Cornell is a neighbourhood 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 (from 16th Avenue to Donald Cousens Parkway) it has 12,058 residents.[1]
One of the original settlers in the area that is today Cornell was Christian Reesor, who settled there with his family. Their original homestead was on Reesor Road. The name 'Cornell' derives from the maiden name of the wife of Christian Reesor's youngest son, who continued to live at the family homestead.[2]
The area had initially been settled by Peter Reesor, who is credited as the founder of Markham, but many other properties would be owned by Reesors' as well into the mid to late mid 19th century.[3] Cornell's name was selected in 1999, and is named for the Cornell family, headed by William C. Cornell (1766-1860), which came to Canada from Rhode Island in 1799, and eventually settled in Markham.[4]
Planning
Cornell was conceived in the early 1990s planning process by the town of Markham. Unlike other Markham neighbourhoods, Cornell is a specially designed planned community. US firm Duany Plater-Zyberk and Associates worked on designing Cornell as a new urbanist community in 1994, as a departure from conventional subdivision design; with a grid street pattern with an on-street retail corridor (more detail below). Development began in 1997.[5]
Community description
Most of the houses are townhomes, semi-detached, or detached houses with garages at the rear. The communities are built with central amenities in order to contain suburban sprawl. Cornell was seen by then-Markham Town Council as a way to deter the ongoing sprawl by encouraging residential density. The community, particularly Cornell Village, is designed as a walkable neighbourhood with a variety of housing types and retail. Cornell Village, between Highway 7 and 16th Avenue, is fully populated with medium density residential. The southern section of Cornell (south of Highway 7), however, is not fully populated, and remained as a wild field and a farm east of Bur Oak, but began re-developed as South Cornell in 2022.[6] In 2012, the City of Markham completed Fire Station 99 to serve the area.
YRT Route 303 Bur Oak Express also provides an express service connecting Cornell to Finch Bus Terminal, bypassing Cornell Terminal.
Road
Major roads and highways in the community include:
Arterial roads
Highway 7 (York Regional Road 7 runs east-west that runs through the centre of Cornell from Donald Cousens Parkway to Ninth Line. Formerly provincial Highway 7, it was downloaded to York Region.
16th Avenue (York Regional Road 73) runs east-west on the north side of Cornell.
9th Line (York Regional Road 69) runs north-south on the west side of Cornell.
Donald Cousens Parkway (York Regional Road 48) runs north-south on the east side of Cornell.
Secondary roads
Cornell Centre Boulevard
Cornell Centre Boulevard is a collector road in the east side of Cornell that runs north-south from Highway 7 to 16th Avenue.[7] The section north of Cornell Community Park to 16th Avenue was formerly part of the original Markham By-pass to divert traffic from Markham Village before the present Donald Cousens Parkway was constructed, with the section south of it built as a new road diverging to the southwest (This severed the bypass, with the southern section becoming part of William Forster Road, leaving part of its former right-of-way passing through the present park.).[8][9]
Bur Oak Avenue
Bur Oak Avenue is a secondary road in the north side of Cornell mainly north-south and curves around north of 16th Avenue to Ninth Line.
Highways
Highway 407 is an east-west highway on the southern boundary of Cornell with two exits (Donald Cousens and Ninth Line)
The main entrance of the Cornell Community Centre & Library
There are also a number of city-owned parks, including:
Cornell Community Park is a large sports park containing two baseball diamonds, two soccer fields, and six pickleball courts
Cornell Village Park is community park located next to Cornell Village Public School
Donald Cousens Parkway North Berm and Flatlands – naturalized area on the northeast corner of Ninth Line and Donald Cousens Parkway in Upper Cornell
Grand Cornell Park – features clock tower and bell commemorating the Reesor settlers in the area; park is unfinished due to stoppage of development east of the Little Rouge Creek
Oakmoor Pond – manmade marshes that drains Little Rouge River
New Union Park – renamed and signs installed after local veteran McCowan Freeman in 2017
Black Walnut P.S: The significance of the school's name is from the fact that Black Walnut trees grow best in deep, fertile soil. When settlers came to Markham, more than two centuries ago, they saw Black Walnut trees growing. They knew this was a good sign that they had found an area that would be good for farming. More than 65 German Pennsylvanian families, many of them Mennonites, came to Southern York Region because of, indirectly, the Black Walnut.[2]
Cornell Village P.S: accepts students mostly from Cornell.
Little Rouge P.S: located in Cornell North. Students living in Grand Cornell, Cornell Rouge, Cornell and Upper Cornell and students from the rural areas to the north and east attend Little Rouge Public School.
Rouge Park P.S.: newest elementary school in the area.
YRDSB has a site on the future extension of Bur Oak Avenue south of Highway 7.
Secondary
Bill Hogarth Secondary School – opened in September 2017 with a secondary French Immersion program serving east Markham and Whitchurch-Stouffville, located on Bur Oak Avenue near Cornell Community Centre.[10]
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