138, for the line's first major bridge. This drew entrepreneurs to provide... -
St. Thomas Canada Southern Railway Station
The St. Thomas Canada Southern (CASO) Station, financed by American railway promoters, was constructed between 1871 and 1873 to serve as both the passenger station for St. Thomas and CASO's corporate headquarters. During the 1920s, the station was one of the busiest in Canada. The Canada Southern rail route through southwestern Ontario ultimately linked Chicago and New York City, and was instrumental in the economic development and growth of St. Thomas. Designed in the Italianate... -
Royal York Hotel, The
Built on the site of the Queen's Hotel by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1928-29, the Royal York Hotel was part of its coast-to-coast chain of grand hotels. The skyscraper hotel, designed by Montreal architects Ross and Macdonald in association with Sproatt and Rolph of Toronto, was the largest hotel in the British Commonwealth and dramatically altered the Toronto skyline. Inside, attractive rooms – from the classicism of the 1928-29 interior to the 1957-59 extension... -
Ailsa Craig
The founding of this community coincided with the construction of the section of the Grand Trunk Railway line from St. Mary's to Point Edward, begun in 1858 and completed a year later. In 1861 David Craig and W.G. Shipley registered subdivisions and a post office was opened. Adopting the name of a small Scottish island, Ailsa Craig, the settlement flourished as the centre for the fertile surrounding region. In 1870, it had a population of... -
Austin Airways 1934-1987
Austin Airways, a pioneering aviation firm, played a leading role in the economic development of the Ontario north in the mid-twentieth century. At first its main business was flying Toronto mining executives to remote northern sites. Based in Sudbury after 1938, the airline hauled freight, flew medical evacuations, fought forest fires, trained pilots, and transported tourists. In the 1940s, Austin diversified into aerial photography, timber surveying, aerial prospecting, and ice reconnaissance flights over Hudson Bay... -
Ball's Bridge
Ball's Bridge was erected in 1885 to connect Goderich, the county seat, with outlying areas to the east. The structure is an excellent - and now rare - example of a two-span Pratt design through truss, pin-connected wrought iron bridge. Its construction shows attention to detail through the 'v-lacing' located at various points on the bridge. Built during the horse-and-carriage age, it continued to serve as a major crossing point on the Maitland River until... -
Founding of Dundas, The
In 1793, Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe authorized a townplot in this vicinity at the then eastern terminus of Dundas Street. It original name, "Coote's Paradise", was derived from that of the adjoining marsh, a haunt of waterfowl, and the favorite hunting ground of a Captain Thomas Coote. West of the townplot mills were built, which became the nucleus of a community known by 1801 as "Dundas Mills". The community's location at the head of navigation on Lake... -
Burlington Bay Canal
The first public work undertaken with the financial backing of the provincial government, Burlington Bay Canal was proposed as one of a series of waterways to provide uninterrupted navigation from Lake Erie to the Atlantic Ocean. It was also championed by area residents as a means of rendering Burlington Bay a usable harbour. In 1823, at the urging of Hamilton merchant James Crooks, the House of Assembly authorized the construction of the canal. Work began... -
Canada's First Air Mail
At 10:12 a.m. on June 24, 1918, Captain Brian Peck of the Royal Air Force and mechanic Corporal C.W. Mathers took off from the Bois Franc Polo Grounds in Montreal in a JN-4 Curtiss two-seater airplane. They had with them the first bag of mail to be delivered by air in Canada. Wind and rain buffetted the small plane and forced it to make refuelling stops at Kingston and Deseronto. Finally, at 4:55 p.m., Peck... -
Chaffey's Mills
Prominent early millers in Eastern Ontario, Benjamin and Samuel Chaffey were born in Somerset, England and came to Upper Canada in 1816. After settling briefly in Perth they moved to Elizabethtown (Brockville) where they operated mercantile and milling ventures. Encouraged by local residents to establish mills along the Rideau River, they chose this location in 1820. Samuel settled here soon after, effecting many improvements to the site. By 1827 an extensive complex including a distillery... -
Nipigon Canoe Route, The
Indigenous peoples who hunted and traded here thousands of years ago developed a water route by which they could travel from Lake Superior to James Bay via Lake Nipigon and the Albany River. Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that people living in the Lake Nipigon region were part of an intricate system of trade that extended to the Atlantic coast. In the 1600s, native people began to share their knowledge of canoe travel on North American... -
Commissariat Building 1827
This structure, the oldest existing stone building in Ottawa, was used as a storehouse, office and treasury during the construction of the Rideau Canal (1826-32) under the direction of Lieutenant-Colonel John By, R.E. Its superb masonry and solid construction are typical of the stonework done by Scottish masons along the Rideau Canal and, at a later date, on private homes in eastern Ontario. In 1864, the building was turned over to the Canadian government and, until 1951, was used successively by various departments concerned with the maintenance of the canal. -
