Newmarket, Ontario

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Town of Newmarket
The map shows Newmarket's position in relation to York Region. The red area represents Town of Newmarket
The map shows Newmarket's position in relation to York Region. The red area represents Town of Newmarket
Settled 1801
Incorporated As a Village 1857
Incorporated As a Town 1880
Government
 - Type Seat of York Region
 - Mayor Tony Van Bynen
Area
 - Total 38.07 km² (14.7 sq mi)
Elevation 239 m (784 ft)
Population (2006)
 - Total 74,295
 - Density 1,951/km² (5,053/sq mi)
Time zone EST (UTC-5)
 - Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
List of L Postal Codes of Canada 3X, 3Y
Area code(s) 905, 289
Website: Town of Newmarket's Official Site
York Region, Ontario Portal

Newmarket (2006 Population 74,295) is a town located approximately 45 km north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe in an area known as the "905 Region" (a reference to the GTA's telephone area code outside Toronto proper). Newmarket is well connected by highway to the Toronto area, served by three interchanges along Highway 404 and connected to Highway 9. Newmarket is the seat of York Region. Southlake Regional Health Centre (hospital) is located in Newmarket.

Contents

[edit] Geography

Newmarket's geographical coordinates are 44.05°N, 79.46°W, and its elevation above sea level is 239 m.[1] It has an area of 38.07 km². The town is bounded on the north by the Town of East Gwillimbury, on the east by the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville, on the south by the Town of Aurora, and on the west by King Township, themselves all likewise part of York Region.

Newmarket lies north of the Oak Ridges Moraine. Hence, all drainage in the town flows northwards into Lake Simcoe. The main river in Newmarket is the East Holland River (known locally simply as the Holland River), and all other streams in the town are tributary thereto. These include Bogart Creek, a brook that wends its way into town from the moraine by way of Bogarttown emptying into the Holland in north-central Newmarket, Western Creek, another brook rising just west of town and reaching the Holland in the town's north end, Tannery Creek, a stream that joins the Holland in south Newmarket after flowing through Aurora, and a number of other small watercourses.

There are two man-made lakes in Newmarket. Fairy Lake (which is managed by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority), a favourite recreational spot in the centre of town, is a former millpond on the East Holland River. Bogart Pond, also a former millpond, is fed and drained by Bogart Creek in Bogarttown. The latter is much smaller than the former, but is wider. Furthermore, the water level in the reach of the East Holland north of Davis Drive is controlled from an unfinished Newmarket Canal lock, now used as a weir.

Newmarket also lies south of and above the Algonquin Shoreline where elevations suddenly drop off from the gently rolling hills that characterize much of Newmarket to the much flatter, lower land down below in the Holland Marsh.

The land itself is characterized mainly by glacial deposits from the last ice age, known as Newmarket Till. The town is underlain mainly by sand and gravel, ground by the icesheets that covered the area until about 10,000 years ago. No outcrops are to be found anywhere in Newmarket, so deep are the glacial deposits.

[edit] History

Newmarket's Old Town Hall – The belltower is the result of restoration work in the 1980s
Newmarket's Old Town Hall – The belltower is the result of restoration work in the 1980s

Newmarket's location on the Holland River long made the area a natural route of travel between Lake Ontario and Lake Simcoe. A major portage route, the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, ran one of its two routes down the Holland, through the Newmarket area, and over the Oak Ridges Moraine to the Rouge and into Lake Ontario. A more used route ran down the western branch of the Holland, over the Moraine, and down the Humber. In 1793 John Graves Simcoe travelled the Trail, northward along the main route to the west, and south to York (Toronto) along the lesser used eastern route though Newmarket. Selecting the eastern route as the better of the two, Simcoe started construction of Yonge Street along the former Trail in late 1795, starting in York in Toronto Bay, and ending at the newly named St. Albans (today's Holland Landing) just to the north of Newmarket.

