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Unionville’s Welcome Sign
Unionville Millennium bandstand
Toogood Pond, Unionville, Ontario
Unionville is a suburban community in Markham, Ontario, Canada. It is located 33 km northeast of downtown Toronto and 4 km east of southern Richmond Hill. Unionville is located west of the Kennedy By-pass, north of the Highway 407, south of Major MacKenzie Drive, and east of Warden Avenue. Main Street, which was Kennedy Road in the mid to late 20th century, runs through Unionville while the new Kennedy runs 300 m to the east. Buttonville is located in the west central part of Markham.
The population of Unionville is presently about 30,000. Unionville is said to be one of the most affluent areas in the Greater Toronto Area with an average household income of $127,900. The average house is about 20 years old. The average age is about 42 years old. There is approximently 9500 homes. About 94% of the population owns their house and about 6% rent. Rouge River runs north of the central part of Unionville and to the southeast. The highway (Highway 404) is to the west, the nearest interchange with the 407 ETR is 2 km south on Kennedy Rd. The population lives in almost all parts of Unionville except for the south central industrialized area. The railway line which links the area to Toronto via GO Train Service once ran as far as Lindsay, a town near Peterborough.
Tourism is a major part of Unionville’s economy. The historic village or downtown section of Unionville is typical of a small town that developed over a century or so starting in the early 1840s (when Ira White erected his Union Mills) through the middle to late 20th century. The historic Main Street Unionville attracts thousands of visitors each year - as of 2006 it boasted 9 restaurants, including 3 pubs. Main Street (originally the laneway from the village’s first grist mill) also has a number of “century homes” dating back to the 1800s. Each year, thousands visit Unionville during the Unionville Festival.
The main street has been used as a stand-in for fictional Connecticut town Stars Hollow during the first season of The WB’s (now The CW) Gilmore Girls television show, as well as other television and movie backdrops.
Most of the historic buildings in Unionville are included in List of historic buildings in Markham, Ontario.
Contents
- 1 Geography
- 2 Recent History
- 3 Culture
- 4 Events
- 5 Politics
- 6 Education
- 7 Transportation
- 8 Notable Residents
- 9 Nearest communities
- 10 See also
- 11 References
- 12 External links
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Geography
Once surrounded by farmlands, the village is now surrounded by suburban housing tracts. During the revival period in the 1970s a ban was placed on development for 25 years, but that time has now passed.
There is concern about how the village is now turning into a city, with all the new homes being build on farm lands, and heritage buildings being knocked down for new homes. Today Unionville has less then 10% of farm lands as there was in the mid 1990’s.
Recent History
Stiver Mill
Unionville Planing Mill
Unionville old church, built by Casa Loma architect
Unionville Main Street
In the 1960s, major housing development came to Unionville and is still ongoing. Having old buildings available at low cost, a number of antique businesses sprang up and for a while in the 1970s Unionville ranked high on the list of places to go to get antiques. After the commitment to a bypass was realised, in the 1970s, entrepreneurs appeared. The Old Country Inn opened for business and Old Firehall Sports brought a new clientele to the village. Over the next decades, the antique places disappeared being replaced by high-end antique and replica outlets, restaurants, pubs, and clothing establishments. Tourism was born. Starbucks appeared in the late 1990s. Many of the buildings have been spruced up, extended and upgraded to meet this new reality. The old original road, to the immediate east of Main Street, once considered to be swamp land, has been converted to a large parking lot.
Walking paths through the local conservation lands connect directly to the village roads. One of the most used being the path around Toogood Pond, the mill pond from the 1840s that powered the grist mill. In the early 20th century the pond was called Willow Pond or Willow Lake and was the home to several small summer cottages on north Main Street. Some had been cottages, for grist mill workers, in their earliest incarnation. Those cottages evolved into homes by the middle of the century, but are almost all gone now being replaced by large spacious expensive homes.
The Varley Art Gallery now stands at the north end of the commercial Main Street and is rapidly becoming a gallery of wide renown. It was started with the contributions of Mrs. McKay, who had supported Group of Seven artist Fred Varley for the later part of his life. Living in her home on Main Street Unionville, he did several paintings that are now part of the Art Gallery collection and the home is now part of the Art Gallery’s holdings, being used for small art shows on a regular basis.
