St. Peter’s Anglican Church

January 27, 2024

Erindale isn’t a ghost town in the traditional sense because it is now part of the larger city of Mississauga. However the older homes that remain scattered through the area provide a ghost of the town that once was. Over the years we have written eight other blogs which focus on various aspects of the local history of Erindale and links to all of these can be found at the end of this post.

Erindale began in 1825 and was originally known as Toronto. It went through several name changes being known as Credit, then Springfield and finally Springfield-on-the-Credit. In 1900 it took the name of Erindale after a local estate owned by Reverend James Magrath. The town was a major stop on the journey along Dundas Street between Hamilton and York (Toronto). It started to decline after 1855 when the railway bypassed it but saw a revival in 1879 when the Credit Valley Railway built a station nearby. A fire in 1919 destroyed much of the town but several buildings were rebuilt.

The Grange was built sometime around 1828 for Sir John Beverly Robinson who was the first Chief Justice of Upper Canada. He was also considered to be the leader of the Family Compact which controlled the government leading to The rebellion of 1837. The regency styled house with it’s ornate windows was indicative of the status of it’s owner. Robinson only owned the house until 1833 when it began a rapid change of ownership until around 1910 having seen up to ten owners during this time. Then the Adamson family took up residence here and they stayed until 1973. Sometime during the Adamson years the outside of the home was given an exterior layer, or veneer, of brick from the local Cooksville Brickyards. The building was given to the city of Mississauga by the land developers and used by the Boy Scouts until 2004. It has now had it’s bricks removed and been fully restored to it’s original splendor. The Heritage Resource Centre of Heritage Mississauga is now the occupant of this home.

It is generally believed that the house below is the oldest surviving building in the main area of the village. It was likely built between 1835 and 1845 by a local miller named Ira Van Valkenburgh. It may also have been built by the local carpenter named John Blair. Tradition has it that a store was once located in the house.

The Anglican Rectory was built in 1861 on the site of a former inn that had burned down. The Georgian Style manse was sold in 1960 and converted to commercial uses.

The Royal Exchange Hotel was built sometime between 1819 and 1822, although some sources say 1828, and was once known as the Halfway House. The hotel may have been 100 years old in May of 1919 when it was destroyed by the village fire and never replaced.

In 1877 the Methodist congregation commissioned a new church building as they had been meeting in the room above the Royal Exchange Hotel. The adherents felt that they should no longer meet above a building where alcohol was being sold. Somewhere around 1921 the church lost its spire and in 1925 it became the United Church. When a new building was consecrated in 1964 the building was sold to a Presbyterian congregation. This is ironic as the Presbyterians had rejected a merger with the Congregationalists and the Methodists that saw the creation of the United Church. Local residents each donated $100 and the spire was replaced in 2010.

Emmerson Taylor was the owner of the Royal Exchange Hotel and also owned a saw mill, knitting mill and a fanning mill. This last structure produced furniture and grandfather clocks. He donated the land for the Methodist Church and had this house built around 1875 to 1878. The transom over the front door identifies the home as the Froebel House.

St. Peter’s Church history begins as a home church in 1825 in the home of Colonel Peter Adamson. Construction of a white frame church began in 1826 and it was consecrated in 1828. This building lasted until 1887 when it was torn down and replaced with the present stone church. The church tower was added in 1910. A basement was hewn out under the church in 1934 to be used for the church school.

Erindale Park has a long history and at one time was known as Erindale Lake. In 1902 Erindale Light and Power Company was formed to construct an hydro electric generating plant on the Credit River at Erindale. This large scale engineering project ran into several delays during construction and didn’t begin producing power until 1910. A dam was constructed across the valley flooding it and creating the 125 acre Lake Erindale. A power generating plant was built on the south end of town at the bottom of Proudfoot Street. A tunnel was constructed to connect the two. The power plant operated from 1910 until 1923 supplying power to Erindale and New Toronto. It was closed when Ontario Hydro began to supply the area with power from Niagara Falls. In 1941 the lake was drained and the dam was blown up. Between 1961 and 1965 the former lake bottom was used as a sanitary landfill. It has since been covered over with clean soil and Erindale Park has been created.

Erindale was served by School Section #4 and has had several buildings over the years. The bell from the 1872 school has been preserved and is now housed in the 1922 replacement building. This beautiful structure was built in the Colonial Revival and Neo-Classical style of architecture. It became the Springbank Community Centre in 1957 and is now part of the University of Toronto Mississauga.

In 1919 a fire destroyed several of the older buildings on the core of the town including the Parish Hall, Post Office and the Royal Exchange Hotel. A new community Hall was constructed and has operated under a board of directors for almost 100 years. It can still be rented for private functions.

