A Walker's Guide to Historical Trafalgar Road
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John A. Chisholm (407 Trafalgar Road)
John Alexander Chisholm Sr. was the third son of the founder, Colonel William Chisholm. We have already heard about three of John A’s sons – Charles Pettit, William Bigger and Robert McKenzie – the firebug. The fourth son, also John Alexander, lived less than five months. The next son was also John Alexander who ended up owning the Erchless Estate at the foot of Navy Street and was the father of Hazel Chisholm Mathews, author of Oakville and the Sixteen.
John Sr. had been a farmer in Nelson Township (now Burlington) until he took possession of the farm which ran north and east from here. He also ran the family mills. The house was originally at the end of a long lane but was moved here and considerably remodeled in the early 1900s. John was a founding member of the Oakville Temperance Reformation Society in 1834
John Sr. had been a farmer in Nelson Township (now Burlington) until he took possession of the farm which ran north and east from here. He also ran the family mills. The house was originally at the end of a long lane but was moved here and considerably remodeled in the early 1900s. John was a founding member of the Oakville Temperance Reformation Society in 1834
Proceed north to curve.
Corner of 6th Line and 7th Line.
Trafalgar Road has had several names over the years. On the original survey of 1806 it was 7th Line, although the lower portion of it is not straight. It later became Station Road as it ran to the railway station which stood on the south side of the tracks. Next it was Dundas Street and finally, when Oakville and Trafalgar Township amalgamated in 1962, it became Trafalgar Road to avoid confusion with Highway 5, also Dundas Street. It was the major entrance to the Town apart from the harbour. 6th Line, still called that, is parallel to Trafalgar Road and to the west. It now stops at the QEW but once continued across the tracks and then curved east to meet Trafalgar Road. At the corner stood a toll gate.
Trafalgar Road has had several names over the years. On the original survey of 1806 it was 7th Line, although the lower portion of it is not straight. It later became Station Road as it ran to the railway station which stood on the south side of the tracks. Next it was Dundas Street and finally, when Oakville and Trafalgar Township amalgamated in 1962, it became Trafalgar Road to avoid confusion with Highway 5, also Dundas Street. It was the major entrance to the Town apart from the harbour. 6th Line, still called that, is parallel to Trafalgar Road and to the west. It now stops at the QEW but once continued across the tracks and then curved east to meet Trafalgar Road. At the corner stood a toll gate.
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Further west along 6th Line and down in the creek valley stood a mill originally built by the Chisholm family. It was later owned by Hedley Shaw, the Ashbury brothers and then the Hammond brothers before it burned in the 1920s. The dam for the mill was further upstream above the hog’s back and water was brought from there by a tunnel under the hog’s back and then by wooden flume to the mill. The tunnel is now blocked off and the flume is long gone. The ruins of the mill were taken down in the 1960s. Farmers could avoid the toll on their way to the mill by coming down 6th Line unless they wanted to go into town to visit one of the many taverns or inns.
The north side of 6th Line was a bit of an industrial area. Apart from the basket factory there were also Glassgo’s Jams and Marmalade and McDermott’s Fuel and Ice. The Canadian Wineries, Hillmer’s Fuel and Ice (and on Ancestry), Davis and Doty Lumber and Planing Mill – now Main Lumber – Oakville Pressed Brick Co, Langmuir Paint and Varnish and Canadian Tire and Rubber which became Barringham Rubber and later Monsanto, Ferro Enamel, Oakville Aluminum Company and Canadian General Tower were all located in the area of Trafalgar Road, 6th Line and the railway. We should note that Oakville has been listed in passenger train schedules since 1855. We think that commuting to Toronto started with the GO service but for over 140 years, Oakville people have commuted to Toronto and Hamilton. The CNR commuter schedules were very similar but there were two more stops – Sunnyside and Lorne Park. |
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Return to Spruce then east to Reynolds and then south.
The Donald Campbell House - c1857 (293 MacDonald Road)
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Donald Campbell was born in Scotland and came to North America with his regiment, The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. On his discharge in 1842 he settled in Oakville and married Jane Laing. He was a tailor and was given the position of toll keeper when the plank toll road from Fergus to Oakville was built in 1850. The gate was at the corner of 6th Line and Trafalgar Road where the Sunrise retirement home now stands. Campbell purchased this property from John A. Chisholm in 1856 for £100 or $400. The house was built within a year. Campbell, who also called himself Douglas, died in 1882. His daughter, Jane Ann, married William Street and, after his death at age 43, lived in the house with her mother and four children. She died two years later leaving her mother with the four children. The two daughters never married and the house stayed in the Campbell/Street family for almost 115 years.
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The two storey front façade is unique in that it has Flemish bond brickwork with a cornice of decorative brick and brick eave returns.
Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital
The block of land on which the hospital stands remained vacant until the late 1940s when it was donated for the purposes of a memorial hospital by the heirs of Mrs. Kate Chisholm whose house we saw earlier. Until that time it had stood vacant and had a large pile of dirt on it from the excavations for the high school next door. During the war the land was used for Victory gardens. When the hospital opened it was already too small and an addition was immediately planned. Since then it has been altered countless times. A new – perhaps replacement – hospital is planned to open December 2015. What will happen to the property is up for debate.
Old OTHS - 1908 (291 Reynolds Street)
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What you see here is the original and now all that is left of Oakville High School. It opened in 1908 and was a simple structure constructed in the Collegiate Gothic Style, designed with three entrances: the student body had their separate entrances at the sides - the staff used the main front entrance. The original structure is a well-proportioned composition featuring three stepped gables. It originally served all of what is now Oakville, and was renamed Oakville-Trafalgar High School in 1946 when the school district of Trafalgar merged with the district of Oakville.
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There were several additions on all sides: the auditorium and gym were constructed in 1942, a new back wing was added in 1962, a new gym built in 1966 and a library-resource centre added in 1969. It closed in 1993 when it was replaced by the new Oakville Trafalgar High School. After being purchased by the hospital all except the original building was torn down. This remaining part is designated under Part 4 of the Ontario Heritage Act.
Fair Grounds/Wallace Park, Victoria Hall, Skating Rink
This is the site of the Oakville Fair, the Skating Club and Victoria Hall.
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The Oakville Fair eventually moved to the other side of the Creek behind the arena and this park was used for baseball games. Originally the park was named Victoria park. It was renamed Wallace Park after J.M. Wallace, owner of the basket factory. He paid for new lights which have since been removed.
The Curling Club started as a skating rink, built by volunteer labour, with attached curling sheets. The original building was torn down a few years ago. |
The parking lot was the site of Victoria Hall. Saturday night dances, Teen Town, high school stage productions all took place here, and silent movies were shown. Lightbourn’s School – now St Mildred's-Lightbourn School – ran a co-ed nursery school in the building in the late 1950s. Their main school was across the street. The building was torn down in the early 1960s.
The George Freestone House - c1887 (213 Reynolds Street)
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George, James, Robert and John Freestone were four of the seven children of Mary and John Freestone, a plasterer from Northamptonshire, and they all settled in this area.
The George Freestone House is an interesting adaptation of Italianate onto a basic Ontario Farmhouse floor plan. The twin windows on the front bay have semi-circular arches on the top level and ornate cornices. The top window has a pediment while the bottom simply has an oversized cornice. The verandah is original with ornate capital detailing. Above the veranda is a door. If there was no balcony for the door, the building would be considered technically unfinished and taxes would reflect this. This may have been the case here. |
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