Monthly Archives: December 2024

Goodwood – Ghost Towns of the GTA

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December 28, 2024

Goodwood is a little town that was largely unknown in recent years. That all changed in 2015 when it became a stand-in for the fictional town of Schitt$ Creek in the popular TV series of the same name. Long before its newfound fame, it had developed as a farming community in the mid-1800s. Goodwood was expanding and by 1862 there were two churches, a store, a hotel and a wagon shop in town. The map below shows Goodwood as it existed in 1910.

From the 1850s, Uxbridge Township Council met in a variety of places around the township. There was an ongoing issue trying to decide where to put the township hall and in 1862 it was decided to let the people decide. A two day vote was taken and it was decided that Goodwood was central and would make a good location for the township hall. Goodwood Town Hall was built in 1875 but was recently sold off and is now used as a private residence. It served as Schitt$ Creek Town Hall in the TV series.

The main intersection of the town looks much as it did a hundred years ago when horse and carriage stopped in town for refreshments for both horse and driver.

On the north east corner of the main intersection is the building that was used for Bob’s Garage in the show Schitt$ Creek. The building is actually owned by Joe Toby who uses it to make specialty furniture for disabled people.

The former store on the south east corner of the intersection was used as the Cafe Tropical in Schitt$ Creek. According to the TV series, the cafe was opened in 1947 and bought by Twyla Sands in 2018.

The building that would become famous as Rose Apothecary in Schitt$ Creek was originally built in 1861 as the town post office. Like many small town post offices it has also served as a general store. Later it was an antique store and then a yarn store. The building was recently put on the market for the asking price of $2.35 million and was later sold. It will soon be opened as a new venture called Goodwood Mercantile.

Just south of the intersection is the house that would serve as the Mayor’s residence in the TV show.

The first narrow-gauge railway in North America was the Toronto and Nipissing Railway. When it opened in 1871 it ran from Scarborough to Uxbridge, passing through Goodwood along the way. The railway ran into financial trouble and was never completed to Nipissing . In 1882 it was amalgamated into the Midland Railway and on January 1, 1884 it became part of the Grand Trunk Railway.

The Goodwood station was demolished in 1960 and only the siding remains. The archive image below shows the station and grain elevator. Engine 401 sits in front of the station waiting to finish loading. The station was replaced with a flag stop shelter but it was removed in the 1980s after passenger service ended in 1978.

The Goodwood Baptist Church was founded in 1876 by Rev. J. B. Moore who was the pastor in Stouffville Baptist Church. In January of that year he began by holding a service in the little building in the Goodwood Cemetery. Starting the next week they moved into the Goodwood Town Hall. On March 10th the congregation decided to formalize themselves as a separate church and set about finding the right place to erect their church building. The new building cost $1,600 and was dedicated on December 21, 1876.

Several of the buildings on town have Heritage Uxbridge plaques on them. The one pictured below says that it belonged to George and Elizabeth Todd. George owned Todd’s Produce and they lived in the house from 1911-1955. The house was built in 1875.

There are several streets in Goodwood that have most of their historical buildings from the 19th century still intact.

Goodwood is an interesting little town that can be explored on foot for the opportunity to enjoy it’s many surviving historical buildings. Please remember that the buildings are all privately owned and trespassing is not allowed.

Google Maps Link: Goodwood

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Kimbark House

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December 21, 2024

In 1900 the area around Avenue Road and Lawrence Avenue was still farms and country estates. The community of Eglinton had not expanded much west of Yonge Street and Lawrence Avenue was still a country road. The 1877 County Atlas image below shows the 1000 acres that was bordered by Eglinton avenue on the bottom, Yonge Street on the east, Lawrence Avenue on the north and Bathurst Street on the west. Avenue Road runs north to south through the middle of this block but has not been constructed at the time of the atlas.

Historic records suggest that the house was built for Ernest Jury and constructed around 1909-1910. At that time the land was farm fields and there was the usual assortment of rocks and boulders available from years of clearing the ground for agriculture. Every year the frost pushes rocks toward the top of the field. The soil is plowed to prepare it for planting. The plow cuts a deep furrow through the soil and turns it over. This helps to kill the weeds. aerates the soil and distributes nutrients through the soil. This also turns the rocks over onto the top of the soil. These rocks are then picked up and stacked along fence lines and in piles. These provided a good source of building materials for stone houses.

Originally bult for Jury, the home was later owned by Kimbark after whom Kimbark Boulevard is named. The home has become known as the Kimbark House. The house features a round sitting room with windows that look out over the gardens and lawns. The original property was a one acre ravine lot and the front of the home faced away from Kimbark Street. It was a later addition when the surrounding land was divided up for housing.

There are 4 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms in the house along with several fireplaces.

The house was given an historic designation in 1979 because it is one of only a few houses in the city of Toronto that are made of uncut stones. The house was then sold to the lawyer Edward Greenspan in 1984. Greenspan was one of the most known names amongst criminal defense lawyers in the Canada at the time. He worked on several high profile cases and wrote legal textbooks. He had a radio and later a tv series on CBC called Scales of Justice. He was also a strong advocate against the death penalty in Canada. Edward died of a heart attack on Christmas Eve 2014 at the age of 70. I see a little irony that a defense lawyer should live in a house built for a man named Jury.

The house went onto the market recently and sold for below the asking price, realizing a mere $7.8 million dollars. There have been several renovations over the years and it looks like one of the most obvious ones, the garage facing Kimbark Boulevard has recently been removed. From the real estate photos it clearly wasn’t harmonious with the stone house that it was added onto. The house and the original drive shed have been retained as they are protected by the historic designation.

It will be interesting to return to the home in a year and see what has been done with the renovations and how they fit in, or don’t, with the older stone home.

Google Maps link: Kimbark House

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