Eileen Vollick 1908-1968
Canada's first licensed woman pilot, Eilleen Vollick was born in Wiarton and cam to Hamilton about 1911. She was fascinated by aviation and in 1927 enrolled in the flying school established near her home on Hamilton Bay by Jack V Elliot, a Hamilton businessman and pioneer in Canadian commercial aviation. The spirited Eilleen Vollick devoted her spare time to flying and soon mastered the school's Curtiss JN-4 training aircraft. On March 13, 1928, she passed... -
Ferguson Highway, The
In 1925 the Ontario government began construction of this 260-mile trunk-road between Cochran and North Bay. The road was intended to link the rapidly developing mining and agricultural communities of "New Ontario" with the province's southern regions. Several sections of rebuilt local roads were incorporated into dense Timagami forest. The highway was officially opened on July 2, 1927, and named in honour of the Hon. G. Howard Ferguson, Premier of Ontario(1923-30) and long-time promoter of... -
Blackfriars Bridge
The oldest known wrought iron bridge in the province, Blackfriars Bridge was built in 1875 to replace a wooden structure. It was designed and fabricated by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio and assembled locally. Wrought iron was renowned for its qualities of strength and malleability and its resistance to corrosion before the use of steel became common. A fine example of truss construction, the bowstring arch bridge supports a suspended roadway that... -
Le Droit
In 1912, members of the Association canadienne-française d'éducation de l'Ontario and the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate – a religious order of the Catholic Church – gathered in Ottawa to discuss the founding of a newspaper to protest Regulation 17, which – until it was no longer enforced in 1927 – severely restricted the teaching of French in Ontario schools. That initial meeting led to the establishment of Le Droit, a Catholic French-language daily newspaper... -
French-Canadian Settlement and the CPR in the Mattawa Area
Francophone settlement rapidly increased in the Mattawa area with the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1881. During construction of the rail line, the local economy benefitted from the presence of thousands of French-Canadian workers, some of whom were accompanied by their families. Once the railway was operational, the local lumber industry expanded and Mattawa prospered as a community, a supply and transportation hub, and a lumber depot. Development was also stimulated in... -
CFCL Radio
The first French-language radio station in Ontario, CFCL-Timmins, began broadcasting in December 1951. The event was greeted with enthusiasm by Franco-Ontarians who until then had heard limited programming in French over the airwaves. The station reached listeners from Kirkland Lake to Hearst, showcasing local talent and creating a sense of community among the widely dispersed francophone population of northern Ontario. Daily features on French life in the region taught cultural pride, the love of one's... -
Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway Company, The
When completed in 1905, the Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway, or Portage Railway, provided a crucial 1.8-kilometre link connecting steamboats on Peninsula Lake to Lake of Bays and opened up North Muskoka to tourism and increased development. The railway was part of a larger navigation company owned by George F. Marsh and later sold to C.O. Shaw, owner of the Anglo-Canadian Leather Company in Huntsville and Bigwin Inn that opened on Lake of Bays... -
Timber Rafting on the Ottawa
The rafting of square timber down the Ottawa River, begun in 1806, reached its peak during 1861-91 and ended in 1909. Pine "sticks" from .1 to .2 square metres and 12 to 15 metres long were floated down tributary rivers such as the Petawawa, Madawaska, Bonnechere and Mississippi to rafting points on the Ottawa. There "cribs" were made up, containing 20 to 40 pieces of timber, and as many as 200 cribs, were in turn... -
Addington Road, The
This colonization road extended for about 73 miles northward from the Clare River in Sheffield Township to the Peterson Road in Burdenell Township. It formed a network of government roads built to open up the southern region of the pre-Cambrian Shield. From 1854 to 1857, Aylsworth B. Perry, a local surveyor, supervised construction of the road from the Clare River to the Madawaska River. A twelve-mile extension northward to the Peterson Road was added during... -
Alligator Tug, The
By the late 19th century, lumbering in Ontario had retreated from easily accessible waterways and movement of logs became difficult and expensive. An imaginative solution to this problem, the amphibious steam warping (or winching) tug was developed in 1888-89 by an inventive local entrepreneur, John Ceburn West. His remarkable vessel, commonly called the Alligator was driven by paddle wheels and housed a powerful winch that enabled the scow to tow large log booms cheaply and... -
Belleville
By 1790, the mill, tavern and stores established here near the Bay of Quinté had stimulated the growth of a settlement. Named "Belleville" in 1816, the village progressed steadily as a milling and shipping centre, and in 1834, the thriving community became a police village. The completion in 1856 of the Grand Trunk Railway between Toronto and Montreal, a booming lumber trade, and the development of a fertile agricultural hinterland fostered significant commercial and industrial...