In the mid-1990s until the summer of 1999, Highway 407 was under construction. It is Ontario’s first toll road and was first opened the summer of 1998 at McCowan Road. It was later extended to Brock Road.
The Unionville Arms, a well known pub, burnt down on November 30th 2007. It had been in business for 19 years prior. The building itself was over a century old. The legendary building caught fire in the morning and the fire was put out 3 hours later. No one was hurt. The Arms reopened in very much its original appearance, towards the end of December 2008.
The Unionville library, completed in 1984, serves as a major cultural facility in the historic village center. The 14,000 sf library plan is based on a traditional village square surrounded by eight houses of books expressed on the exterior as postmodern Victorian dormers. The library, which contains approximately 100,000 books and audiovisual materials, was designed by architect Barton Myers.
Culture
Varley Art Gallery
The Unionville Festival was first organized in 1969 to raise awareness and money to fight the provincial plan to run a four lane highway up the middle of the town and thus destroying it. An interest in history, spurred by the Canadian Centennial Year in 1967, awoke the long time residents and the new subdivision residents. Slowly, local politicians got on board, and a plan was drawn up to divert the road to the east of the little town center. Today the festival continues to offer visitors access to handcrafts, small vendors and community groups. Virtually none of the businesses from the mid 20th century still exist, having been replaced by restaurants and tourist outlets.
The Unionville Business Improvement Area and its merchants, organize and operate numerous, year-round, admission free, festivals and events. The Merchants of Main Street Unionville BIA is the business association on Main Street Unionville, composed of volunteers from the business community, who work to preserve and promote the historical village of Unionville.
Events
- July 1 - September 1 - Unionville Summer Concert Series
- July 1 - Unionville Canada Day
- July 11 & 12 - Unionville Celtic Festival
- August 3 - Unionville Simcoe Day Festival
- August 14-16 & 21-23 - Unionville JAZZ ON MAIN Festival
- August 23 & 24 - Doors Open Unionville & Heritage Train Rides
- September 1 - Unionville Heritage & Big Band Festival
- September & October - Unionville Heritage Harvest
- October 13 - Unionville Little Oktoberfest
- October 26 - Halloween on Main Street
- November 11 - Unionville Remembrance Day Service
- November 14 & 15 - Unionville Moonlight Madness
- December 5-7 - Unionville Olde Tyme Christmas
- December 6 & 7 - Unionville Santa Trains
- December 11-23 - Late Night Shopping
- December 26-31 - Boxing Day Events
- February 16 - Unionville Family Day
- March 16-20 - March Break in Unionville
- March 28 - Earth Hour in Unionville
- April 11-13 - Unionville Easter Weekend
- May 10 - Mother’s Day in Unionville
- May 18 - Victoria Day in Unionville
- June 5 - 7 - Unionville Festival
- June 21 - Father’s Day in Unionville
The Unionville BIA’s Heritage Committee has seen its volunteers research and produce a self-guided walking tour. They also offer the official walking tours of Main Street Unionville.
Politics
Unionville is currently a part of the following districts:
- Ward 3, represented by Councilor Joe Virgilio
- Markham—Unionville, provincial electoral riding, represented by Michael Chan (Liberal)
- Markham-Unionville, federal electoral riding, represented by John McCallum (Liberal)
Education
- Buttonville Public School
- Bill Crothers Secondary School
- Coledale Public School
- John XXIII Catholic Elementary School
- Parkview Public School
- St. Matthew Catholic Elementary School
- St. Justin Martyr Catholic Elementary School
- Unionville High School
- Unionville Meadows Public School
- Unionville Public School
- William Berczy Public School
- St. Augustine Catholic High School
Transportation
Highway 407 ETR- York Region Transit
- Viva
Highway 7- Toronto Transit Commission
Notable Residents
- Hayden Christensen of Star Wars fame attended Unionville High School.
- Emmanuelle Chriqui - Canadian actress currently of Entourage (TV Series) fame and who also appeared in On the Line, Snow Day, and In the Mix.
- Anna Russell - English–Canadian singer and comedienne - Anna Russell Way is named after her.
- Steven Stamkos a Canadian ice hockey player of the Tampa Bay Lightning
Nearest communities
- Buttonville, west
- Stouffville, north
- Markham, east
- Scarborough, south
See also
- List of historic buildings in Markham, Ontario
References
- ^ Main Street Unionville Official Guide, 2008
purses
Canada
Ontario