In June, 1800, Timothy Rogers, a Vermont Quaker, explored the area around the Holland River and down to Lake Simcoe to find a suitable location for a new Quaker settlement. Some of the US Quakers were interested in moving northward, disturbed by the violence they were expected to take part in during the American Revolution. In 1801 Rogers returned along with several Quaker families who had left their homes in Vermont and Pennsylvania. Rogers later returned to the US in 1812, apparently as the result of a land deal that went sour.[1]

By Christmas 1801, Joseph Hill had constructed a mill on the Holland River, damming it to produce a mill pond that is now known as Fairy Lake. The town of "Upper Yonge Street" sprouted up around the mill, which explains why its primary downtown area is centred on the Holland River and not on the nearby Yonge Street. Hill also built a tannery just to the north of the mill and the first store and house, as well as additional mills. The town continued to grow through the early 1800s, along with the formation of Aurora and Holland Landing, and a market held in the current downtown location gave rise to the name "Newmarket".

Newmarket was incorporated as a village in 1857 with a population of 700. In 1880, with a population of 2,000, Newmarket became a town and William Cane was elected as its first Mayor. In later years Mr. Cane's sash and door factory would become the first in Canada to manufacture lead pencils. In 1858, Robert Simpson co-opened "Simpson & Trent Groceries, Boots, Shoes and Dry Goods" in the downtown area, the first store in the future Simpsons department store chain.[2]

In June 1853 the first train pulled into Newmarket on the Toronto, Simcoe & Lake Huron Union Railroad, the first railway in Upper Canada. It eventually linked Toronto to Collingwood on Georgian Bay, a major shipbuilding centre.[3] Today this line is the "Newmarket Subdivision" of the Canadian National Railway system, running north out of town towards Bradford.

In 1899 the Toronto and York Radial Railway arrived in Newmarket as well. This operated along Yonge Street south of Newmarket, but turned east to run through the downtown area before (later) continuing north. At the time it brought significant numbers of people day-tripping to Newmarket to shop at the market. Automobile traffic on Yonge and the already existing mainline railway had a significant effect on ridership, and the Radial stopped running north of Richmond Hill in the early 1930s, and in 1947 the remaining tracks between North Toronto and Richmond Hill were torn up.[4]

North of Davis Drive the East Holland River was straightened to prepare it for use as a commercial waterway to bypass the railway, whose prices were skyrocketing around the turn of the 20th century. Sir William Mulock, the local Member of Parliament, proposed a canal system running down the Holland river through Holland Landing and into Lake Simcoe. This would allow boats to connect from there to the Trent Waterway for eventual shipment south. The canal was almost complete by the summer of 1912, when it was cancelled by the incoming government of Robert Borden.[5] Today the locks are still visible, mostly silted up, although the turning basin in downtown Newmarket was filled in and now forms the parking lot of The Tannery Mall, on the site of the former Hill tannery.

For much of the 20th century, Newmarket developed along the east-west Davis Drive axis, limited to the area between Yonge Street on the west and between Bayview and Leslie Streets in the east, and running from just north of Davis on the north to the Fairy Lake area on the south. By the 1950s, Newmarket was experiencing a suburban building boom due to its proximity to Toronto. The construction of Upper Canada Mall at the corner of Yonge and Davis in 1976 started pulling the focal point of the town westward.

By the 1980s the original downtown area was run down. Most businesses had built up in the area around the Upper Canada Mall, with additional strip malls developing directly across the intersections to the south and southeast. A concerted effort to save the historic downtown area during the late 1980s was successful, and it is once again a major focal point of the town.

The arrival of Highway 404 reversed the westward movement, pulling development eastward again, and surrounding the formerly separate hamlet of Bogarttown at the intersection of Mulock Drive and Leslie Street. Since then Newmarket has grown considerably, filling out in all directions. The town limits now run from Bathurst Street in the west to Highway 404 in the east, and from just south of Green Lane in the north to just north of St. John's Sideroad in the south, taking over the former hamlet of Armitage at Yonge Street south of Mulock Drive. The outer limits of the town are less than a kilometre from Sharon to the north, and almost continuous with Aurora to the south.

[edit] Population

According to the 2006 Census, the town's population is 74,295. The Region of York Planning department currently (31 March 2006) puts the total at 77,518.[6] According to the same source, the population projection for 2011 is 87,000.

