Tag Archives: Malton

Ghost Towns of Peel Region

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Sunday, March 28, 2021

Peel County has changed over the years since it was created, even taking on the name Regional Municipality of Peel. Some communities were founded that flourished and others that have failed. As time goes on and developers do their work some of these former communities are being eliminated, all except for a ghost of the original community. This blog collects 9 of the ones that we have visited and arranges them in alphabetical order. Each has a picture that represents the community as well as a brief description. The link for each will take you to a feature article on the community which has the local history as well as pictures of any surviving architectural features. At the end of each feature article is a google maps link in case you should wish to explore for yourself someday. Future companion blogs in this series will cover the ghost towns of Halton Region, York Region, and the City of Toronto.

Barbertown is the site of an old mill that is still operating. It has been clad over, hiding its original stone construction. The mill is no longer powered by water and the old sluice gate has been filled in. A tree is growing where the water once ran and it has taken a solid hold on the old crank assembly.

It is common to find an old church standing beside a graveyard. Boston Mills has its old school in its graveyard. That is quite unusual. The railway through town has been closed and turned into a hiking trail and the group of small cottages that once stood on the end of the golf course are falling in on themselves.

Britannia still has several original buildings although like the Gardner home below some no longer stand in their original locations. This 1840’s house has been moved about a kilometer south on Hurontario Street.

Burnhamthorpe reached a maximum of about 100 people in the 1870’s and then began to decline. Several houses and an old church remain and the one shown below was built in 1882. Between 1897 and 1912 it served as a store and the community post office.

Dixie was a small community where each church denomination was too small to afford their own building. The solution was to get together and build a chapel that they all could share. Later they would each grow large enough to erect their own church building and move out of the Union Chapel.

Humber Grove was built in the scenic hollow around Duffy’s Lane and the Humber River. When Hurricane Hazel flooded the rivers in the GTA the government developed a flood control plan that would have built a dam north of the community. Since the valley would have been flooded the existing houses were bought up and removed. The dam was never built and now Humber Grove is now a community of streets and bridge abutments with no residents.

Malton isn’t a true ghost town because there’s still a thriving town, just not the original town where 500 people lived. After the community declined it was overrun by the airport and its associated sprawl. It still has some vintage homes and interestingly enough the empty ones have the windows boarded up and then painted to look like windows.

Mt. Charles is another community that was over-run by the airport and it’s supporting industries. Until recently there were several other buildings, including the blacksmith shop but these have been demolished. John Dale’s house, below, and a few others still survive, as does the cemetery.

Palestine was founded in 1823 but never grew beyond a church, school and a few houses. At one time the Etobicoke Creek ravine held a wastewater treatment plant that has also been removed.

There are still several ghost towns in Peel that we haven’t photographed yet and we’re looking forward to exploring them one day.

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Malton – Ghost Towns of The GTA

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Sunday, July 7, 2019

The town of Malton had grown from humble beginnings to a community of over 900 before growth stalled and it began to decline.  The town developed around the classic four corners of a crossroads, in this case Airport Road and Derry Road.  It didn’t grow in all four directions however, only the 100 acres on the north west corner was laid out for a subdivision.  This happened a year after the Grand Trunk Railway came to town in 1854 and as a result the streets are laid out parallel to the railway and not to the four corners.  This leaves all the streets running at 45 degrees to Derry and Airport Roads.  Much of the original four corners was destroyed in a gas line explosion in 1969 and the rest was lost to road realignment and widening.  While not a true ghost town, the original community is now hidden in the original block of streets and surrounded by the airport and urban sprawl.

Malton 1877

In 1857 the Trinity Methodist Church was built as a wood frame structure.  Later it was given a veneer of bricks with some interesting details around the windows.  This church was used until 1953 when the congregation moved to a new church building and this one was converted into a residence.

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Compared to the beautiful brickwork in the picture above, the renovated building seen below is really awful.

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The house at 16 Burlington Street is a typical 3 bay farmhouse built in 1866 by John and Mary Bateman.  This house has a gothic arched window in the upstairs dormer.  The style is known as a story and a half because of the low headroom in the upstairs rooms.

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The house at 17 Scarboro Street is one of the oldest surviving ones in the community, having been built in 1870.  Richard and Harriet Ibson only owned the house for a few years before selling it to John Guardhouse in 1877.  It has had several additions to it over the years and is currently for sale.  The windows have been boarded over to keep vandals from destroying it and someone has taken the time to paint the boards black and put white trim on them.

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The house at 18 Scarboro Street belonged to David Tomlinson who served Toronto Gore as a councillor and a reeve in the 1860’s.  David built this house in 1884 at the same time that his brother built the house at 16 Scarboro Street.

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Joseph Tomlinson was a carpenter and the original owner of 16 Scarboro Street.  The two houses were built at the same time and likely both by Joseph.  The one at 16 Scarboro has much more interesting brickwork as illustrated in the quoins on the corners of the house.  The house also sports considerable gingerbread, unlike the house beside it.  The one thing the two houses have in common that suggests a common builder is the brickwork above the windows.

