Box Grove, Ontario

Last updated
Box Grove
Unincorporated community and former hamlet
Coordinates: 43°51′29″N79°13′50″W / 43.85806°N 79.23056°W / 43.85806; -79.23056
Country Canada
Province Ontario
Regional municipality York
City Markham
Population
 (2006)
 • Total13,023 [1]
Time zone UTC-5 (EST)
 • Summer (DST) UTC-4 (EDT)
Area code(s) 905 and 289
NTS Map030M14
GNBC CodeFALBQ

Box Grove(Census Tract 5350400.01) is an original community in Markham, Ontario.

Contents

History

A Middle Iroquoian settlement existed on the west bank of a tributary of the Little Rouge Creek in the fourteenth century in the area which is today called Box Grove. [2] In 1815, William Beebe was the first European settler in this area; Sparta or Sparty-Wharf (Box Grove in 1867) was registered as a hamlet in 1850. The name suggests that at an early date there was boat traffic on the Rouge River. The hamlet changed to its present name during Canada's Confederation in 1867 when it was granted a post office (McCaffrey General Store later as Box Grove General Store moved to what is now Shell Service Station after 1901). The origin of the name is unclear; it may be due to the activity at the box-making woodworking factory, a reference to the many boxwood trees around the hamlet, or linked to the hamlet of Box Grove in West Sussex, England. [3] In 1867 the hamlet had "a Church, a schoolhouse, two taverns, woolen mill, sawmill, a store, a blacksmith and two axe-makers shops capable of supplying the whole country with axes and augurs on short notice." [4]

The hamlet was the centre of local and small-scale industrial activity. A saw mill, cotton mill wool factory, and "shoddy mill" (for shredding old woolen fabrics for cheaper cloth and stuffing) along the banks of the Rouge River appeared after 1815. [5] The working hamlet had a cheese factory, [6] hotel, and three taverns for a population of 150 (1880); some neighbouring Mennonites had a "pessimistic" view of worldly Sparta, and sought to avoid travel in the hamlet. [7] A Temperance House was opened in the 1860s by Joseph Lathrop on 14th Avenue. By the end of the nineteenth century the mills had closed (victims of floods and fire), and the White Rose Hotel and Tavern also closed its doors by 1910 (later replaced by residential dwellings and located at what is now 6788 14th Avenue). [8] While industry disappeared in Box Grove, the hamlet remained. The Box Grove General Store (6772 14th Avenue c. 1860), Box Grove Church (2 Legacy Drive c. 1870) and Box Grove Schoolhouse, S.S. #18 (7651 9th Line c.1870), are the only reminders of the once-vibrant hamlet (the Tomlinson family is buried in the church's graveyard). Many homes along 9th Line from north and south of 14th Avenue date to the mid to late 19th Century.

A few prominent families were part of Box Grove:

Today, Box Grove has undergone a transformation from protected agricultural land to residential use. Box Grove is located in the area around Ninth Line (also known as Box Grove By-Pass) and 14th Avenue. Residential development began in the late 1990s and continues today.

In 1950 the Box Grove Golf course was built by businessman Nelson Davis on the Tomlinson property which included a portion of the Rouge River valley where their mills were located. One of the Tomlinsons was buried on the site and the golf course was built leaving the grave and headstone intact. In 1953, Nelson invited Arnold Palmer to play his course. Arnold apparently shot an 82 and declared it to be one of the toughest courses he had ever played. Davis built a lovely stone clubhouse which included a locker room with beautiful wooden lockers. In 1967, IBM purchased the golf course primarily for use by its employees. The golf facility included a 9-hole par 3 course and the tough 18-hole course, 9 holes in the valley and 9 holes on the flat ground on the north side of the valley. In 1997, IBM sold part of the course to Minto for a residential development called Legacy and the Town of Markham took ownership of the valley portion of the course which is now called Markham Green Golf Club. The original clubhouse has been modified extensively, first by IBM then by the Town and is now an attractive community centre. The Tomlinson grave was moved to the Box Grove Church graveyard and the original gravesite now on the south side of Legacy Drive is marked with a stone monument.

The Box Grove post office was lost in the early 20th century. The current post office is located inside the Rexall pharmacy at Ninth Line and Copper Creek Drive.

Legacy and Rouge-Fairways

Within Box Grove there are two distinct residential developments built from the former IBM Canada Golf Course, but are not historically considered as communities:

Transportation

Most commuters in the area travel by car as there is limited bus service by York Region Transit (2 Milliken (weekends), 9 9th Line (weekdays), 14 14th Avenue (weekdays)). Highway 407 serves the area from the Ninth Line interchange; however there is no access onto eastbound Highway 407 from Ninth Line northbound. This has been an ongoing problem for most Box Grove residents who tries to go east on the highway as access to the Highway 407 eastbound is limited. Option 1 is to enter the Highway 407 east from Markham Road which is west of this community, option 2 is to enter the Highway 407 east from York-Durham Line but the interchange is far from this neighbourhood, and option 3 is to make a U turn at Highway 407 and Ninth Line or Donald Cousens Parkway to go east.