Given the town's area, its latest population figure puts Newmarket's population density at just over 2036 inhabitants per square kilometre.

The town offers data about the cultural composition of its residents.

[edit] Arms

Newmarket's armorial bearing is actually taken from the town's corporate seal. The town flag is a navy blue field with this same design in the middle. The beehive and bees are said to represent industry. The current form of the seal was introduced in 1938 with the arms somewhat altered from – but very similar in concept to – one that was earlier used. The arms' origin is something of a mystery, however. It is unknown what artist created the current version – or indeed the earlier version – and the town has no official record as to the purchase or redesign of the arms.[2]

[edit] Education

Newmarket has 15 elementary schools and 4 secondary schools under The York Region District School Board, 6 elementary schools and 1 secondary school under The York Catholic District School Board, and Pickering College, a private school.

The four secondary schools under the York Region District School Board are (in order that they were originally built):

There is currently just one secondary school under the leadership of the York Catholic District School Board:

There are also several private coeducational day schools in Newmarket:

[edit] Government

Tony Van Bynen became mayor in December, 2006, and will serve in the office until 2010. He succeeds Tom Taylor, who was the mayor from 1997 to 2006. See List of mayors of Newmarket, Ontario.

The town's Council includes the Mayor, seven Councillors elected on the basis of one per ward, and a Regional Councillor who is elected to join the mayor at meetings of York Region Council. The members of Council elected in 2006 are:

  • Regional Councillor: John Taylor
  • Ward 1: Tom Vegh
  • Ward 2: David Kerwin
  • Ward 3: Victor Woodhouse
  • Ward 4: Larry Blight
  • Ward 5: Joe Sponga
  • Ward 6: Dennis Ramsarran
  • Ward 7: Chris Emanuel

The current Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the town is Bob Shelton.

The town is part of the federal riding of Newmarket—Aurora. As of 2005, the riding is represented in the Canadian House of Commons by Belinda Stronach, a member of the Liberal Party of Canada and graduate of Newmarket High School. Stronach was elected as a member of the Conservatives and subsequently crossed the floor to the Liberals, but was re-elected as a Liberal on January 23, 2006.

Provincially, Newmarket became part of the riding of Newmarket-Aurora in the Ontario Provincial Legislature. The province realigned its ridings to match those of the federal government in 2004. Progressive Conservative MPP Frank Klees was elected to represent Newmarket-Aurora in the 2007 provincial general election.

Government offices in Newmarket:

  • Municipal Offices (Town Hall)
  • York Region Council
  • York Regional Police
  • Ontario Provincial Courthouse

[edit] Urban planning

Based within the limits placed on low-density urban forms, a small portion of Newmarket is subject to the Ontario Government's Greenbelt (Golden Horseshoe) legislation.

[edit] Sports and recreation

[edit] Hockey

Newmarket is represented in the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League by the Newmarket Hurricanes (originally called the "87's"), whose home rink is Ray Twinney Complex. The 'Canes have an ongoing rivalry with the nearby Aurora Tigers.

Newmarket was previously home to the following teams:

[edit] Golf

Two golf courses exist within Newmarket's town limits:

  • St. Andrew's Valley (public)
  • Glenway Country Club (private)

There are also several courses in the surrounding communities and countryside.

[edit] Swimming

Four public swim places exist throughout Newmarket: Ray Twinney Complex, Gorman Pool, which is open only in the summer, The Main Pool, and the newly-built Magna Centre. Newmarket also has two swim teams: Team Aquadome, and the Newmarket Stingrays.

[edit] Media

[edit] Famous residents

[edit] References

  1. ^ Historic Newmarket, Newmarket's Settlers
  2. ^ Historic Newmarket, Robert Simpson
  3. ^ Historic Newmarket, The first railroad in Upper Canada
  4. ^ Historic Newmarket, Streetcar to Toronto
  5. ^ http://www.newmarket.ca/userfiles/HTML/nts_1_2739_1.html The Ghost Canal]
  6. ^ Town of Newmarket - Population

[edit] External links

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