Beamsville, Ontario
| Beamsville | |
|---|---|
| Unincorporated community | |
 | |
| Coordinates: 43°9′57″N 79°28′35″W / 43.16583°N 79.47639°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Ontario |
| Regional municipality | Niagara |
| Town | Lincoln |
| Founded | 1788 |
| Time zone | EST (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| Forward sortation area | L0R |
| Area code(s) | 905 and 289 |
| NTS Map | 030M03 |
| GNBC Code | FEGRM |
The community of Beamsville (2011 Urban area estimated population 10,679) is part of the town of Lincoln in the province of Ontario in Canada. It is located along the southern shore of Lake Ontario and lies within the fruit belt of the Niagara Peninsula. It contains century-old brick buildings, an old-fashioned downtown area with barbershops, women's dress shops, a bakery, a print shop, restaurants, banks, and other businesses, and plenty of orchards and vineyards.
The Queen Elizabeth Way - the main road that connects Toronto and Buffalo, New York has an interchange at Beamsville. Many tourists stop off at the highway exit for something to eat at the many fast food restaurants located nearby.
Industry
Beamsville is in the heart of Ontario's wine country and contributes greatly to the wine industry in the Niagara Peninsula. Many wineries from the area have taken home top awards, including Grape King at the Niagara Grape & Wine Festival, as well as international awards. A short list of Beamsville wineries include; Malivoire, Fielding Estate Winery, Hidden Bench Estate Winery, Organized Crime Winery, Thirty Bench, Angel's Gate, Peninsula Ridge, Cave Spring Cellars, Daniel Lenko Estate Winery, Magnotta, Mountain Road Winery, Legends Estates, and Crown Bench.
History
Beamsville, Ontario was named after Jacob Beam (1728-1812), a United Empire Loyalist. Both of his homes — the original one located on the Thirty Mile Creek, as well as the one near downtown Beamsville — are still intact today.
Jacob and Catharine Beam (1737-1820), along with their daughter Catharine (Beam) Merrell (1766-1842), and son-in-law Samuel Merrell (1758-1833), emigrated to Canada from New Jersey in 1788, and founded Beamsville.
By 1869, Beamsville was a village with a population of 550 in the Township of Clinton, Lincoln County. It was on the Great Western Railway. The average price of land in vicinity was $45. [1]
In 1898, hockey players in the town of Beamsville were the first to make use of a hockey net.
In 1917 the Royal Flying Corps established a School of Aerial Fighting on the farmland immediately east of Beamsville. The school consisted of a camp, an airfield, and a gunnery range over Lake Ontario. Today an historical plaque at 4222 Saan Road marks the geographical centre of the 300 acre school property.[2] The building adjacent to the plaque is an original hangar.[3]
In 1970, the Town of Beamsville was amalgamated with Clinton Township and (half of) Louth Township to form the larger Town of Lincoln.
People
The town is home to numerous Dutch and United Empire Loyalist families, as evidenced by the large number of Dutch Reformed and Anglican churches in the area. Other ethnic groups include Italians — one family of whom founded the Commisso's Supermarket and many more existing companies.
Beamsville currently has two secondary schools, Beamsville District Secondary School and Great Lakes Christian College, and three elementary schools, Senator Gibson, Maple Grove, and Jacob Beam. Beamsville also has a separate school, St. Mark Elementary School.
Bill Berg, formerly a hockey player for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and now an NHL broadcaster, was born, and continues to make his home in Beamsville. Paul Laus, a former Florida Panthers defenceman and Ryan Christie, who played seven games with the Dallas Stars and Calgary Flames are also Beamsville natives.
Another Beamsville native of note, Tonya Verbeek, earned an Olympic silver medal in women's wrestling at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. She won a bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, and another silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England.
Beamsville County Fair
Beamsville is also home to the annual Lincoln County Agricultural Fair, usually held on or around the first weekend of September. This fair is a very well known fair throughout the area, and attracts thousands of people every year since its inception in 1857. However, there has been recent controversy over the fairgrounds as Desantis homes is looking to rezone the fairgrounds as a residential area, and leaving the fair to be moved an area on the escarpment, which would ruin its natural order.[citation needed]
References
- ↑ The province of Ontario gazetteer and directory. H. McEvoy Editor and Compiler, Toronto : Robertson & Cook, Publishers, 1869
- ↑ Town of Lincoln (1991), Royal Flying Corp Historical Plaque, 4222 Saan Road, Beamsville.
- ↑ Chajkowsky, William E. (1979), Royal Flying Corps Borden To Texas To Beamsville, Cheltenham, Ontario, Boston Mills Press. ISBN 0-919822-23-1
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beamsville, Ontario. |
- Town of Lincoln website
- History of Lincoln
- Local History
- Beamsville Weather Station
- Lincoln County Fair in Beamsville, Ontario
- Beamsville at Geographical Names of Canada
Coordinates: 43°9′57″N 79°28′35″W / 43.16583°N 79.47639°W
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Lake Ontario | | ||
| Grimsby |  |
Vineland | ||
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| West Lincoln |
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