Parks and Recreation

Luenta Gardens is named former name of the park (formerly Luneta Park and now Rizal Park) in Manila where Jose Rizal is buried. The small park also has a statue of Rizal.

Other parks in the area includes:

Box Grove Community Centre

Box Grove Community Centre at 7651 9th Line is housed in the old Box Grove Schoolhouse (S.S. #18) built around 1870. Renovated with two additions to the original school house, it has 2 rooms and home a co-operative day care centre. There is also an outdoor pool that operates during the summer months.

Outside is small grass area and two tennis courts.

The community centre historic school house is twin of Cedar Grove Community Centre, formerly Cedar Grove Schoolhouse (S.S. #20) c. 1869.

In film

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Markham, Ontario</span> City in Ontario, Canada

Markham is a city in the York Region of Ontario, Canada. It is approximately 30 km (19 mi) northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the 2021 Census, Markham had a population of 338,503, which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and 16th largest in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitchurch-Stouffville</span> Town in Ontario, Canada

Whitchurch-Stouffville is a town in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada, approximately 50 km (31 mi) north of downtown Toronto, and 55 km (34 mi) north-east of Toronto Pearson International Airport. It is 206.22 km2 (79.62 sq mi) in area, and located in the mid-eastern area of the Regional Municipality of York on the ecologically-sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine. Its motto since 1993 is "country close to the city".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rouge River (Ontario)</span> River in Ontario, Canada

The Rouge River is a river in Markham, Pickering, Richmond Hill and Toronto in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada. The river flows from the Oak Ridges Moraine to Lake Ontario at the eastern border of Toronto, and is the location of Rouge Park, the only national park in Canada within a municipality. At its southern end, the Rouge River is the boundary between Toronto and southwestern Pickering in the Regional Municipality of Durham.

Stouffville is the primary urban area within the town of Whitchurch-Stouffville in York Region, Ontario, Canada. It is situated within the Greater Toronto Area and the inner ring of the Golden Horseshoe. The urban area is centred at the intersection of Main Street, Mill Street, and Market Street. Between 2006 and 2011, the population of the Community of Stouffville grew 100.5% from 12,411 to 24,886, or from 51% to 66% of the total population of the larger town of Whitchurch-Stouffville. The population of Stouffville from the 2021 census is 36,753.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finch Avenue</span> Road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Finch Avenue is an arterial thoroughfare that travels east–west in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The road continues west into the Regional Municipality of Peel as Regional Road 2 and east into the Regional Municipality of Durham as Regional Road 37.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morningside Avenue (Toronto)</span> Road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Morningside Avenue is a suburban arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is entirely within Scarborough, running north by north-west from the Scarborough Bluffs overlooking Lake Ontario to the eastern terminus of McNicoll Avenue near the Rouge River valley. A short extension from Steeles Avenue to Passmore Avenue has been completed but the connection to the southern section to McNicoll Avenue is still not completed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unionville, Ontario</span> Suburban district in York, Ontario, Canada

Unionville is a suburban district and former village in Markham, Ontario, Canada, 2 km (2.5 mi) west of Markham Village, and 33 km (20.5 mi) northeast of Downtown Toronto. The boundaries of Unionville are not well-defined. Several neighbourhoods claim to be part of it however, this has been disputed between the various wards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornell, Markham</span> Unincorporated community in Ontario, Canada

Cornell is a new community village being developed in northeast Markham, Ontario and bounded by Highway 407, 16th Avenue, Ninth Line, and the Donald Cousens Parkway. The 2011 population of this area was 9,880. Adding Cornell North's 2,178 it had 12,058 residents.

Cedar Grove is a community in Markham, Ontario on the Little Rouge River. It is centred on 14th Avenue and Reesor Road and within the boundaries of the future national Rouge Park.

Hagerman's Corners is a dispersed rural community in Markham, Ontario, Canada. Located at 14th Avenue and Kennedy Road, the former farm lands have disappeared and given way to homes and commercial parks. It is geographically located between the communities of Milliken Mills and Unionville, within the city of Markham.