The historical community of Erindale can still be experienced via a walking tour. Heritage Mississauga has provided the details for one and a brochure can be accessed at this link: Erindale Tour. There’s a considerable amount of history in this area and you can read more in the various stories listed below.

Google Maps Link: Erindale

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Sunday Oct. 19, 2014

Sunday morning was cold at only 2 degrees. To access the parking lot at Erindale park you have to drive through a break in the wall of the old Erindale Dam.

In 1902 Erindale Light and Power Company was formed to construct an hydro electric generating plant on the Credit River at Erindale. This large scale engineering project ran into several delays during construction and didn’t begin producing power until 1910. A dam was constructed across the valley flooding it and creating the 125 acre Lake Erindale. A power generating plant was built on the south end of town at the bottom of Proudfoot Street. A tunnel was constructed to connect the two. The power plant operated from 1910 until 1923 supplying power to Erindale and New Toronto. It was closed when Ontario Hydro began to supply the area with power from Niagara Falls. In 1941 the lake was drained and the dam was blown up. Between 1961 and 1965 the former lake bottom was used as a sanitary landfill. It has since been covered over with clean soil and Erindale Park has been created.

From the top of the old dam the view across the old lake bed gives you a good impression of the size of dam and the lake it created.

Walking north along the east side of the river we came to this shopping cart which has obviously been standing in the river when the water was much higher. The shiny coffee mug on top belongs to a clever angler who is fishing near by.

As you head upstream from the old dam there is a foot bridge that will allow you to cross over the river to explore the ruins of the dam on the other side. This photo shows one of three old water control structures that are in the river above the dam. There are six fishermen in this picture (how many can you see?) and the shopping cart.

When settlers first arrived the rivers around Toronto were filled with Atlantic Salmon. Pollution, deforestation and the construction of dams resulted in their extermination within only a few decades. In the 1960’s and 1970’s large numbers of Chinook salmon were stocked in the rivers. The eggs hatch in May from the gravel beds where they winter and and the fingerlings make their way out into lake Ontario. They will die if they stay in the river until the water warms up. They spend four to eight years in the lake attaining a size of up to 40 pounds before they make their only spawning run. Then they will migrate from the lake into the same river in which they were born. It is estimated that 20,000 Chinook make the trip up the Credit River each fall. After spawning they die and their carcasses litter the river providing easy pickings for the local birds. The fish in the picture below was a recent catch from one of the people fishing in the river. It looked to be about 25 to 30 pounds.

The expression “busy as a bee” applies to this little creature. Although the weather was too cold for most bees a few industrious ones were busy collecting pollen from late blooming Canada Thistles. This purple flower is coated with white pollen. The bee is collecting it and storing it in the hair all over it’s body. Bumble bees can’t fly unless their wing muscles are at least 30 degrees C. On cold days such as this they beat their wings at the rate of 130 times a minute to raise their body temperature enough to take off.

The Bulrush or Cat-o-Nine tails grows in wetland areas. There is a stand of them growing close to the base of the old dam. Various parts of the plant can be eaten and were part of the native people’s diet. This makes them valuable as an emergency source of food in a survival situation. Peeled stems or leaf bases can be eaten raw. The roots need to be cooked and peeled but they also are edible. The roots can also be used as a poultice for burns and wounds. Care must be taken not to eat bulrushes that grow in polluted water as they are a bio-mediator which absorbs pollution. Signs of contamination include a bitter or spicy taste.

At the foot of the dam on the west side of the river is a small mill race where the water is standing still. The leaves floating on the water lend a sense of calm to the scene. In the middle of the picture is a tire that appears to be standing on top of the water. A close look at an enlarged photo shows the green neck of a male mallard duck which is having a bath just to the right of the tire.

St. Peter’s Anglican church stands on the hill top on the corner of Mississauga Road and Dundas Street. The first building was opened in 1825. It was replaced with this stone building in 1887. Roy Ivor, who ran the Winding Lane Bird Sanctuary across the street, is buried here.

The north entrance to the water tunnel is located in the woods at the end of the last parking lot. This stood at the edge of Lake Erindale and a pair of sluice gates was used to control the water flow into the tunnel at the bottom. This structure is decayed badlly and has a small forest growing in the open area inside the mouth.

This photo was taken by holding the camera inside of the tunnel as it heads under Dundas street. This is in effect the head race for the power mill.

The tunnel passes under Dundas Street just east of Proudfoot Street. It then emerges just past the end of Proudfoot Street where the river doubles back on the edge of town. The power generating plant stood here until it was removed in 1977. The picture below shows the power station and the tail race where the water was returned to the river.

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