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In 1901 Queen Victoria passed away and King Edward VII took the throne.  Victorian architecture tended to involve odd shapes and many different sized windows.  Edwardian architecture moved away from the extravagant and more into the utilitarian.  Buildings tended to become more like blocks as is illustrated by this 1901 home.  I find it interesting that the upper story window has only one shutter because the wall is next to the window.

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The first school in Malton was built in 1828 and was a one room log structure.  This was replaced in 1858 with a larger brick building.  As the town grew the new school also needed to be replaced and the earlier log structure was finally torn down in 1923 and replaced with a two story school building.

1923 School

This school was in use until 1952 when a new school was built and this one was converted into apartments.

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In 1939 the neighbourhood was selected for the construction of an international airport for Toronto.  Malton Airport attracted more than just the airplanes that flew from there and before long aviation related industries were starting up.  During the Second World War a company called Victory Aircraft operated here but after the war they merged with A.V. Roe Canada.  They developed the CF-100 Canuck and the the CF-105 Avro Arrow.  A CF-100 is on display at Paul Coffey Park.

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The town of Malton has been absorbed into the urban sprawl that surrounds the airport but if you look you can still find traces of the original community.  Just west of Malton you can also visit another ghost town and read about it here: Mount Charles – Ghost Towns of the GTA. Just beyond that on the map at the start of this story is Palestine – Ghost Towns of the GTA for further exploration.

Google Maps Link: Malton

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John Robinson House – 1877

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Sunday, July 7, 2019

 

My brother had observed a house on Derry Road in Mississauga that he believes should be included in our post of surviving homes from the town of Mount Charles – Ghost Towns of The GTA.  Having been in the area checking out the historic town of Malton, it seemed like a good idea to visit this home as well.

Below is the county atlas for 1877 which shows the house as belonging to John Robinson, one lot east of the community of Mount Charles.  Formally known as lot 10, Con 4 East Half Side it was a 100 acre lot.  The dots between the house and Derry Road indicate the orchard that once grew there.

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The house was built in 1877 and replaced an earlier log structure on the property.  It stayed in the Robinson family until 1902 when the farm was sold to Fred Clarke.  The Clarke family continued to farm here until the 1960’s.

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The house is listed on the heritage register as Victorian Gothic Revival.  The north side of the home has the pointed arch window in the upper floor that is traditional for the gothic revival.  The three windows on the first floor have more of a rounded arch typical of the Italianate style that had been popular since the 1840’s.  Victorian homes often mix styles and pay little attention to symmetry.  Notice the three windows on the lower floor are not spaced equally.

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The gingerbread is falling off but at one time the house was decorously trimmed.  Each of the windows has a small row of brick cut in opposing angles running across the top and extending a couple of inches beyond the face of the wall.

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Someone has taken the time to paint the window boarding black with white trim to simulate the windows behind and make the house look a little more appealing.  The windows at the rear of the house have not been painted in the same manner.

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The front of the house had two doors, one facing east and one facing north.  The wall above the east facing door has cracked and shifted considerably.  The bricks were laid in a stretcher bond where the long side of each brick is exposed.  The outer layer is starting to fall away revealing the inner one beside the top of the door.  A large front porch was removed from the house but its outline is still clearly visible.

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The rear of the house had an addition at some point in which a kitchen was added as well as a drive shed.  The rear opening would have allowed the tack to be brought into the building.  Above the door the theme of extended stonework above the lintel is continued but it has not been done above the drive shed opening.  The mix of architectural styles is interesting.

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There is a single window at the back of the drive shed portion of the house.

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The north elevation of the house shows a door into the kitchen area of the extension.  A metal post is bolted to the wall on both sides of the building.  This looks to be beside the section of the extension that represents the drive shed.  These type of metal plates suggest that the structure had to be supported and strengthened.  It makes me wonder if the house was moved from a location deeper on the property.

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The difference in construction between the original house and the extension can be seen in the brickwork above the windows.  While the original windows were quite ornate and the quoins on the corners were made of lighter bricks.  The dichromate brick colouring appears to have been abandoned for the extension except for the east side in which it was carried on.

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The house was built on a foundation of field stones collected on the farm.  The county atlas appears to show it farther from the road but that may just be a reflection of the fact that the road was only two lanes as wide back in 1877 instead of the six lanes it carries today.

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The picture below was taken in 1989 before the two large warehouses were erected on either side of the house.  Even 30 years ago this house was abandoned and the roof was starting to cave in.  Notice that there is a bell cote on the top of the drive shed that is missing the bell.  The bell cote has been removed from the house and a few minor repairs have been made to the roof to keep the house from deteriorating further.

Robinson House 1989

The house is listed on the heritage register for Mississauga but it is unclear what the future holds for this historic house from the community of Mount Charles.

Google Maps Link: Mount Charles

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