Vinegar Hill is an unincorporated community in Markham, Ontario, Canada bounded by Highway 7 to the north, Highway 407 to the south, and streets just west and east of Main Street South, bordered by the Rouge River. The name of the community is believed to be linked to a cider mill on the east side of the river valley or barrel makers that filled them with vinegar to test their straightness when rolling down Markham Road.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Cousens Parkway</span> Arterial bypass of Markham

Donald Cousens Parkway or York Regional Road 48, also referred to historically as the Markham Bypass or Markham Bypass Extension, is a regionally-maintained arterial bypass of Markham in the Canadian province of Ontario. Named for former Markham mayor Don Cousens in April 2007, the route initially travelled northward from Copper Creek Drive in Box Grove, south of Highway 407, to Major Mackenzie Drive. A southern extension to Steeles Avenue was later completed and the name Donald Cousens Parkway applied along the extension to Ninth Line. In addition to its role of funneling through-traffic around downtown Markham, the route serves as a boundary to residential development as land to the north and east are part of the protected Rouge National Urban Park and southwest limits of the planned Pickering Airport.

Downtown Markham is the main central business district of Markham, Ontario, Canada. Currently under development, it is located within Markham Centre near the historic Unionville district and is proposed to serve as the heart of Markham. Businesses in the district are expected to employ up to 16,000 individuals, and it may house as many as 10,000 residents. The development plans will have a high density of residential, retail, commercial and mixed-use structures. The community is being developed, built and wholly financed by The Remington Group Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaver Creek (York Region)</span> River in Ontario, Canada

Beaver Creek is a river in the municipalities of Markham and Richmond Hill in the Regional Municipality of York, part of the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Great Lakes Basin and is a right tributary of the Rouge River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Locust Hill, Ontario</span> Unincorporated community and former hamlet in Ontario, Canada

Locust Hill is a historic community of Markham, Ontario centred on Hwy. 7 and the Canadian Pacific Railway and within the boundaries of the future national Rouge Park.

Mongolia is an historical community in Markham, Ontario centred on 10th Line and Elgin Mills Rd. East, immediately south of the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville. The hamlet lies completely within the expropriated federal Pickering Airport lands and also within the proposed boundaries of a future national Rouge Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ringwood, Ontario</span> Unincorporated community in Ontario, Canada

Ringwood is a hamlet in York Region, Ontario, Canada, in the Town of Whitchurch–Stouffville. The hamlet is centred at the intersection of Stouffville Road and Highway 48, on the Little Rouge River, a tributary of the Rouge River on the Oak Ridges Moraine. The community originally straddled the townships of Markham and Whitchurch in the County of York. The hamlet was named Ringwood in 1856 by George Sylvester, postmaster and owner of a general store, after the town of Ringwood, in Hampshire, England. It was first settled in the 1790s by George Fockler from Pennsylvania. The Little Rouge River runs along the eastern edge of the hamlet. In 1857, Ringwood had a population of 200 which grew only slightly to 225 by 1910. By 1972, the population had dropped to 172. Between 2008 and 2010, more than 250 homes were constructed in Ringwood's Cardinal Point subdivision north of Main Street. Construction on a new auto mall in Ringwood began in 2009, with Hyundai and Toyota dealerships opening in 2010, and Dodge/Jeep and Nissan dealerships constructed in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Reesor</span>

Peter Reesor was one of the original settlers of Markham, Ontario.

Old Bailey Bridge is a Bailey bridge located below 16th Avenue east of Reesor Road within Rouge Park in Markham, Ontario, Canada. The bridge crossed the Little Rouge Creek, a tributary of the Rouge River. A new bridge was built above this bridge to provide two way access for 16th Avenue east of Ressor Road. The old bridge is in situ with ends fenced off to prevent trespassing.

References

  1. ↑ Box Grove's Location and statistics
  2. ↑ Archaeological Services, Inc., Stage 4 Archaeological Excavation of the New Site AlGt-36 [ permanent dead link ], June 2010.
  3. ↑ For a fuller account of Box Grove's history, cf. Isabel Champion, ed., Markham: 1793-1900 (Markham, ON: Markham Historical Society, 1979), 287-289; 88; 177; 112; 339. See also the detailed 1878 map, "Township of Markham," Illustrated historical atlas of the county of York and the township of West Gwillimbury & town of Bradford in the county of Simcoe, Ont. (Toronto: Miles & Co., 1878).
  4. ↑ Letter to Markham Economist, 1867, cited in Champion, ed., Markham: 1793-1900 , p. 339.
  5. ↑ http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/images/maps/townshipmaps/yor-m-markham.jpg [ bare URL image file ]
  6. ↑ Complete pronouncing gazetteer, or, geographical dictionary of the World, p. 78
  7. ↑ "Historic Tours Markham". Historictours.ca. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  8. ↑ "York Region Ontario Travel In-Town: York Region region's Heritage attractions information, listings and links". Foundlocally.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-11. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  9. ↑ I. Champion, Markham: 1793-1900 , 79.

43°51′29″N79°13′50″W / 43.85806°N 79.23056°W / 43.85806; -79.23056

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.