Metcalfe, Ontario

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since May 2006.

There is also the community of Metcalfe, Ontario in Adelaide-Metcalfe, part of Middlesex County.

Metcalfe is a town, formerly part of Osgoode Township, now part of the city of Ottawa, in Osgoode Ward.

[edit] History

Colonel Archibald Macdonell, believed by some to be the first settler in the township, settled just south of the current location of the village in March 1827. It was originally called Osgoode but was renamed to Metcalfe in 1877.

The local agricultural fair, the Metcalfe Fair, has been held each fall since 1856.

The village took its name from Charles Metcalfe, 1st Baron Metcalfe, Governor General of Canada from 1843 to 1846.

In its early days, Metcalfe was a stop on the stagecoach route from Ottawa (then known as Bytown) to Cornwall on the St. Lawrence River. However, when the railway lines were built, they bypassed the village limiting its further growth. The railway line to Cornwall passed to the east through the town of Russell while another to Prescott passed to the west through Osgoode Village.

[edit] Today

The village today serves largely as a residential community for the City of Ottawa. Metcalfe offers an agreeable rural lifestyle only a 20 minute drive from downtown Ottawa and from the airport. It offers all of the advantages of country living, with big city services within easy reach.

Its paved country roads are a popular destination for cyclists. Victoria Street, the main road through town, is home to a general store (with a liquor outlet), the Royal Bank, a couple of restaurants, a drug store and barber shop and a couple of small craft and specialty stores. The historic town hall still serves a purpose in civic government as a client service center for the City of Ottawa.

Just outside of the village is Continental Mushroom - one of the largest mushroom producers in Ontario. The village is surrounded by farm land, raising mainly corn and cattle, but also various vegetable crops (with increasing strawberry farming). The Metcalfe Farmer's Market is a place to buy local produce, along with local crafts and creations.

Metcalfe lies within the Castor River watershed and one branch of this river runs just south of the village core. Residential neighbourhoods have been developed in areas north of the village. Most of these have avoided destroying valuable farm land by being located on a rocky and largely unproductive fault scarp. Nearby villages include Greely and Osgoode, both within the limits of the city of Ottawa, as well as Russell and Winchester located outside.

Bank street (the former King's Highway 31) runs a couple of kilometers west of town. Along this road are located several additional businesses and industries. Bank Street runs north directly to the parliament buildings in downtown Ottawa.